Downloading data to a PIC micro from the web

Question

I have a client that would like a small PIC board that plugs into a PC's USB as a dongle in HID mode. It would basically just transfer small amounts of data over RF to another device across the room. They would like the data to come from the web. ie. user clicks a link in their browser which wakes up the PIC board and begins a download to the PIC device without the need for another application to visibly popup in front of the user.

I would think this can't be done without the setting up the browser preferences and assigning a custom application to recognize the data file. The security issues with a link initiating this kind of flow of events must be too great unless I'm missing something. Has anyone done something like what I described above?

Answer 1

Yeah that sequence of events doesn't seem too kosher. Perhaps a browser plugin or a program running on the PC that handles communication between the PIC and web would be better?

Answer 2

You could write a small piece of software that runs in the background on the PC (e.g. a Windows service), and:

• Interfaces to the PIC device via USB
• Provides a web interface on port 80 or probably some other port, which the browser can then connect to.

If the PIC device is network connected (e.g. has an Ethernet connection, and its own IP address on the network) then the PIC device could provide a web interface to control it. I don't know how feasible it is to fit a small web server onto a PIC though--that would be a tight fit.