Electronics stupid idea could make millions

Firstly, you don't want to skimp on your keyboard and mouse quality since they're the devices you'll be using all the time with your PC. Once you get above the bargain-basement keyboards and mice the price of wireless now really isn't that much above the corded versions.

Secondly, making a wired keyboard and mouse wireless REALLY wouldn't work if you wanted to use batteries. Wireless input devices have power-saving circuits that will switch into "sleep" mode after a certain amount of time so that the batteries last a half-decent length of time. Also, they expect fairly well regulated 5V supplies to come to them from the USB/PS2 ports. If you price up the components you would need to make these universal wireless USB port modules you want then even if they were being mass-produced the cost would be around that or just buying wireless devices in the first place.

I think you're asking for something that's just not going to happen for the price you want. You mention cordless phones being very cheap now, but they've had a huge amount of time to mature (what, 15 or 20 years?) and as such the cost of producing the components needed have come down a lot. Also, the electronics were designed from the start to be in a cordless phone. I'm sure if you tried making your own cordless phone from a standard one you'd run into a bit of trouble.

All I'm saying is that I think you're underestimating the time and money companies put into developing the current wireless solutions and how different wireless devices are from standard ones.

 

im sorry i just had to get this idea out of my head it keeped on bothering me till i typed it here

 

Don't apologise, it's a nice idea and has sparked some nice discussion on the topic

My previous post was in response to what Malfoleo's said.

 

thanks

 

Nihlist, thanks for explaining that, not everybody gets the concepts and reasions behind wirelss and other electronics componants. Allthough yes I do know that this type of thing is not fesable, I wouldn't doubt it any if somebody out there has figured out how to do something like this. As for consistant 5v supply ~looks at his mobo voltage settings~ mine, and most fluxuate raddicaly, ahywhere from 4v right up to 5.5v, it's not enough to really trip up most devices, but the varrience still exists. So by using a remote 'wireless' station you would actualy end up with a more steady current as apposed to a computer system, witch has a lot of different things taping off the psu and allows the voltage to drop and rise to different levels. Intersting pictures there johnwilliams

 

i thought they were cool

 

I came across this.

 

I've actually used something similar, which did RS-232 over IP - essentially a bunch of serial ports on the other side of a LAN. We used these for a building security / access control system I was involved with designing (I was rooting for embedded ethernet, but anyway). They're effective and cute, but not really a patch on designing the devices you want to be wireless in the first place.

Going back to the wireless USB idea, if you were wanting to hook up two USB busses, for example 2 PCs, that would be really simple. Obviously, this isn't what was originally proposed, but I'm sure there are USB->Bluetooth adaptors, and they wouldn't be difficult to build, either. Nor would USB->2.4GHz datastream.

If you were prepared to go for a slightly larger device, building a wireless USB port would certainly be possible, especially if you're prepared to add an extra battery pack for certain peripherals. The battery power issue isn't that bad either, since a simple SMPS would solve the problem quite nicely. It wouldn't be a tiny, light device, tho.

 

thats good enough i but i got on to the idea of a wirless storage deevice that would be sweet

 

What if i want to keep my existing keyboard and mouse

here is my problem I have a Hi def. plasma tv. that i hooked up to my computer. I want to keep my mouse and my keyboard. but want to sit on my couch and work from across the room. its a big tv so i don't have a problem viewing it. so i want a small hub usb or ps2 that i can setup near my couch in the front of it on a table that transmits a signal to a reciever near the base of the tv/computer maybe hooked up to either the existing ps2 ports or to usb. don't think it would require a huge battery, because it would only be sending maybe an infrared signal accross the room or like a tv remote.

 

A new wireless keyboard and mouse set would be:

• cheaper
• easier
• more reliable

 

hello there i am the starter of the thread mentioned at the begining of this one and after some research found out that it is indeed possible not easy or cheap though main problems are data loss and large current draw/voltage probs with battery sources, i decided would be easier + cheaper to just get wirless keyboard but is still a good idea... ahh someday who knows.

 

power solved

wireless phones use a hidious ammount of power in use but are reletivle low consupyion when not all you would need is a ni-cad/ lit-ion battery surely to power it they produce quite high voltage and then have an adaptor to re-charge when you need to idea or pittiful idea? dunno you tell me.

 

yes lets remeber that unless you want to transmit something across the room and have the transmitters running on mains power, your going to stumble into some serious power consumption problems.

now remember, what do you do after you use a cordless phone?
you put back on the wall,
what does it do then?
RECHARGE!

so you are going to need some system where you are getting power from a wall socket or have somekind or system where you finished using it and put it in a kind of cradle where it recharges

and you would also need some very good ni-mh batteries in case where recharging not a very common thing to do "i.e. wireless keyboard"

i have a friend with a wireless mouse. and even tho the wireless mice have been engineerede quite well now, he still has 2 of them, one recharging while he uses the other, and when one go dead, he switches it around.

so you would need some kind of backup battery pack or even another of the whole thing itself, other wise the power will die and you left with something thats useless untill you wait hours for it to recharge

about the wireless Data storage device, id say its possible, but it would suffer from massive "packet loss" or "collision" (like networking) so no

 

like i said power is a big prob, say you use easy to get hold of and relatively cheap NimH AA cells they go for about £12 for four and ~£20 for the charger as you need the high current 2000mAh cells because, when they are connected in serial to provide 4.8v they have a common capacity of still 2000mAh now powered devices on the usb specification need to draw upto 500mA so if you where using for devices at full power your batterys would be flat in one hour! now this is a worst case scenario but it nicely ilustrates the problem

[EDIT] oh and thats without powering the transmitter/reciever !

 

Surely you mean 4 hours

 

the wireless storege divice is no doubt a good idea it would be nice to have something like the thumbdrive / nomad muvo in you pocket and and put music on it with out hooking any thing up but i think as normal people like me i couldnt do it whith the tech thats out there now but i gerenty in a few years there will be devices like this out on the market a larger version of this idea is already in use think of it this way say you have a wi fi network or what ever type of wireless network you have say you have one 2 or 3 computers on it i dont know for shure because i have only one computer up at a time but you should be able to read write data on another computer via shared documents or something like that right there you have a storege device thats some what wireless a laptop is completly wireless put the wi fi card in the laptop

there you have a wireless storege device we just need a way of shrinking that concept down to something that can fit in your pocket
or go ones step further and ad a lcd screen and the ability to play all file mp3 mpeg avi you get the idea a version of that would be a pocket pc i guess so



so if you relly think about it and have all the programs and devices we have a wireless storege device known as a pocket pc its just to bad they are too expencive $500.00 us but im sshure if you strip it down to the basic idea you could lower the cost to maby 100 dollars using some stuff from the pocket pc

 

@NiHiLiST

oops

 

Here's a thought, if you're dead set on having wireless USB...

There are numerous wireless XBox controller adapters out there... there are also XBox to PC adapters... the XBox uses USB, if I'm not mistaken.

So, all one would have to do is bust open the casing to one of these beauties, fit it inside of your standard keyboard (Keytronic Designer Series... mmmm.) and you're good to go.

Now, cost wise, I'm not sure how effective if would be... but who cares?

edit: Radioshack has a wireless PS2 adapter that is pretty affordable... not sure if it would work, but hell... worth a shot, no?