Hi everyone,
I am fairly new to arduino so forgive me if something doesnt make sense.
I am wondering if the usb host sheild or mega adk are beneficial for my needs or if what i am trying to do is not feasible. I am currently working on a project using a pn532 rfid reader and an arduino uno. The goal in this is to eventually use multiple readers and have them communicate with a mobile game i am making in unreal engine. Unfortunately there is not a way i know of to enable serial communication in unreal for mobile devices without some custom coding. I do however have a plug-in that gives unreal access to the phones built in NFC reader, this has worked so far on the app end where i can scan cards to my phone and trigger things in the game. I have the pn532 all set up and it reads information in the serial monitor in the IDE and in serial monitor app i installed but only in those environments.
My goal however is to use multiple readers in the end so just the phone reader wont work. So theres really a few questions here:
- What is the difference between the host sheild and the mega adk?
- Would either allow me to essentially create an external rfid reader that can plug into the phone and work as if it is the built in one?
- Is it possible to send information between the phone and arduino without needing the serial/com open?
To give some extera context on question 2, the ideal solution is to not require any additional software support for the information read by the pn532. Ideally it should connect to the phone via usb or bluetooth and work like any other peripheral. Essentially the same way as if you were to connect a keyboard, mouse, or game controller to your phone andbe able to just use them.
Is this even possible to do or will i need to find a way to always open the serial port on my phone when using the reader?