fun with wireless

Hi All,

I am working on a project to build a wireless midi merge device. There would be 3 devices total, 2 would be remote stations plugged into midi keyboards (or other midi devices), and one would be a base unit that would receive midi data from the two remote stations, merge it, and output the merged data on a midi port. I plan to use a PICmicro controller (or some other low cost controller) to control this, but I am having problems deciding what kind of wireless system to use for this.

It seems like using Bluetooth or 802.11 would be too difficult for use with a PIC. Another option would be to use two dedicated RF links, each on a different frequency, but that seems kind of tacky. My current plan is to use a token ring network with 3 RF transceivers (one for each device) all on the same frequency, but I can't seem to find any good transceivers that fit my specs. I need transceivers capable of at least 31kbps, and each transceiver should be able to transmit and receive (digitally) to either of the other two devices (preferably just broadcast to all devices). The problem is, most RF transceivers are either too slow, only connect in pairs (as far as I can tell), don't have much documentation, or switch between transmitting and receiving too slowly for my application.

Anyone have any ideas? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Josh R. snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com

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Josh
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The nRF24E1 will probably have all the functionality you will need for your product on a single chip. It also embeds two independent receiver channels, You will have a choice of either networking or two independent point-to-point links.

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As for RF transceivers being point-to-point, this is not a limitation of the transceivers themselves, but the protocol driving the system. The closest wired analogy I can think of is the RS485 transceivers; without a protocol suited for networking you will need to use them as point to point devices to avoid bus contention.

BTW- Networking in this context does not equal full fledged TCP/IP stacks;-)

HTH

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Morten
Raider of the Lost Electron
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Raider of the Lost Electron

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