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A Wireless USB Cable?

Posted by Cliff on from the not-necessarily-what-the-developers-intended dept.

doggkruse asks: "For a while I have been trying to come up with a way to attach my USB devices, wirelessly. Today I stumbled upon this Bluetooth wireless print link. It appears to simply replicate a usb cable because it works on OS X which lacks support for Bluetooth printing. Is it possible to use this for other devices? Could I simply plug this into a hub and make all USB devices wireless." It's an interesting thought, but that depends entirely on the device. Has anyone tried doing this, with this or another device?

18 comments

  1. Yes, but not quite yet by prostoalex · · Score: 5, Informative

    Okay, I will have to assume you are not an employee of Cypress Semiconductor, trying to create a "buzz" on the Internet about the new product family. Cypress Semiconductor created such technology and currently touts it under WirelessUSB brand. Granted, I don't think there's a consumer device using WirelessUSB just yet, but Cypress is currently selling the chips and chipsets to the OEMs. The prices are quite good, by the way, if you're involved with embedded devices or home automation products.

    The WirelessUSB specs from Cypress Web site - "..The wireless connectivity is transparent to the designer at the operating system level (no drivers needed), as the WirelessUSB system acts as a USB HID class device..."

    ZDNet on WirelessUSB

    Naturally, Google

    1. Re:Yes, but not quite yet by rreay · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Cypress's WIreless USB chipset is simply a USB device with a serial link to the other radio. USB traffic does not go across the wireless link. Notice the spec sheet says transparent to design at operating system level that means it's not transparent to the hardware or firmware.

      This is simply marketing spin on a processor with a USB SIE and a custom radio link.

  2. Wireless USB Cable by NanoGator · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well the title of this article painted a different image in my mind. I thought it meant a cable that links two wireless devices together. Defeating the purpose? No. My company built a system that has a video camera sending digital data to a small PC. Instead of a monitor, they use an iPaq wirelessly connected to the capture unit to do things like change exposure and start/stop record. It doesn't need to be on all the time, but rather it works a lot like a remote control.

    Unfortunately, not all areas are WiFi friendly. I remember bringing this unit to Siggraph one year and there was so much interference we couldn't connect. Because of this problem, we also have to include an ethernet card + cable to physically link them.

    Gotta wonder, why don't they provide some sort of standard cable to link wireless devices in the event of interference?

    Okay, not really on-topic, though it would help this guy if he did use the wireless USB device. It'd be another sysadmin type tool to keep around this house in case the microwave screws it up or something.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
    1. Re:Wireless USB Cable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gotta wonder, why don't they provide some sort of standard cable to link wireless devices in the event of interference?

      Wouldn't that be ethernet, or am I missing something? The firmware/software support is more important - we have a standard cable, we just need the device to handle the routing between cable/wireless properly (i.e. if an ethernet cable is plugged in, use it whenever possible, but fall back to wireless for machines not accessible on that ethernet segment).

    2. Re:Wireless USB Cable by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "Wouldn't that be ethernet, or am I missing something?"

      Ethernet is a seperate card. I'm talking about running a cable from the 802.11 card to its destination without needing a seperate ethernet card.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    3. Re:Wireless USB Cable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ethernet is a seperate card. I'm talking about running a cable from the 802.11 card to its destination without needing a seperate ethernet card.

      You were asking about a cable standard, and ethernet would work for that.

      It's often implemented as a separate card, but it doesn't have to be. An 802.11 card with an ethernet port could be designed easily enough, possibly using a dongle (a standard dongle would be nice, but probably won't happen). IIRC, a chip implementing 10/100 ethernet is worth less than US$5 when purchased in bulk.

    4. Re:Wireless USB Cable by Holi · · Score: 1

      so basically you want an 802.11/802.3 card.

      --
      Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
    5. Re:Wireless USB Cable by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "You were asking about a cable standard, and ethernet would work for that."

      Ah okay. Thank you. I apologize for not reading a little more carefully.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    6. Re:Wireless USB Cable by way2trivial · · Score: 1
      Take a glimmer at the Veo Observer..

      I own one, works great, they have a wireless version too,

      records audio, video, and quite adjustablke, wired for 200, wireless for 300..

      You could buy the wired version, and add a linksys wifi-ethernet brige for less than 100$. you can do this to almost ANY device with ethernet.. and instead of asking, does it have a wired port for backup- you can add wireless to the wired device

      --
      every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
  3. Nice idea but... by Ins.+Gimmik · · Score: 2, Informative

    I use Bluetooth all the time. In my experience it lacks the bandwidth for your idea to work well. Supporting evidence: Bluetooth hotsyncs take longer between my Tungsten and my Powerbook. A wifi hack would be better.

    1. Re:Nice idea but... by Yottabyte84 · · Score: 2, Informative

      The Specs sheet says 340kbps speed.

    2. Re:Nice idea but... by Ins.+Gimmik · · Score: 1

      In a lab maybe, but it's still radio.

    3. Re:Nice idea but... by JCMay · · Score: 1
      "In a lab maybe, but it's still radio."


      What does that mean? Just because it's radio doesn't mean it's slow.

    4. Re:Nice idea but... by More+Karma+Than+God · · Score: 2, Informative

      >What does that mean? Just because it's radio doesn't mean it's slow.

      It means that in the lab radio interferance can be excluded so you get unrealistic results.

      In real life most folks can't turn their homes and offices into RFI free zones, so for all practical purposes the maximum specs are unattainable.

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  4. Wasn't that what Bluetooth was supposed to be? by wowbagger · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Wasn't "Wireless USB" pretty much what Bluetooth was supposed to be?

    You had FireWire, which was to "move lots of time sensitive freight".

    You had USB, which was to "connect everything with wires".

    You had BlueTooth, which was "Connect everything without wires".

    That's what I thought as well when I saw the Cypress Semi ad for their "Wireless USB" chip.

    --
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  5. Write them, not slashdot.... by Anm · · Score: 1


    I don't see how you expect the slashdot communicty to by knowledgable about a device that isn't even out. From their store, they claim it is due out on Tuesday (30th Sept.).

    Anm

  6. Notice the throughput on the device by captain+igor · · Score: 1

    Did anyone else notice that the throughput is only "up to" 320 KBps. Seems like this would become a bottleneck, especially if you print a lot of large pdf's.

  7. cables that aren't wires by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    does anyone know where i can get a cableless wire? or a wireless wire? while i'm at it, how about a car that isn't a car?

    ps, "wireless cable" is an oxymoron.