CODEWITHSUNDEEP
iosbluetootharduinocommunication
hslaster
hslaster

Reputation: 45

iOS-Arduino communication: any cheap solution?

I'd like to have an iPhone and an Arduino-based device talk to each other. Here are the requirements:

  1. I want to fully rely on iPhone's built-in components without any peripherals (for example, HiJack).
  2. The less configuration before the two can communicate, the better. This means a WiFi-based is not desirable, because we'll need to set up Wi-Fi credentials for the Arduino beforehand.
  3. Bitrate is not important. Only a few bytes are exchanged.
  4. As cheap as possible.

I see that Bluetooth 4.0 LE (for example, Stack Overflow question iPhone - Any examples of communicating with an Arduino board using Bluetooth?) meets my requirements, but are there any cheaper solutions?

One thing that came into my mind is sound - the way Chirp used to share data between two iOS devices, but I don't know if is feasible on Arduino and, if it is, how much it would be. Any other solutions?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 604

Answers (1)

iTech
iTech

Reputation: 18440

I can think of a few options:

  1. Bluetooth, you can get a cheap one from eBay for about $10

  2. Wi-Fi using Electric Imp (cost around $30), which is very easy to setup using the brilliant BlinkUp technique. See the project ElectricImp, control central heating via iPhone for an example.

  3. Chirp is a brilliant idea as well. From a hardware prospective I see it is feasible to do in Arduino; you just need a MIC circuit ($8) and speaker.

However, the real challenge is the software side, i.e., the algorithm that you will use to encode data as sound and vice versa. If such algorithm requires intensive calculation, you might not be able to do it in Arduino, and you can consider using an ARM-based microcontroller.

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions