interfacing bluetooth USB dongle with microcontroller board

[pavankumarssv]

Hi friends,

I am having a microcontroller board. The microcontroller and the board belongs to ST microelectronics. This is a completely finished board. The code inside the microcontroller cannot be changed but the hardware changes can be done to the board . This board can be connected to the PC by USB or RS 232. But I want to connect this board to PC with the Bluetooth. I want to buy two bluetooth USB dongles. One USB dongle I will connect to PC and another USB dongle I want to connect to the micrcontroller board.
Can I connect like this for the blue tooth communication between PC and microcontroller board ???
Now if I connect the Bluetooth USB dongle to the microcontroller board, Will micrcontroller recognise the connected device as the bluetooth ????

I am waiting for your replies on this.

thank you and best regards
pavan

 

[picman2]

The answer is simple: it's impossible.
Your "microcontroller board" should implement an USB host interface and a bluetooth stack protocol.
This is not the case.

You could think to try to find an RS232 / bluetooth interface but - as far as I know - they are not exactly cheap as the USB dongles, and I don't know if they can transparently transport the present RS232 interface to bluetooth - e.g. without requiring firmware and software modifications.

PicMan

 

[anandpv2009]

Re: interfacing bluetooth USB dongle with microcontroller bo

...USB host interface... PicMan

I think picman2 is correct because you can't work as a usb host + you need the driver for that bluetooth device(in MC/Memory) which is not possible.


But i am not sure about above things...Wait for experts opinion.

 

[pavankumarssv]

Re: interfacing bluetooth USB dongle with microcontroller bo

Thank you for your replies.

So we cant directly connect USB bluetooth dongle to the microcontroller.
Will there be any converter boards or interface boards available in the market, so that we can connect USB blue tooth dongle to that interface/converter board and then that interface/converter board can be connected to the microcontroller board via USB connection ???

Is it possible to do in that way ? And are there such type of boards available to buy ??

thanks and regards

 

[picman2]

You have not clear what's an USB host and USB "client" interface.
For example, a PC has USB host connections, so it can accept USB client.
USB hosts are not trivial devices, they have capabilities to enumerate, recognize, interface and often give power to the clients.

Pen drives, printers, scanners, webcams, bluetooth dongles and so on are USB "clients" and can be connected only to USB hosts, and not between them.

I am (almost) sure that your board has NOT an USB host interface, but it's only a client.
I suspect that the USB interface present on your board is only a conversion of the existing RS232 (serial) interface.

As already told you the only way to go, in my humble opinion, is to evaluate the feasibility of using a RS232-bluetooth interface.
I saw few of these devices and the are usually pricey (around 100 USD, according a quick google search).

The problem you *may* have with this kind of device is the need to program/initialize it from its RS232 side, and this cannot be done without modifications of your board's firmware. You need to choose a device you can transparently use in you application, converting the wired RS232 interface to a wireless one.

On PC side you can use a common and cheap BT dongle.
Beware of timing issues: if the software you will use has some critical timings, the additional delay inserted by interface may disrupt the protocol.

Regards

 

[pavankumarssv]

Re: interfacing bluetooth USB dongle with microcontroller bo

You have not clear what's an USB host and USB "client" interface.
For example, a PC has USB host connections, so it can accept USB client.
USB hosts are not trivial devices, they have capabilities to enumerate, recognize, interface and often give power to the clients.

Pen drives, printers, scanners, webcams, bluetooth dongles and so on are USB "clients" and can be connected only to USB hosts, and not between them.

I am (almost) sure that your board has NOT an USB host interface, but it's only a client.
I suspect that the USB interface present on your board is only a conversion of the existing RS232 (serial) interface.

As already told you the only way to go, in my humble opinion, is to evaluate the feasibility of using a RS232-bluetooth interface.
I saw few of these devices and the are usually pricey (around 100 USD, according a quick google search).

The problem you *may* have with this kind of device is the need to program/initialize it from its RS232 side, and this cannot be done without modifications of your board's firmware. You need to choose a device you can transparently use in you application, converting the wired RS232 interface to a wireless one.

On PC side you can use a common and cheap BT dongle.
Beware of timing issues: if the software you will use has some critical timings, the additional delay inserted by interface may disrupt the protocol.

Regards

Picman2, thanks for your reply ,

yes , you are correct.
I cannot make changes to the firmware of the micrcontroller board. That's the reason I cannot use RS-232 to bluetooth interface for the microcontroller board. On the PC side its simple , buy a dongle and install the software. But this dongle should communicate with microcontroller board, HOW? This is remaining still as a doubt.

regards

 

[dunloptech]

I use BLUEMORE200 from www.eikonsite.it it doesn't need any firmware modification since it's a simple settable wireless UART

BD