Obtaining a USB Vendor/Product ID?

Posted by Cliff on Friday October 24, 2003 @10:42PM from the proper-identification dept.

Qeygh asks: "I am interested in developing some hardware devices for my own use and, since RS-232 is dying, would like to use USB to communicate with them. If they work out well I may offer kits for sale. To do this right I should get a USB Vendor ID so that the devices can be uniquely identified by the host; but, being cheap, I don't want to drop the $1500 that USB.org charges for one. Does anyone know of any alternatives -- perhaps someone who bought a Vendor ID and re-sells small blocks of Product IDs? If no-one out there is doing this yet, is it a service that anyone else would use?"

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Your Google-Fu is no good! by Anonymous Coward · 2003-10-24 23:18 · Score: 5, Informative

You must master Jeet-Comb-Do.

"- USB Product Id's or PID are supplied using our Vendor ID for each licensed product if your company doesn't already have a USB Vendor ID and doesn't want to pay the yearly fee for a Vendor ID from www.usb.org." -- Andrew Pargeter & Associates . Sales : 888-806-1053

This seems to be your best bet. Doesn't look like it would be much of a problem to set up a program and sell or give PID's away though. But, what's to stop random developers from "barrowing" them and causing a difficult to diagnose problem down the line, should you pursue it?