NETGEAR - Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter

gncguy

Can I use one of the USB wireless network devices on the USB port on my BoeBot to communicate with my laptop.· I have a wireless network and my laptop is a part of it.· I was looking at the one in the title.· It seems that I should be able to do this since I connect the laptop to the BoeBot through a USB cable.· I would like to be able to see the Debug window when the robot is maneuvering around.

Mike Green

That won't work. The USB dongle is a "client" or "slave" device while the laptop acts as a "host". The USB adapter on the BoeBot is also a client device and nothing happens if you connect two client devices together. The Parallax Memory Stick Datalogger is a host device, but it's limited in the types of client devices it can talk to. In particular, it can talk to memory devices, HID (human interface) devices like keyboard, mice, and joysticks, and some serial adapters (like FTDI's). It doesn't know what to do with a WiFi or Bluetooth interface.

Workable wireless options include a pair of xBee transceivers, a Bluetooth transceiver like the EB500 or (soon to be discontinued and heavily discounted) ToothPick. These can't be connected to the DEBUG port, but you can attach them to another pair of I/O pins and use the SERIN / SEROUT statements which are almost the same (the DEBUG statement is actually a special case of the SEROUT statement).

I used an xBee transceiver with one of Selmaware's AppMod adapters on a BOE and a USB to xBee adapter on the PC end, worked fine.

Post Edited (Mike Green) : 3/20/2008 4:22:34 AM GMT

gncguy

Mike:

You seem very knowledgeable about all of this.· I am always impressed with your responses.· Thanks you saved a trip to Best Buy and a few hours of goofing around.· Its like the old saying: You only ask for advise when you already know the answer and you don't like it.

gncguy