Introduction

BluSB is a Computer Engineering Senior Design project. Group 16 is advised by Professor Bruce McNair.

Objective

BluSB is a hybrid of a Bluetooth transceiver and a USB thumbdrive. The concept is to make a portable hard drive that can communicate through both mediums at high speeds with multiple users simultaneously.

Power Consumption

Original Bluetooth Release
Average current consumption: active: 45mA, idle: 15mA
Requires at least a AAA battery to power since a 3.0V lithium coin cell is only 20mA max.

Source: http://www.electronicsweekly.com

Bluetooth v2.1 Release
Average current consumption: active: 19.5mA, idle: 13.4mA

Source: http://www.st.com

USB 2.0
Allowed to draw 100mA, 500mA, 1A and now 6A at either 5V, 12V or 24V.

Methods and Implementation

The group plans to use the gumstix verdex XM4-bt evaluation board. The board has a built-in Bluetooth transeiver, memory, and microprocessor. This board is also Linux compatible and is programmable in C or C++. The group plans to use this evaluation board for the prototype device.

Current Progress

The group has created its development environment on a portable 4 GB flash drive and has started work on writing sample code for the GumStix board. Within the next few weeks, the group will order the evalution board to get started on the next phase on the project.