PICS and smart devices (beginners question)

Thread Starter

KansaiRobot

Joined Jan 15, 2010
324
Hello everybody. I would like to ask a beginners question and I would appreciate your helpful responses:)

I have worked with PIC18F in the past. They were quite useful, I worked with A/D and USB capabilities. Also a little bit with PWM.

Now my question is much more general and does not necessarily has to do with PIC18s but with any kind of PICs

Lets say that I have developed a device that does something (say control a motor) using a PIC microcontroller. I want this device to be communicated with a smart device( android smart phone, tablet, ipod, ipad etc)

My questions are two

1) What function should I be looking into to realize this? Wifi? Bluetooth? any other? I dont think USB will be that useful since it would lost the portability quality of the smart device...(*)

2) About the function asked in 1) , what devices support it? PIC18s? PIC32s? any particular recommendation?

I am sorry for the generality of the question but I am just starting with this idea from today. I suppose I will read tons of literature now so a quick couple of pointers of where to read would be very much appreciated

Thanks a lot in advance :)

Kansai

(*) I read that Microchip provides some android beginner test that has to be connected through the USB of the micro... well... as last resource maybe I will look into this but I am guessing perhaps Bluetooth is better...what do you guys think?
 

t06afre

Joined May 11, 2009
5,934
The least painful way is to use serial communication (rs232) If your smart device support this. And speed is not that import. But more info are needed to give a good answer
 

Thread Starter

KansaiRobot

Joined Jan 15, 2010
324
thank you for your answer.

However, using serial would imply using a cable right?
And I doubt mobile phones support serial anyway:confused:

the ideal scenario would be to have my device (PIC) and the mobile phone communicate wirelessly. I am guessing bluetooth or Wifi..(I dont know the differences between those two in pros and cons)

Has anyone experienced doing a device with PIC and communicating this with an android phone for example?

Thanks a thousand:)
 

stahta01

Joined Jun 9, 2011
133
I am guessing bluetooth or Wifi..(I dont know the differences between those two in pros and cons)
If this is a Student project, I would avoid bluetooth. Because the Licensee fee was way out of another Student's budget. I can not remember if it was hundreds or thousands of Dollars.

Tim S.
 

stahta01

Joined Jun 9, 2011
133
If a commercially produced bluetooth module were used then surely that wouldn't be a problem ?

something like this
I would hope that it would not be a problem; but, the Blue Tooth Development board my friends picked required Licensing fees. I would read the details. Note: My friends board was a programmable chip that did the Bluetooth protocol; Not an add on board like in your link.
In other words, the licensing fee might have been partly because of Bluetooth software License.

I think this implies no license to use is needed.
Certified as an end product - no additional Bluetooth qualification needed when using this module.
Tim S.
 

Thread Starter

KansaiRobot

Joined Jan 15, 2010
324
Good point about the qualification fees.
I wonder if the "certified as an end product" implies that as well..

I tried to see what are the fees in their homepage, but alas, you have to be a member to see the fees page..how wrong is that!?
do anybody know about how much are these fees? :(
 
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