Somewhat NAC, but relevant - where to get a wireless serial cable - huh?

Jason Kohls jasonkohls at gmail.com
Mon Sep 10 12:34:24 EDT 2007


For what you're asking for, I don't think 200 bucks is an expensive price to
pay: you're talking about a niche product/application that cannot/would not
be mass-produced for sheer market reasons alone.  Plus, like Taka said, you
have to power it, provide it with some sort of embedded chip/firmware that
would handle the wireless connectivity, etc. so $200 bucks doesn't sound
unreasonable at all to me, but I work in IT, and we spend megabucks all the
time on seemingly "simple" hardware :)

On 9/10/07, Ben Swann <benswann at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> Comments embedded below..
>
>
>
> From: Taka Mizutani [mailto:t44tqtro at gmail.com]
> Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 12:08 PM
> To: Ben Swann
> Subject: Re: Somewhat NAC, but relevant - where to get a wireless serial
> cable
> - huh?
>
>
>
> Let me get this straight - You want to be able to connect your laptop to
> the
> Megasquirt without using any wires at all?
>
> *** That is right.
>
> I don't think that is feasible, Ben.
>
> *** Of course it is feasible – I could build one myself.  Just want
> something
> "Off the Shelf".  Only so much time to make one off solutions for things
> like
> these.
>
> You would need some sort of wireless transceiver hooked up to the
> Megasquirt
> (if the data rate was low enough, Bluetooth would work well for this kind
> of
> thing) and then a wireless transceiver hooked up to the laptop.
>
> *** Yep, but seems expensive from what I'm seeing so far.
>
> Laptop side is no issue, but I don't think you could do it on the ECU
> side-
> you'd need to supply power to the transceiver and you'd need something
> that
> supports a legacy serial connection.
>
> *** The ECU communicates serial protocol – which is not much protocol at
> all.
> We just need to make it wireless.  Power might be an issue, and that is I
> understand why USB has mushroomed, since it provides Phantom power.
>
> I think you're stuck- the only people I know that use a wireless
> connection to
> the ECU are the big motorsports teams that have real-time telemetry and
> real-time reprogramming of their ECUs. That's probably big $$$$.
>
> *** I have been working on quite a few niche solutions for things lately.
> Products that aren't there that ought to be.  Looks like here is another.
>
> Taka
>
>
>
> On 9/10/07, Ben Swann <benswann at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> OK wireless cable is somewhat of an oxymoron, but that is essentially the
> function.  I have been working on tuning my Megasquirt configuration using
> an
> IBM Thinkpad laptop.  The tiny mouse rubber is too difficult for me to
> use  in
>
> the car, so I got a wireless mouse that connects to the USB port – would
> be
> nice for them to have let this go to the mouse port so I don't tie up my
> only
> USB port, but anyway that problem is resolved for now.
>
>
>
> However – I would like to be able to take my laptop out of the car without
> dealing with the serial cable that is used to communicate with and probram
> the
> Megasquirt unit.  Even better if I could locate the unit where I don't
> have to
>
> touch it.  Presently there is a 9' serial cable – DB9 one end and DB25 the
> other end with DB9-25 adaptor going into the laptop.  It is a pain to deal
> with.
>
>
>
> So does anyone make an adaptor that plugs into DB9 port on laptop the
> provides
>
> a wireless serial interface?  Could not believe the lack of things like
> this
> at Circuit city – did not even find a DB9-DB9 cable.
>
>
>
> Ben
>
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