Really Cheap Bluetooth?

Wireless & IoT
1

So, Dealextreme has had these bluetooth dongles for a while now (http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11866) that are tiny USB bluetooth adaptors that only cost $1.80 (!!) each. I got a few and they seem to work. So, do you think it would be possible to use these with an AVR or other microcontroller as a ultra-cheap RF adapter for some swarm robots or sensor network or something?

I know it is possible to implement a USB client fully in software on an AVR, but I don’t know how much of the USB host protocol would need to be implemented to talk to one of these dongles to get just RFCOMM (bluetooth serial port, basically) working.

2

previusly discussed [here

in the comments its suggested you need a [usb host shieldto make it work.

the bundle is not cheaper then the Blue Smirf module .](http://www.circuitsathome.com/products-page/arduino-shields/usb-host-shield-for-arduino)](http://www.sparkfun.com/news/282)

3

It looks like someone’s managed to talk to a dealextreme bluetooth dongle [here

pretty hackish, but what’s the fun in knowing it’ll work beforehand? :slight_smile:

Plus, the Propeller boards start at $25, so it’s not going to be much cheaper than Blue Smirf.

The code might be a good starting point to see how much of the protocol you need to implement though.

Good luck to you. If you get it working, I’d love to read about how you did it.](http://micah.navi.cx/2010/04/embedded-bluetooth-for-2/)