The Raspberry Pi Zero As USB Device

Turning your Raspberry PI Zero into a USB Gadget

Brian Benchoff | December 27, 2015

[Blogger's note: The two tutorials from Adafruit (links below) show how easy it is to get started with interesting technology using the Raspberry Pi. The Pi Zero is the least expensive model and that means you can experiment inexpensively and build up your knowledge of a number of technologies on a small budget. When you come up with a clever idea, you can easily scale up with the Raspberry Pi 2 at low cost.]
The Raspberry Pi Zero is limited, or so everyone says, and everyone is trying to cram a USB hub and WiFi adapter on this tiny, tiny board. One thing a lot of people haven’t realized is that the Raspberry Pi Zero comes with a USB OTG port, meaning it can function as a USB device rather than a USB host. This means the Raspi can become a serial device with just a USB cable, an Ethernet device, MIDI device, camera, or just about anything else you can plug into a USB port. Adafruit has your back with a tutorial for using the USB OTG port as a serial and Ethernet interface, and the possible applications are extremely interesting.

Source: http://betanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Pi-Zero.jpg

<more at http://hackaday.com/2015/12/27/turning-the-pi-zero-into-a-usb-gadget/; related links: https://learn.adafruit.com/turning-your-raspberry-pi-zero-into-a-usb-gadget?view=all (Turning your Raspberry PI Zero into a USB Gadget. December 25, 2015) and https://learn.adafruit.com/turning-your-raspberry-pi-zero-into-a-usb-gadget/ethernet-gadget (Ethernet Gadget. December 27, 2015)>