I have the following problem/idea:
I have a electronics workbench and a separate PC desk. Now I have a USB HUB on the workbench, but it doesn't properly work, because the USB-cable to the pc is too long. My setup doesnt really allow me to put the PC somewhere else and the USB-hub is already mounted in the closest usable location.
A few days ago I remembered that I have a arduino nano with a hc-05 bluetooth module attached to its hardware serial port. And as both bluetooth and USB are serial connections I was wondering if I couldn't use the arduino sort of as a middle man and connect the arduino via bluetooth to the pc. Then have a software on the pc that registers the arduino as a USB hub with one port and run some code on the arduino that basically makes the arduino act as a USB host (I know that this is possible with the arduino nano) and have it just move data between the USB connection and the bluetooth module.
Im quite sure that all this should be possible. The atmega should even be capable of doing so at or close to maximum USB 2.0 data rates as that is only 12 Mbit/s and it can run at 16 MHz when powered with 5V. Im not quite sure about the maximum data rate for the bluetooth module though, but I can work with a little lower speeds...
The software for the pc could also be relatively straight forward. Something like a virtual USB-port and the software just shifting data from the com-port that is the bluetooth to this virtual USB-port.
So thats the idea. I have some experience in both programming microcontrollers and software for pc.
So what I need is a bit of help with this, as I am not quite sure how to accomplish this.
The parts that I will need the most help with are going to be the programming of the USB host on the arduino and the virtual USB-port on the pc.
The rest should be relatively easy as its basically just shifting data from one register into another.
as both bluetooth and USB are serial connections
well, yes, they are both serial, but saying they are anything even remotely alike is like saying that an elephant and a bicycle are similar because they both move forwards and backwards.