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Along these lines - I've always wanted a cheap, universal usb wireless adapter. Something dumb, that just reads the signals off the usb device, transmits them

Along these lines - I've always wanted a cheap, universal usb wireless adapter. Something dumb, that just reads the signals off the usb device, transmits them wirelessly to a dumb reciever that uses the info. to reconstruct the data stream on a usb cable. By 'dumb' I mean it shouldn't care at all about the usb data/protocol. It should just bang 0/1s across the wireless connection.

stevekemp 6y ago
That reminds me of the old USB/IP project - something I have never used, but which always seemed interesting: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB/IP https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB/IP
carapace 6y ago
FWIW I think you could do that with a pair of Pololu Wixels? > The Pololu Wixel is a general-purpose programmable module featuring a 2.4 GHz radio and USB. The Wixel is based on the CC2511F32 microcontroller from Texas Instruments, which has an integrated radio transceiver, 32 KB of flash memory, 4 KB of RAM, and a full-speed USB interface. A total of 15 general-purpose I/O lines are available, including 6 analog inputs ... https://www.pololu.com/product/1336 https://www.pololu.com/product/1336
sokoloff 6y ago
USB is a host-orchestrated bidirectional protocol. I don’t see how you could possibly replace it with a wireless link that didn’t understand anything about the USB protocol.
- mech422 6y ago
  The orchestration is between the 2 devices at the ends of the link. The actual link itself could be wireless, fiber, copper, etc. Since its just transporting data and not trying to interpret it at all. Though, someone higher up said the timings on USB are strict enough that wireless might mess that part up.
jsight 6y ago
Huddlecam used to have a product that was a little like this. They were targeting cameras, but it seems like it also worked for soundcards and possibly some other devices. I have no idea how reliable it was.
userbinator 6y ago
By 'dumb' I mean it shouldn't care at all about the usb data/protocol. It should just bang 0/1s across the wireless connection. The problem, which means any solution will turn out looking like a pair of hubs, is that USB has pretty strict timing limits on how long the host will wait for a response after it has sent a request --- and introducing (often unpredictable) wireless latency can put that time over the limit.
- mech422 6y ago
  oh? Hmm...I was thinking mostly for stuff like dongles to plug into keyboards or mice, etc. Wonder it would be a problem for them.

stevekemp 6y ago

That reminds me of the old USB/IP project - something I have never used, but which always seemed interesting: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB/IP https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB/IP

carapace 6y ago

FWIW I think you could do that with a pair of Pololu Wixels? > The Pololu Wixel is a general-purpose programmable module featuring a 2.4 GHz radio and USB. The Wixel is based on the CC2511F32 microcontroller from Texas Instruments, which has an integrated radio transceiver, 32 KB of flash memory, 4 KB of RAM, and a full-speed USB interface. A total of 15 general-purpose I/O lines are available, including 6 analog inputs ... https://www.pololu.com/product/1336 https://www.pololu.com/product/1336

sokoloff 6y ago

USB is a host-orchestrated bidirectional protocol. I don’t see how you could possibly replace it with a wireless link that didn’t understand anything about the USB protocol.

mech422 6y ago
The orchestration is between the 2 devices at the ends of the link. The actual link itself could be wireless, fiber, copper, etc. Since its just transporting data and not trying to interpret it at all. Though, someone higher up said the timings on USB are strict enough that wireless might mess that part up.

jsight 6y ago

Huddlecam used to have a product that was a little like this. They were targeting cameras, but it seems like it also worked for soundcards and possibly some other devices. I have no idea how reliable it was.

userbinator 6y ago

By 'dumb' I mean it shouldn't care at all about the usb data/protocol. It should just bang 0/1s across the wireless connection. The problem, which means any solution will turn out looking like a pair of hubs, is that USB has pretty strict timing limits on how long the host will wait for a response after it has sent a request --- and introducing (often unpredictable) wireless latency can put that time over the limit.

mech422 6y ago
oh? Hmm...I was thinking mostly for stuff like dongles to plug into keyboards or mice, etc. Wonder it would be a problem for them.