USB Duplicator Help

[tedherron]

I am trying to build a USB duplicator device which combines the files from two USB flash drives into a single master location and then duplicates these master files to 10 other USB flash drives. My plan is to build 10 PIC microcontrollers (1 for each output port) and pull the data from a central master location. Vinculum has a great USB host IC so I don't have to learn too many USB details.

Has anyone built a USB flash duplicator before? Any idea how I can setup a central memory or other data location that 10 PICs can read from at the same time?

My goal is speed and looking for 4Mbps data transfer speed at each of the 10 ports. Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Squibcakes]

This project sounds interesting and ambitious...

I suspect your going to have to tackle this one in steps.

What stage are you up to so far?

Squib

[tedherron]

Well I've moved backward and forward. It turns out the USB IC I was going to use only supports USB 1.1, way too slow. So here are the steps I have:
1. Via Mini-ITX computer (creates master fileset, acts as USB host controller, control station with LCD monitor)
2. 3 USB hubs to daisy chain out to the 10 external ports from the host
3. 10 microcontrollers, each port is pulling data to their respective USB flash drive in parallel

Steps 1 and 2 are the most straight forward, my problem is still with step 3. I can't find a USB 2.0 IC for pic controllers. And can't figure out how each of these ports can use USB to pull data from a USB host?

The whole thing reminds me of a hub repeater so I may look to use ethernet if nobody can help me connect these USB pic ports to the host mini pc.

Again, any help is appreciated!

[Squibcakes]

Ted,

Why don't you just write a VB program to do the same thing, since your using a PC plugged into hubs and USB flash drives?

It might be worth browsing some VB forums, you never know this may have already been done.

I don't think PIC is the way to go.

Squib