We have considered this, but some of our target devices may not have a USB port in the first place (tablets, etc) but do offer built-in bluetooth.
Great idea though - thanks! - Kimball http://www.kimballlarsen.com On Apr 12, 2011, at 2:02 PM, Levi Pearson wrote: > On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 1:47 PM, Kimball Larsen > <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> At work we develop devices that communicate over USB with custom software, >>>> and are considering replacing the USB link with a bluetooth one. Thought >>>> I'd ask here if anyone has experience with such a transition, and could >>>> recommend a particular hardware path or approach? We need something that >>>> is cross platform, and would prefer drop-in replacement for current USB, >>>> which is handled by an on-board FTDI chip. >>>> >>> >>> I assume that you already understand that the transfer rate for Bluetooth >>> is much slower than USB. This may not matter to your software, but should >>> at least be something you are aware of. >>> >> >> >> Yup, we are aware of the speeds involved... we don't need high bandwidth at >> all. We just toss a few bytes back and forth at a time. >> > > Bluetooth is a rather heavyweight protocol, and you might end up > adding a lot of cost unnecessarily. Do you need the flexibility of > Bluetooth, or would a lightweight but non-standardized RF transceiver > work for you? A lot of wireless keyboards and mice work this way, > using a tiny RF to USB dongle to link to the PC. > > This part looks like a popular solution in this space: > http://www.nordicsemi.com/jpn/Products/2.4GHz-RF/nRF24L01P > > They've got a dev kit for it that goes for a few hundred bucks, but > Sparkfun has some much simpler boards based around it for much cheaper > if you want to do a cheap prototype or experiment. > > --Levi > > /* > PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net > Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug > Don't fear the penguin. > */ /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
