USB HID to Bluetooth Bridge?

Brainiac Bar
#1

I run an open source project to read data from an insulin pump using a Contour Next Link 2.4 USB HID device.

At the moment I’m using a USB OTG cable to connect the Contour Next Link to an Android phone.

I’m wondering whether there is such a thing as a USB HID to Bluetooth bridge. I’m guessing that some kind of battery would also be needed, since the device is powered over USB.

I’m primarily interested in this because some users are having issues with the USB cable being knocked out over the course of the day. Secondarily, the solution is currently limited to Android only, and I’d also like to be able to support iOS.

#2

Nothing seems to match exactly.

I’ve had a look through the “USB host” boards at Little Bird Electronics, but the only ones that have Bluetooth included are the Raspberry Pi 3. There’s also the BeagleBone Black Wireless, recently announced, but not yet listed.

But Raspberry Pi 3 and BeagleBone are a bit power hungry, and given your power constraints, my guess is you’d need to go for an ARM CPU of some sort with USB host and a BLE module.

For the other USB host boards, you would have to add a Bluetooth module.

#3

Hi,
Dropped you a message on LinkedIn. I’m T1D/640G/Contour user. Do you have a preference for microcontroller? Potentially an Atmel device based around an Arduino platform might be appropriate linking to a favourite Bluetooth chipset.
This is all relatively cheap and easy to design, but does require some guidance from you on exactly what would make things easiest and best for the application.
Drop me a note and we can get our heads together to come up with something.
Simon.