This may be relevant to our interests

[Sam Cook]

Hey guys, 

I'm not sure if this has been noted somewhere previously (I've been skimming a lot of the mail) but if not the new google open system may be very interesting and very helpful in this. 

I'm not sure if it'll be cheaper/easier/better than using bluetooth to communicate with the laser modules but if nothing else its another option, indicates that google are happy for this stuff to go on (i.e. not going to patch in such a way as to stop it) and also hopefully going to give us a nice API to use. 

Anyway a quick write up on ars[1]

S

[1] http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/05/labyrinth-google-reinvents-a-classic-toy-with-android-accessory-kit.ars

[tom]

its interesting but:

> only works on android - i.e. no iPhones in the future
> only works on android 2.3.4(?) upwards - older(cheaper) phones wont work
> takes up a load of space on the guns MCU - the BT adapters can either use newsoftserial or the built in UART

[Sam Cook]

This is true.

As to iPhones does anyone know how easy it is to link to custom hardware anyway? I think this is the sort of thing that would require jail-breaking anyway....

S

[tom]

IIRC iPhones should be able to do SPP connections over bluetooth, its definitely more likely to be possible than hooking up hardware to Jobs' little babies

I saw somewhere that people were doing serial stuff over the headphone/microphone ports, android can do this as well but at 4800bps. Probably too unreliable

[tom]

jsut a thought, but if we can get a demo of this working and submit it to google, reckon they'd chuck us some free kit to show off the new ADK stuff?

On 17/05/2011 14:34, Sam Cook wrote:

[Sam Cook]

Worth a shot; I'm sure it's the sort of stuff they'd like

S