Remote Input Device

[Andrewffff]

Hi, I wanna make a remote input device if that's an appropriate name.

Just to be clear, I have no experience in electronics beyond the little reading that I've done.

Anyways, it's a device that takes inputs like USB or audio and directs it to my machine without the use of a cord.

I have various input on mobos that I'd like to use in this project as well if it can save me some cash, but they appear to solder onto the board. Are they even salvageable?

So please, can I have recommendations as to how I should go about this project? Thanks in advance!

[adafruit_support_rick]

The answer depends on what kinds of data you plan to send and what kinds of data rates you want to achieve.

If I understand you correctly, you want to construct something using an Arduino or other microcontroller. You will directly connect various sorts of inputs to this device, and the device will read the inputs and transmit the data wirelessly to your desktop computer?

It would help if you could be a little more specific about your plans

[Andrewffff]

Well for starters, I use a laptop and so to use certain devices I have to stretch my cords across my desk, so I'm looking to minimize clutter by using this device and just putting it somewhere out of sight. Anyways, the certain ports I'm specifically looking to use are the analog audio and USB ports.

To be honest, I think it's mostly a superficial problem, but I thought it'd be a nice way to get into electronics.

[adafruit_support_rick]

Actually, the next time someone asks me for the most difficult way to get into electronics that I can think of, I may very well suggest this project. It's a lot more complicated than it may seem, and it's just not a realistic project for a beginner.

Sorry to rain on your parade. But don't give up - just set your sights a little lower. There are lots of kits and project ideas out there you might find interesting. If you'd like to play around with audio, you might be interested in the Wave Shield. And XBee'sare an easy way to get started with wireless communication. You might also want to check out the Discover Electronics Kit.

[Andrewffff]

Well thanks for answering my questions anyhow. Hopefully I'll get into electronics another time.

[franklin97355]

Well thanks for answering my questions anyhow. Hopefully I'll get into electronics another time.

Get into electronics NOW so when your next project comes up you will no longer be a noob.

[cstratton]

Actually, the next time someone asks me for the most difficult way to get into electronics that I can think of, I may very well suggest this project. It's a lot more complicated than it may seem, and it's just not a realistic project for a beginner.

In actuality, a practical implementation would be overwhelmingly a software project, rather than a hardware one. You could build the hardware rather than buying it, but doing so would not be cost effective, and the software task would only grow (as you'd have to get the base operating system running on untested hardware).

Let's look at the USB case, since that is the harder problem.

Hosting a USB device basically requires a microprocessor which can run fairly complicated software, with memory for buffering. For something like a keyboard or a mouse you might get away with an arduino (though even then it would not be cost effective), but realistically you are talking about something like an embedded ARM platform with megabytes of memory. Something like a rasberry pi, beaglebone, chumby guts, shivaplug, etc. Or an old/small PC or laptop.

Basically, you plug the USB peripheral(s) into that, write software that proxies them over wifi, and write software for your laptop that connects the remoted peripherals to the applications that need to use them. Where "write software" is a comparatively quite large and complicated project, if you have programs that expect to talk directly to the USB devices or undocumented drivers. If your programs are willing to talk to generic interfaces (ie, a USB-connected peripheral is only one possibility) then remoting things may be a little easier, but it's still not trivial.

If I recall, there have been more link-level USB wireless extenders marketed. They aren't cheap and probably have severe limitations.

The most effective path may actually be to replace your usb peripherals with other solutions - for example, bluetooth (or other wireless) mouse. Hard drive attached to a Network-Attached-Storage box, or served via a machine also on your wifi, etc.