Point to Point Wireless UART - with quick reconnect times

Wireless & IoT
1

Hi,

I am looking for a small point to point wireless UART with quick (instant) reconnect times. The nordic chipsets seem to cover the the requirements as there is no network setup times and they have a decent data rate, however they require a fair amount of CPU overhead to get them going reliably.

I want up to 10m range, around 250kbps - ideally tagged directly onto the UART. Possibly too much to ask for!

I have previously used the bluetooth modules, however they are a pain to get connected as my system requires turning on/off every few minutes (battery change). I expect the wifi modules will have the same issue. XBee seems the next choice, but I dont know how quick the connection times are.

The use is for data logging, or log downloads.

Thanks in advance,

  • Martyn
2

lots of wireless serial port extenders on the market. XBee Series 1 is plug and play, no code to write.

With or without RS232 level converters. Sold here at SFE.

More expensive, there are end items from vendors such as

WizNet (Korean, several US distributors)

LANTRONICS

BlackBox

and perhaps 8 others.

3

Check out Pololu’s wixel, particularly the “wireless serial” application.

http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1336

4

Thanks for the responses.

I think I may have failed to mention my board is a 4-layer 60mm x 40mm, currently stuffed with two microcontrollers, 4 IR reflective sensors, 16MB flash memory and a handfull of motor control gear.

I plan for this to go into a programming mezenine that gives me 20mm x 40mm, although in reality only 14mm x 40mm due to the programmer connectors, but if something fits (I can get a nordic layout in there no problems) then I will use that.

Its looking like I will have to use the nordic radios I have, not a huge bummer - the second microcontroller is for logging / handling flash - so should have overhead. Its just a week or two I had hoped to cut out.

Cheers,

  • Martyn