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Tue, 06 Mar 2007
WiFi ... the saga continues
If we had this to do over again, we should have committed to supporting the Lantronix WiPort after successfully testing it back in September. It still has the issues of requiring a special connector / breakout board and 3.3V regulator, so while the module costs $129, the extra components bring the total up to about $150. However, the WiPort works, the data rate is good, and it is in volume production. Until finding an alternative module that exactly matches our spec (5V, internal antenna, 4-wire 921kbps interface, sub-$80 cost, volume production), the WiPort would have satisfied most customer requirements for WiFi functionality. Of course, that is the benefit of having perfect 20:20 hindsight.
There are some new products coming to market in the next 3-6 months that will match our requirements, but we need to offer an interim solution. At this point, the most likely scenario is that we will build an adapter board with 3.3V voltage regulator to host the WiPort, or we will offer a lower data rate module such as the ConnectOne Socket iWiFi (230kbps) or the DataHunter Mini-B (115kbps) that don't require an adapter board. We have actual samples of the ConnectOne and DataHunter modules in route, so I am hopeful we can make a final decision on this shortly.
Posted Tue, 06 Mar 2007 17:29 | HTML Link | see additional stories ...