CODEWITHSUNDEEP
iphoneserial-portusb
ForeignerBR
ForeignerBR

Reputation: 2469

Establish communication link between a device and iOS

I'm developing an iPhone/iPad app that requires it communicate with another device. I'm actually more interested in receiving input from another device that the iPhone is connected to through USB. The solution needs to work with any iOS device and cannot require it to be jailbroken.

I've heard of apps that communicate with a piece of hardware that can be plugged to the iOS' serial connection, which is similar to what I'm going to develop except that the other device I'll be connecting to is a standalone music keyboard.

best regards,

fbr

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1278

Answers (2)

Thomas Tempelmann
Thomas Tempelmann

Reputation: 12095

Several options:

Forget MFi unless you have 1000s of $ backing up your product development. Apple won't even talk to you. I've tried.

Take a look at the Serial Cable from Redpark (http://redpark.com/c2db9.html) I've got one of those and it's ideal for apps that you can deliver on your own, but you might also be able to get them into the App Store.

Another option is to use Wifi with a Wifi-to-Serial adapter on the other end. I've used the RN-174 and RN-134 from Roving Networks successfully.

However, these solutions only get you Serial connections, but can be quite fast, especially with the RN modules. There are also Serial-to-USB converters you can use on the device's end, but that would require the device to work as a USB host, usually. If you have a USB device that wants to act as a client, these common adapters won't do the trick.

So, unless you can actually afford the MFi program, and if you really need USB connectivity, you'll have to let someone create a small box containing a USB host adapter with a Wifi chip. I don't know of a ready-made solution for this yet, although I've seen quite a few area where people would like to have such a unit.

Upvotes: 2

Andrey Zverev
Andrey Zverev

Reputation: 4428

If you are developing accessories that need to connect to iOS devices and want to use your own communication mechanism then you need to join the Apple MFi program.

Upvotes: 2

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