Best practices / WHCK expectations with regard to I2C Hardware

Question

I have an HID-over-USB sensor subsystem for Windows 8 that we are adapting to HID-over-I2C.  Testing a USB device is easy, you plug it into your USB port.  No such port exists for I2C.  I'm interested to find out what are best practices / expectations with regard to the hardware environment for testing I2C implementations.  Can anyone comment?

Thanks,

Mike

Answer 1

the HCK requires that your device installed and running before creating a project. when you create a project and select a test target, the HCK will enumerate all of the features (bus interfaces, programming interfaces, etc.) that the target exposes.

USB (and PCI, BT, 1394....) all have well known bus protocols and interfaces, and there are tests that are specific to those areas. when the target is a USB device, then those applicable USB tests get included in the required test list for that target.

if you device does not have any of these well-known bus interfaces, but still works when installed on a windows PC; then that is all you need for testing. 

I would expect (sight unseen) that all of the normal Device-fundementals tests and any function-specific (e.g. webcam or network) features to be exposed and testable.

Answer 2

Yes, all of that is understood.  The issue is that I'm a device (sensor) manufacturer, not a PC company.  So I'm not validating a complete PC design, only a subsystem.  For our HID over USB, we simply connected the USB port on the sensor subsystem to the USB connector on a standard PC.  There is no I2C port on a standard PC.  So I'm trying to determine whether Microsoft has a standard test fixture, if I need to modify a PC to bring out the bus, or some other option.  I would like to use the Windows in-box driver for validating my design during development, which seems to preclude the idea of using a Beagle board or similar device. 

Answer 3

Hi Mike,

We don't have too much guidance to provide here.  To test with I2C, you'll need to either work with a system manufacturer to expose a I2C connector & make the needed modifications to their system BIOS to enumerate your sensor device, or develop / modify your own PC.

Microsoft does not currently have a "kit" to enable development of I2C devices.

Best regards,

Sandy Spinrad
Sensors, Location, Input and Internal Busses Test lead

Answer 4

Thank you Sandy.  At least we know know the state of things.

Best regards,

Mike

Answer 5

Hi Mike,

Did you find a solution to your problem? Did you find a dev board that runs Windows RT for example?

Best regards,

Marco