Hi all, I'm new to the discussion board, but have been reading it now for awhile.
The topic came up several times about using a USB-based 8052 to talk to a printer or a memstick-drive. The general consensus was that the available 8052's with USB drive capabilities were peripheral devices only, and that the overhead for the USB host was beyond the 8052's capability...
I've been tasked with the same request in our department, and have been doing some research. The consensus above seems to be correct.
However, if you are in the design stage of the hardware, as I am, you might consider this device: www.vinculum.com/prd_vnc1l.html
Although I haven't used it yet, I plan to try it, and it appears to be self contained. The interface to it can be via UART and SPI, two interfaces that are common to the 8052 derivatives now-a-days.
I'm probably going to get the eval module first:
www.vinculum.com/.../vdip1-001.jpg
This will plug into a socket and I can experiment.
Anyway, hope this helps someone..