[Bluez-users] Will this work?

[Oli Ellis <oliver.ellis@ntlworld.com>]

I am looking into feasability of building a bluetooth-based item that 
could be controlled easily from any pc (mostly with linux) for the 
purposes of home automation, and I have come upon several bluetooth 
dongles with serial ports on them (for example this one: 
http://www.socketcom.com/product/CS0400-479.asp), claiming to support 
General Access Profile, Service Discovery Profile and Serial Port**** 
profiles, as well as driverless operation with any serial device 
(configuration can be done via AT commands).

Obviously no-one will know the specifics of this particular device, but 
in principle, with the tools that are available under linux at the 
moment, would it be possible to establish a connection to the device and 
then send data to it just like an attached serial device? I understand 
that serial emulation is available under the bluez package, but how far 
does it go? Can one control individual pins, or is it just as a stream 
of bytes? My primary idea is to use it inside something like a lamp so 
that, for example,  the brightness can be controlled, or a coffee 
machine, or anything.

And if it is possible, is it also sensible to do it in this way? I 
understand that bluetooth chips are down to ~$5 (US), but this item is 
going for ~$170 (US). It there a more cost-effective way of talking to a 
number of bluetooth devices?

Sorry for the long post, and many thanks for any thoughts you might have

-Oli **


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