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Baby Bluetooth

by Nate |

August 3, 2009 |

The final class of the SparkFun summer semester is tonight! Come join us for a class on selling your widget!

http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorial/Baby-Bluetooth/BT-USB-1-M.jpg

I'm not sure if you've seen these little jobbers on the market. It's an itty-bitty Bluetooth dongle meant for laptops. Above, you can see the small nub sticking out of the side of my HP Mini 1000, which absolutely rocks, but does not have Bluetooth built in.

http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorial/Baby-Bluetooth/BT-USB-2-M.jpg

Depending on where you buy, these little guys range from a few dollars to $50! But what is the world could be tightly packed underneath that little cover?

http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorial/Baby-Bluetooth/BT-USB-0-M.jpg

They must have folded the PCB, stacked the dies, used a mechanical turk inside or managed some sort of magic. That's just amazing!

http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorial/Baby-Bluetooth/BT-USB-3-M.jpg

I figured the entire thing would have been one potted glob of black resin, but with a handy razor blade, the housing split open surprisingly easily. That is one heck of a PCB trace antenna (2.4GHz).

http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorial/Baby-Bluetooth/BT-USB-4-M.jpg

The engineering was surprisingly good! The PCB slides inside the small metal housing, that acts as the USB connector and doubles as an RF shield. Very sneaky. Here you can see the 12MHz crystal (for USB communication) and a simple 3-pin SMT voltage regulator (I assume 5V down to 3.3V). There is also a basic LED on this side of the PCB that barely lights up and can be seen through the smoky, semi-transparent housing.

http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorial/Baby-Bluetooth/BT-USB-5-M.jpg

And here's the magical all-in-one Bluetooth IC! AS3620QA is the IC. Not sure how much this actually has built into it, but it is pretty neat! All wireless technology should be so easy!

Comments

21 comments

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	by MarkP +2.6 \| August 3, 2009 at 10:12 AM 0
I wish they did similar for Wifi - would breathe new life in to older laptops!

	by scraimer +1.3 \| August 9, 2009 at 1:03 AM 0
What about this? http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/15/buffalos-802-11n-wifi-dongle-small-in-size-tiny-in-price/

	by Imroy +1.2 \| August 3, 2009 at 10:53 AM 0
I got one of these a few months ago to communicate with my mobile phone. I soon opened it up just like Nate did here. Pretty neat huh? Importantly, it works with Linux. Annoyingly, the light flashes whenever it has power, which includes when I have shutdown my computer. So I have to pull it out whenever I go to bed.

	by Nate \| August 3, 2009 at 11:08 AM
Hah! Bad blinky. You sure you don't want to just de-solder the LED? Won't take but a minute.

philba

+14

| August 3, 2009 at 2:32 PM

or a piece of electrician's plastic tape if you don't want to open it up.

I've notice a disturbing trend among devices - gratuitously bright LEDs. The blue ones are the worst. The blinking blue one on the wireless fob for Wii rockband is so fricking bright that you can read by it with the lights off and it continually distracts when watching the tube. I had to hack it. And the USB cell phone charger for my car has one that is so bright it's reflection is distracting at night.

	by R0B0T1CS +2.8 \| August 5, 2009 at 8:26 AM 0
I'm e-taping my wireless router some time today. The ... eight ~150mcd clear Blu LED's do a good job of turning my room into a blinky disco when I'm heading to bed.

	by jher +2.1 \| August 3, 2009 at 2:43 PM 0
Buffalo has a 16GB pen drive in a similar package: http://www.geekstuff4u.com/buffalo-16gb-5mm-thumbkey.html Logictech also uses the same package for wireless keyboard/mouse: http://www.techwithoutwires.com/50226711/logitech_wireless_mouse_with_mini_receiver.php

	by VoidMain +3.9 \| August 5, 2009 at 1:45 AM 0
So I thought I would buy two of those cute little 16gb devices listed in your post and found that two cost ¥ 25 960.00 = 273.54052 US$. $273 is a bit steep even for that small package. heh Did I miss the us pricing or something?

	by jher +2.1 \| August 6, 2009 at 11:01 AM 0
looks like there are some 8GB models for ~3500Y if you scroll down on that link. Still pricy but...

+2.3

| August 3, 2009 at 3:03 PM

Deal Extreme has several (including the above mentioned and a few packaged smaller)
http://www.dealextreme.com/products.dx/category.304~search.usb%20bluetooth
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12696
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11866

Of course if you want LONG range... http://www.aircable.net/host-xr.html

Or small for my embedded (the ESD200 series) - Sparkfun has modules but I think this is smaller and has pins: http://www.sena.com/products/industrial_bluetooth/index.php?tab_menu=ESD

	by Matthew +4.3 \| August 4, 2009 at 2:34 AM 0
Funny thing, i ordered three of these dongles about 5 days ago.

	by saccade +30 \| August 3, 2009 at 3:55 PM 0
Is it just me, or does that Bluetooth board look hand-soldered?

	by BobSomers +1.9 \| August 3, 2009 at 6:55 PM 0
I've used a similar sized adapter before, the GBU 421 made by IoGear. http://www.iogear.com/product/GBU421/ It works perfectly with Windows, Mac, and Linux for communication with the Wiimote using the default OS Bluetooth stack. No crazy Bluetooth drivers needed!

	by Matthew +4.3 \| August 4, 2009 at 2:33 AM 0
I always wondered what was inside one of those tiny bluetooth dongles. A search for the IC data sheet comes up with nothing :(

	by jher +2.1 \| August 6, 2009 at 10:58 AM 0
more on the logitech dongle... http://gizmodo.com/5329350/logitech-unifying-receiver-pairs-with-multiple-keyboards-and-mice-at-once/gallery/

	by jher +2.1 \| August 10, 2009 at 12:04 AM 0
found a new one http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news_details.php?id=18632

	by dontremember +1 \| August 13, 2009 at 12:32 AM 0
I was in Walmart recently and saw a dongle very similar to this bundled with a bluetooth mouse. The dongle is square, with rounded corners, but it doesn't protrude any further than this one.

	by Integrationwitharduino? +1 \| August 20, 2009 at 11:47 AM 0
Any idea on how to integrate this with arduino? I mean, would it be easy to interface this dongle with a micro controller? Arduino BT costs U$90. This dongle costs U$5 with free shipping. Thanks, Franklin Dattein

	by 3amsleep +1 \| December 14, 2009 at 0:40 AM 0
You can't. unless you come up with a miraculous way to make arduino act as a USB host... and then make it talk to the dongle... and then some. the cheapest way to get arduino talking over bluetooth is to use the Blue Smirf module =)

	by natanel +1.2 \| February 3, 2010 at 1:13 AM 0
try this page http://www.circuitsathome.com/products-page/arduino-shields/usb-host-shield-for-arduino

	by natanel +1.2 \| February 3, 2010 at 1:16 AM 0
I would like to use it on a board which is running with 9V battery. (every part connected to usb conector on this board will get 9V) can the on board SMT voltage regulator will handle 9V, is there any comapny to ask? thanks