IRForum

We recently receive this question from a backer....

Let me ask you a question about Arduino. Do you connect to the Arduino over Ethernet using the HWVSP software? If so, there must be code in the Arduino that enables Ethernet to serial conversion. You must open a socket connection, and send Ethernet packets to a port #, and the Arduino converts these packets to send out the serial port. Actually, you probably don’t care too much about that direction, you probably care about taking serial data and converting it to Ethernet packets.

If I’m correct in my understanding, does the Ethernet to serial code come in the base Arduino code, and if not, can it be easily downloaded and added?

The standard Arduino connection is serial over USB. You will notice from the AnalysIR GUI that we use a baud rate of 2Mbps, which is unusual but works well. (The baud rate is actually ignored for virtual/CDC COM type ports, but is relevant on Arduinos with FTDI-like serial USB)

The HW-VSP s/w is used only for the RPi as it has no in-built serial over USB.
HW-VSP is optional & not free for commercial use.

We will do something similar for the Arduino Yún - but that should be trivial.

BTW: the HW-VSP can be replaced by any TCP/IP virtual serial port. The key thing is that AnalysIR must have the data coming from a COM port (real or virtual).

We have just added a 'Source' menu option to AnalysIR (hopefully for the next release), so it is possible over time that we 'could' integrate a direct network connection for RPi, Spark Core & Yún etc. etc.

Arduino has a concept of 'Shields' ...so you can plug in an ethernet shield or a wifi shield or bluetooth shield. These can be very over-priced most of the time. Although I believe it is possible to get Ethernet for circa $10. Because of the standard Arduino 2k RAM - buffering can be an issue so it is best used for small bursts of information = like IR codes or sensor reading or control signals. You wouldnt be downloading PDFs using a standard Arduino.

Of course this changes with the new Arduinos announced recently (Yún, TI board Tre, Intel board Galileo/Quark), but the purchase price is higher.

Good news to report!

In the upcoming release of AnalysIR, we will be introducing direct connection to the Raspberry PI via LAN (ethernet or Wi-Fi). This will remove the need to use virtual COM ports such as HWVSP - thus making installation much simpler for users.

In future, we will also make use of this direct network connection, to interface with the Arduino Yún (once we add support for this device).