I’m seeing cheap USB WiFi sticks in most electronic stores. How difficult would it be to interface one of these with a microcontroller? I know the uC would have to host the USB, but would it be possible to just bypass that USB chip and go through serial or whatever they use? Would this method make WiFi more cost effective than buying a wifi shield?
Me.
From my very limited knowledge, the problem is the drivers you need to get the hardware to work.
The USB wifi products can rely on the host PC to run the required software. Similarly, you can get USB bluetooth dongles for about $1, but the cheapest blutooth module that sparkfun sells is in the $20 range. Again the PC is used to do the hard work for the cheap dongles, the modules though do it themselves.
I’m sure it will possible someday though as micros get more space and power for the same price.
The 2 USB/Wifi adapters I’ve got only have a single chip and a small handful of discrete components in there. I can’t remember the number on the chip, but if I remember the datasheets right, the USB and Wifi were built onto the same die, meaning that you’d likely have to get your hands on a scanning electron microscope with a probe to be attaching any wires to bypass the USB!
Ok, thanks.