patrioticwindmil Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 Hello, I am doing a project, and want to make an extremely short ranged communication device. I want to be able to have 2 keyboards and a screen, or maybe even a gameboy or a calculator, or something with keys and a screen, and have them communicate. I do not need anything long range, just about 10 feet or so, and be able to type letters from one and have them seen on the other. They will be used outside in an area with a good radio signal and such. I have no idea how to start, and want some advice. Ultimately, I want to be able to communicate between the two devices without a wire. The limits of the project are that I can spend no more than 70$ for all the pieces, and 35$ would be amazing. The project is not academic, and is a friendly competition with a schoolmate. Does anyone have any ideas on where to start? I imagine it wouldn't be too hard, I just need something small with a signal, and a received. I will probably get one of those really old calculators or a gameboy or maybe even tape something to a palm pilot or such. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike C Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 It possible (obviously) and not all that difficult (depending on how much you know about electronics) but you'll be lucky to do it for that kind of money - very very lucky. You also need to define what you want to send...saying a monitor and keyboard or a gameboy or a calculator is vague at best and doesn't really help with giving answers as I'd probably use a different approach to each as the data that needs to be transmitted in each case varies in complexity etc. Also, I think you might have slightly misunderstood what this forum is about... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DangerousMark Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 Euuuuhhhh I'd say it's vaguely related. Just enough to be in a very broad shared area of interest to give them the benefit of the doubt. How actual projecty is this? EG are you on a school/college course that is requiring you to build the device up from scratch or use some basic RF or IR components? If you're just trying to get a thing working on a personal level and don't mind using prefab parts, I can't see what's wrong with using cheap commercial infrared or bluetooth things. Or even getting hold of an existing wireless RF (non-BT/IR) mouse/keyboard/"wireless presenter" (aka "clicker" for powerpoints) and cannibalising the relevant parts. I picked up a bluetooth dongle for under £10 at maplins*, though strictly speaking you need a PC to get any kind of useful comms out of it I'm sure you could probably do a bit of multimetering and at least manage to extract some kind of demodulated signal from in between the receiving hardware and the data decoding bits, if you just supply 5VDC to the appropriate USB rails. That and a BT keypad meant for laptops (as the transmitter), and you have the basis of the kind of system you're on about. Just need to sidestep the "pairing" thing. I'll stop there because I don't want to profess that I know more about this than I actually do. There's probably some complex technical reason why you can't "recycle" those bits, but as befits my semi-techsupport role I thought I'd start with "the blinking obvious" ("have you turned it on?" etc) before you went spending £70+ on something that might not be necessary.At the very least investigate cheap IR receivers/senders, which you can do just with pulling an old VCR & its remote apart - and kits that connected to PC motherboards in place of one of the serial COM ports used to exist (now supplanted by USB ones of course, which are somehow pricier than BT)... they should be very, very simple to implement, and so long as you can get reasonable line of sight or even reflections, would satisfy the sort of application you're after. Short range, low bandwidth comms between simple devices. AKA "beaming", as was in the days of the palmpilot. * edit - just realised about the $ signs. Substitute "under $15" and "Radio Shack" or your local equivalent. Also the asking about the project level, I am fail for reading details proper today :unsure: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 It's completely off-topic for this forum, so I've asked the moderators to close the topic. However, I will offer one word of advice: IrDA Look it up - it's probably exactly what you're after. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 Moderation: Tomo is right and we should have picked this one up earlier. It's really a computer question, not a "backstage" issue and, in any case, I notice the OP hasn't been back for 10 days. We'll close this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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