Bluetooth serial dongle

PhreaK

Anyone using one for uploading and debugging on site? Seems like an extremely logical thing to keep in my kit as I can just plug it into the program port then chuck the laptop wherever is convenient without being restricted by one of them old fashion cable things. Before I fork out for one I thought I'd just check if there is some issue or downfall that I'm not seeing. The obvious one is the batteries going flat, in which case I could just switch to a cable or swap in some fresh batteries.

Just in case your not familiar with what I'm talking about: something along the lines of this http://www.iogear.com/product/GBS301/

mcotton

I use a firefly bluetooth -> rs232 gizmo for programming vantage lighting systems. My macbook and ibm t41 both have built-in bluetooth. It is much slower on large transfers than a cable but I don't know why.

http://www.gridconnect.com/bluetooth-rs232-usb.html

Colzie

If the system has a wireless TP (therefore a WAP), I use my serial port to set the IP address, then go wireless.

If the system doesn't have a WAP, always carry a small ethernet WAP. Again, serial to set the processor IP, then plug in my WAP and go wireless.

I personally don't see the need for a wireless serial port for programming a processor. I do think it would be awesome in troubleshooting situations where getting a test serial cable to a device is impossible.

PhreaK

That was pretty much my plan. If the master is already on a wireless network connect through that, but for situations where it's isolated its a bit quicker to just chuck a pre-paired dongle on the serial port rather than grab IP settings and set up a temp network.