http://www.sirpic.com has code to allow a Palm to receive (and send given the required hardware) signals with a PIC via IR or hardwire interface. Most excellent! It's good to know other people have had the same idea. For anyone who looks at this, the actual PIC code is in = http://www.sirpic.com/downloads/SirPicProgrammersGuide_v1_1.pdf and Rubens is selling (at a very reasonable price) a Palm app that displays the incoming data. = I do have a few questions: I've never worked with an IR transmitter module: Do they show a visible light of any sort? This would allow it to serve dual purpose as the status or power on light. Do they cost significantly more than a standard LED? I assume so, but maybe I'm wrong. = Can a standard LED have any hope of actually communicating with a Palm? If I designed a product with your PIC code built in and an IR transmitter, what royalty issues do I face and can I license the Palm code to my customers? And finally, I'm sort of waiting for someone with a lot of barcode experience *cough, Dave* to comment on the original idea of using the LED to put out pulses of light that a barcode wand might interpret in the same way it picks up changes in the reflected light level from an actual bar code. IF that would work, it seems to me that it would be VERY handy in some environments. = -- James. -----Original Message----- From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of rlistas Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 10:18 To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. Subject: Re: [EE] wierd idea: power LED blinks status barcode Hi James, Welcome to www.sirpic.com :>) I=B4m using it for diagnose my circuits for about 3 years now. Works perfect. Just pay attetion that some palms didn=B4t accept raw IRDA, just IRCOMM. Another detail is that the clock must be very precise. I have some trouble with PICs 12F675 and 16F676 with internal oscillators, even with 1200bauds. I use simple IR leds (remote control ones) and only software. Zire Z22, the cheapest now, is the best I have used for this. Best regards, Rubens At 23:15 24/1/2008, you wrote: >That is a REALLY interesting idea... > >Bob has talked in the past about having an "unused" pin that sends out >status info all the time in some special format... > >If you send out status data in a serial stream fast enough and continuously, >it should look more or less consistent when used to light the power on LED >on the widget you are making. > >For no extra cost, you get a visible status data stream. > >Of course, you can't read it with the naked eye... Other than to note that >the light goes out or comes on brighter when the uC stops running. > >Then the question is what can you use to read it? What if the light pattern >was the same as what a barcode reader would see if it was scanned over an >area? So assuming your customer has a barcode reader connected to his or her >keyboard (as is the case at a lot of POS terminals) then you just tell them >to go to a web page that you have set up, and then point the barcode wand >right over the power LED on your widget. Some JavaScript on the page parses >the data stream, breaks it off in chunks and sends them to you via AJAX. > >Or perhaps IRdA is the better protocol? > >What do PDA's talk in when you "beam" contacts between units? > >At worst, you send them a "visible light to RS232 adapter" which everyone >has laying around right? > >On Wed, Jan 23, 2008 at 12:05:24PM -0700, Dwayne Reid wrote: >The other neat trick I'm doing is that one of the LEDs is actually >spitting out a serial bit stream while it is lit. > > > >-- >http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive >View/change your membership options at >http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist -- = http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist -- = http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist