I need a new wireless toy...

"Eric" hath wroth:

I'm tempted to send you my personal wish list, but I doubt if you're as weird as me. I'd be partial to buying some test equipment, but you might not be into that. Besides, there's little test equipment you can buy for less than $300. Oh well.

You want a "real-world" interface and something that gets used daily but not hacking or war driving. Sigh. $300 isn't enough for a wirless robot butler, but it's a start. Maybe a PDA with 802.11 connectivity replicating your address book and appointments. That's my number one wireless use. Maybe a wireless camera to spy on the neighbors. Wireless digital camera? VoIP 802.11 phone with Skype for cheap phone calls at hot spots. Lots of games with built in wi-fi. However, all these are rather mundane by todays standards for what's considered cool.

I suggest you start here:

see what turns you on.

Got a Tivo? They make a wireless USB connection for most tivo units to get the program guide/program whn away fom home/transfer recorded shows/etc wirelessly.... Got one or two areas that wireless don't reach but you have power to? Netgear has a neat line of power line networking (rather than the 14Mb, they have 54Mb and 85Mb, that can ALSO be used to put AP's in areas where wireless won't reach, or to make your illuminated area a lot larger have 4 of em and 3 AP's...

the one that I love (drives the dogs crazy, sorry I don't have a link), but basically it's is a rechargable wireless robot (you can control and/or program it wirelessly)....

Forget useful or practical.. look for FUN stuff!

you could get one of these:

A wifi spectrum analyser for peanuts.. how cool is that!

As used by our resident wifi wizard Jeff :-)

Hi,

Actually, our interests probably do intersect quite a bit! Likewise, I'm also partial to test equipment and don't find anything that I really like for just $300. My "dream spec anny" is almost $30k! :-)

Wireless robot butler! I'm imaging a robot butler bringing beer while watching football yesterday. Wouldn't that be cool! Not that its big chore, but everyone would get a kick out of it -- including my finance. (I'm fortunate to have a finance who is even a bigger football fan than I am.) $300 doesn't go very far here though.

PDA's... Got a few of them already.. One I use the most is an older HP Jornada 720 H/PC, as I really like the form factor (clam shell with keyboard) as I use it all the time for word processing and a SSH terminal. It has a Cisco Aeronet wireless card...

Skype.. Thought about that once, but wondered how much use it would really get. Got an unlimited plan on my cell phone and the places that I work and play don't have any open 802.11 networks around..

Video camera / spying on neighbor.. I'd be scared that I might see something! My neighbor is a woman in her 80's! :-) Now, maybe some "up skirting" at the mall.. (I'm joking!). LOL

Looking at the gadget list. At first glance, the wireless remote is sticking out...

Cheers, Eric

Or the one that I love (drives the dogs crazy, sorry I don't have a link),

Ah, Tivo! Now we are talking... I have a couple of Media MVP boxes (Radio Shack was/is closing them for only $35!).

Along with GBPVR, , you can make DiY "media centers". I use mine mainly to stream music (MP3's and internet radio) to the stereo, more than video, though..

Tivo now has HD players out, but waiting for them to go down a bit. No way I'm jumping on first generation, (read: big, slow, and bulky) HD-DVD or BluRay! Give both of them a year or so...

Forget useful or practical.. look for FUN stuff! Hmm.. XBox 360?

Cheers, Eric

Looked at those before. They are pretty cool! Crude and simple, but gets the job done if all you are looking for is RFI sources..

That is tempting for just £99.95 though!

Cheers, Eric

At least. Every time I think about jumping on the Next Big Thing, I look at my betamax and the urge passes (g).

"Eric" hath wroth:

I've recently been buying test equipment on eBay. My circa 1970's lab is starting to resemble a museum and has become a maintenance problem. Mostly, I'm buying signal sources, sweepers, directional couplers, and scope probes. (I have something like 10 scopes and 2 probes).

You don't need to spend $30K for a spectrum analyzer. For example, the HP 8565a spectrum analyzer usually goes from 10MHz to 22Ghz for $1500 to $3000 as long as you don't need HP-IB or storage. I've found that I don't use my ancient SA all that often. Mostly, I use an RF sweep generator and oscilloscope on the detector output. The key part is the directional couplers, VSWR bridge, and RF detector. Basically, I'm building a network analyzer in pieces without paying for the whole mess in one box. These are handy for antennas, filters, amps, and such. I recently picked up a Wiltron 0.1 to 4GHz sweeper for about $250. However, the necessary VSWR bridge will cost at least $200. I've also spend perhaps $200 on terminators, adapters, and cables.

Someone mentioned Wi-Spy. See:

$100 US, it's difficult to ignore. However, it's not really test equipment as there's no way to calibrate the device and has a rather poor dynamic range. I use it solely for interference detection and trashmitter hunting.

Build you own in stages. I had illusions of doing that, but helping the locals do it is more fun and easier on my budget. One high skool student is well on his way building a robot golf caddy. Say the name of the club (i.e. 9 iron) and it would hand you the 9 iron. It also can wash the golf balls, follow the owner, and find lost golf balls. I helped build the direction finder system (which barely works). My guess is $6,000 burned so far, with no end in sight.

You're already over $200. There are various Linux and Windoze "notebook" size computers that will do what you want. I have a Sony Picturebook and a Panasonic CF-M34. Both are fairly portable, wireless, and useful. However, the tiny keyboard is a problem. I find myself typing with one finger simply because the keys are too small to type normally. The plan was to use both exclusively for email. Bad idea due to typing difficulties. I think "word processing" and "notebook size keyboard" are mutually exclusive.

If you've overpaid for you cell phone plan, then of course Skype is rather of limited value. Perhaps if you made long distance calls, it might be more useful. I have my laptop (of the month) setup for Skype, which gets used occasionally instead of the cell phone. The major application is that Verizon gets overloaded during commute hours and sends all incoming calls to voice mail. It's not unusual to have the notification of voice mail arrive about an hour later. So, if I'm at a customers with wireless during commute hours, I fire up the laptop, and login to Skype, GizmoProject, and GAIM. It's become amazingly useful as a cell phone alternative, mostly to arrange dinner.

If you really have an almost unlimited phone plan, you might think of getting a docking station for the phone. Plug in a bunch of ordinary phones, cordless phones, or VoIP, and you can pickup your calls without dragging your phone around with you.

Web cams can have other uses if you have something interesting to watch. (Hint: Something that changes). Use your imagination.

Yawn, boring. I guess it will have to do. There are plenty of wireless devices I would want that don't exist.

1. Wireless multimedia extension. 8+ channels of audio plus switching in both directions via an external transparent bridge (or over the internet). Kinda like SqueezeBox but flexible enough to be used for anything from telephony to 5.1 Hi-Fi.
2. Wireless Video for LCD monitors and HDTV. Wireless USB and UWB was suppose to do this eventually. I wannit now.
3. Mobile server with Wi-Fi connectivity. If you leave your vehicle within line of sight of your PDA, you can store all your junk in the vehicle server. See if:
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   you any ideas. Look at the photos of what various people have done:
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   do something like this now by having my laptop in the car replicate with my office computer via Wi-Fi.
4. Wi-Fi logger. Kinda like an imbedded version of Netstumbler. Includes a GPS and Wi-Fi detector. You wear it all day while it collects data. Plug it into your PC later, and it produces a map of all the access points and junk it hears. Eventually, you have your neighborhood or office building mapped out.
5. More but I wanna save those for paying projects...

Hi,

Thanks. Good stuff! I do read all replies, even when time doesn't allow me to get back right away..