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Small WLAN circuit

Small WLAN circuit

Small WLAN circuit

(OP)
I need to fit a WLAN transmitter into a tube, with inner diameter of 27mm or just over one inch, to transmit a lot of sensor data to a stand-by computer. The performance does not necessarily need to be stellar, 10Mbit or higher, and I can build my own circuit board to connect a set of chips. However, it would be nice to use something that is as close to a complete product as possible like a complete multi-chip module and I would prefere not to have to deal with implementation of specific protocols. I haven't been able to find hardware that small, so far, but maybe someone can help me out here?

RE: Small WLAN circuit

The 'USB stick' form factor would probably fit into that tube - I believe that there are Wi-Fi or Bluetooth sticks (?). You would need to interface to the USB port, probably a single-chip controller. It might end up being about 6 inches long by the time you're done.


RE: Small WLAN circuit

I just did a very quick search and the USB Wi-Fi sticks are readily available. The one I looked at was 27mm by 9.5mm by some length, which (unfortunately) makes the diameter required (the diagonal) just slightly more than 27mm. You'll have to find a small one, or file down the corners of the stick's housing...

RE: Small WLAN circuit

(OP)
Thanks a lot for the advice. I will check if I can squeeze the Lantronix box in or if the USB adapters will work for us. This gets me going.

RE: Small WLAN circuit

check out Aerocomm.com
They have a complete wireless module that is 1 inch square.
Part # is AC4490-1x1. It is plug and play.

RE: Small WLAN circuit

(OP)
Thank you everyone. Your suggetions collect to a nice wireless library. Unfortunately, no cigar yet because either the protocol is way cumbersome to implement (USB stuff) or the speed is too low (Lantronix, Aerocomm, BlueTooth). I guess my application is too difficult for commercially available technology right now...

RE: Small WLAN circuit

Perhaps we should ask more about your sensor data.

Is it possible to just sent the raw sensor data (analog) using a good old fashioned, analog input, RF transmitter?

RE: Small WLAN circuit

(OP)
Good idea but I have already built a complicated sensor system with 24-bit AD outputs from 10 channels. The sampel rate is almost 3kHz, so there is a ton of information. I start out by storing it on a SD memory card. Then I transmit this to my laptop but my current BlueTooth connection is sooo slow and a true bottleneck that limits how much data I dare to collect.

RE: Small WLAN circuit

Back to USB sticks for a moment...

Link:  www.microchip.com/usb
Single chip controllers with embedded USB.

Still, far from trivial.


RE: Small WLAN circuit

My embedded 802.11b WiFi design can transmit a 1500 byte packets in 5 milliseconds worst case.

This is even using TCP with [PSH] and [ACK].

If you go UDP, you can easily double it.

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