Interfacing PIC micro and bluetooth

Posted by gidesa on July 18, 2006, 3:53 am

Hello,
I am considering to replace my serial cable connection
between a PIC micro board and PC. I am wondering
that I could use a cheap serial-to-USB converter (one
of that used to connect serial devices to USB PC ports)
attached to the PIC serial in/out, then attach a USB-Bluetooth
dongle on the USB out of the converter.
On PC it would need only another USB-Bluetooth adapter.

PIC serial <--> serial-to-USB <--> USB-Bluetooth <----/

/-----> USB-Bluetooth <--> PC

Can this scheme work?
Or the serial-to-Usb converter is not good to interface
directly to a PIC?
regards

gidesa

Posted by Jacob Oursland on July 18, 2006, 8:57 am

gidesa wrote:

> Hello,
> I am considering to replace my serial cable connection
> between a PIC micro board and PC. I am wondering
> that I could use a cheap serial-to-USB converter (one
> of that used to connect serial devices to USB PC ports)
> attached to the PIC serial in/out, then attach a USB-Bluetooth
> dongle on the USB out of the converter.
> On PC it would need only another USB-Bluetooth adapter.
>
>
> PIC serial <--> serial-to-USB <--> USB-Bluetooth <----/
>
> /-----> USB-Bluetooth <--> PC
>
>
> Can this scheme work?
> Or the serial-to-Usb converter is not good to interface
> directly to a PIC?
> regards
>
> gidesa

Have you considered a serial-to-bluetooth adapter? I found one offered at
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id8 that
provides UART, SPI, and PIO for communications at rates from 1200 baud to
921.6 kbaud. This particular model also has a channel devoted to audio and
PCM lines, could be useful for remote audio.

Also, for cheaper you can get ZigBee devices like this
http://www.maxstream.net/products/xbee/xbee-oem-rf-module-zigbee.php which
would replace serial rather well. You'd have to develop a board for the PC
side, but that should be trivial, not to mention you can keep the serial
code instead of rewriting for bluetooth. Should you choose to go with the
maxstream ZigBee modules, I'd recommend getting them from DigiKey or some
other provider as maxstream is incredibly slow on delivery.

No affiliation to sparkfun or maxstream. I just don't want to see power
consumption go through the roof with low bandwidth on the constraints of a
USB-to-serial converter.

-jso

Posted by Randy M. Dumse on July 18, 2006, 9:55 am

> PIC serial <--> serial-to-USB <--> USB-Bluetooth <----/

No, won't work, because there is no host USB port, only two slaves,
unless you have something specifically meant to be a host as the
USB-Bluetooth device.

I have used both the Sparkfun BlueSMiRF and the Maxstream XBee modules
Jacob Oursland mentioned in his post, and they both work well.

--
Randy M. Dumse
www.newmicros.com
Caution: Objects in mirror are more confused than they appear.

Posted by Steve on July 18, 2006, 12:45 pm

@s13g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

> Hello,
> I am considering to replace my serial cable connection
> between a PIC micro board and PC.

Hi Gidesa (?),

I've used the SparkFun module; works very well. I have connected it to an
AVR. Have a look on my site: http://elec.rommelkist.nl/bluetooth_gb.html .

Non ho scrito le pagine in Italiano! Ma se riesci legere Olandese puoi
anche andare qui: http://elec.rommelkist.nl/bluetooth.html .

Ciao, Steve

Posted by gidesa on July 20, 2006, 3:32 am

Thanks! Grazie! :-)
Leggerò le pagine in inglese, va bene lo stesso.
Ciao

Giandomenico

Steve ha scritto:

> @s13g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

> > Hello,
> > I am considering to replace my serial cable connection
> > between a PIC micro board and PC.

> Hi Gidesa (?),
> I've used the SparkFun module; works very well. I have connected it to an
> AVR. Have a look on my site: http://elec.rommelkist.nl/bluetooth_gb.html .
> Non ho scrito le pagine in Italiano! Ma se riesci legere Olandese puoi
> anche andare qui: http://elec.rommelkist.nl/bluetooth.html .
>
> Ciao, Steve

Subject
Posted In
Date

Robot - Micro Data Transmission over 12 volt line
General Robotics Forum
2008-08-31

What is the real range of BlueTooth and Wi-Fi?
General Robotics Forum
2007-09-03

Commodore comouter interfacing books needed
General Robotics Forum
2006-09-11

NXTRC: Using Bluetooth with NXT under Linux.
Lego Mindstorms Discussions
2007-04-06