- Wed Apr 12, 2017 5:07 pm
#64893
OK:
We have developed a portable (battery powered) data collection equipment to be used in the field and it has to communicate with an Android tablet used as front end (GUI) for the equipment.
Currently we use a commercial WiFi module we have put on a board of our own and configured to implement a WiFi Access Point to which the tablet connects.
Then our App on the tablet will open a TCP port (2101 I think it is) on the WiFi module to control the equipment and download data from the system. The WiFi module is connected to the equipment using RS232 at 38400 baud. So port 2101 just transfers data between the network and RS232 without doing anything with the passing data. This works OK as it is right now.
The problem here is that all the time our tablet connects to the equipment AP it
instantly loses Internet connectivity so the data retrieved cannot be forwarded to the home server for processing.
My hope is that WiFi Direct could be used since by what I have read it implies that the Android device does
not lose the Internet connection via mobile broadband in the process.
Can the ESP8266 do this?
If so is there some sample project available to study?
--
Bo B
Sweden