Internet share over IrDA

Hi,

I'm new to this forum, and didn't find where i can post tutorial, so i'm posting it here. Small tutorial about how to use Laptop/RaspberryPI device as a gateway to share internet over irDA to PDAs. Maybe someone find this useful

I have to say this looks really interesting! I need to see if I can somehow find an IRDA adapter for my RasPi to try this

@e1z0 the reason why you cannot log-in is because your mailbox is full. Every message we send to you is being replied to by your mail provider with:

Big thanks, got some problems with my email, but now it's fine, thank you again!

It's a good tutorial by the way

A fine piece; thank you for putting together such a thorough write-up. I'm also intrigued by your untested UIR-33 adapter. I've had bad luck trying to find adapters that work in virtual XP. Where did you buy that, from Gembird?

Jake

Thanks



I've bought it from the local reseller, there are distributors list, i think they are making these for the industrial needs. It's really hard to find IrDA adapter nowadays. I have also found another one on ebay (already in transit).

I have plans to combine it with RaspberryPI Zero W with batteries/case and other required equipment, to make it more portable. It will act as wifi-to-irda bridge, with web based management to make it easy to use. I though i can make esp8266/esp32 microcontroller based wifi-to-irda bridge but there are no software/library pppd implementation to do that and designing all from scratch will take a lot of time, so RaspberryPI Zero W would be much easier. Also additional features can be added later, like sharing internet over Bluetooth and so on.

@e1z0 -- thanks for the heads-up. If/when you get the UIR-33, I'd love to hear how it works. Doesn't seem to be available for sale on my side of the pond, so the s/h would be considerable. Also, would love to hear model and efficacy of your ebay-ed adapter.

Jake

Hello, i have received the device, unfortunately it does not seem to work even on the older kernel. The drivers i found is only for 2.4 kernel. Besides that it reports the incorrect device product id: 7703 should be 7784 (it's seen trough the plastic case, the name of the chip). I have started to port it it to the Linux Kernel 5.x using out of tree irda repo. I've achieved that the device is being detected on the system and initialised, only networking part was left, when i received the new adapter. So i put on hold further development because another device works like charm, looks like this. I bought it from ebay and there are more than 10 available (no it's not some kind of affiliate). I can confirm it is working fine on Linux Kernel 5.15.25. I'm now working on some portable device (OrangePI based) that will allow me to use IrDA internet sharing in more portable way.

Here's the HPC Factor affiliate link!

I just bought one

I have also bought another one, it uses mcp2120 chip, they also have standard USB irDA Transceiver. As soon as it arrives i will test it also. Just remember that the adapter from ebay can only use 9600 baud at maximum, I thought I could make it work faster, but I couldn't.

I can confirm that the PiHat board from irdroid does not work as expected, the speeds are locked to 9600 baud rate, even the seller was unable to provide any required information to make it work with higher speeds and it does not seem to work with ircomm protocol which is required for ppp to work. As i understand correctly they use the same chip on their all devices so the same behaviour more likely to accour on all their devices. I'm now bought another two IrDA adapters which are Actisys ACT-IR100UD (USB) and Tekram IRmate IR-210B (RS232/Serial). I've also experimenting in standalone device which acts like Wifi->IrDA bridge it's open to everyone at github and you can build one yourself.

Thank you so much for keeping us up-to-date. I am following your efforts with great interest and have fingers crossed that you find a working one at last.

Jake

Hi, the Tekram IRmate IR-210B (RS232/Serial) is just arrived and it does not go beyond the 9600 too. Waiting for another dongle. Until i wait i have made some improvements in my IrDA Box device now it supports Obex file transfers, it should make much more easier to transfer files to HPC or portable device. It's controlled by the web user interface, i have made video in action to show how easy it does the job.