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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?

3 of 18 comments (clear)

  1. 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."
  2. 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.

    --
    www.eFax.com are spammers
  3. 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.