Smartphone to impee... are you there? (cloudless days)

I am working on a product that I REALLY want to make imp ready. However, I envision a select few customers that would like smartphone (tablet, notebook) control when internet access is not possible/convenient. For this, as far as I know, one thinks of adhoc mode. I understand that the imp is levels above this, but is it possible for a smartphone to control/monitor an impee without the internet being available? I believe that the smartphone could be configured as a hotspot to bring the cloud back, but if a user only wants to send/receive a few bytes to/from my product occasionally, $30/month for a hotspot is excessive. Please lend solutions so that I can go forth with my impee!!

I’m afraid there’s really no way around it - that’s how the imp works. As you noted, users who have a hotspot on their phones will have no problem, but you need internet-connected wifi for the imp to work in a connected fashion.

Would a limited functionality virtual imp server running in the smartphone be possible/practical? I understand and share your vision for the internet of things, but an omnipresent internet is still a dream.

If you have AP mode on your phone, you tend to have the internet connection too. No plans for a smartphone-based server, no.

If you’re looking for a smartphone-centric interface then really Bluetooth 4.0 is the way to go (4.0 allows you to sidestep apple’s accessory approval stuff). BlueGiga have some good modules for that, I hear.

I am most certainly wanting a smartphone-centric interface (SCI ? :-O), but one with internet connectivity and the range of a good wifi radio. Bluetooth fails both these requirements. I am leaning towards requiring internet for my product, so that I may continue my imp ready dev, but my competitor supports both adhoc and infrastructure web server from their product, although the infrastructure mode is soooo difficult to configure. I appreciate your advice and will look at AP mode.

AP mode = Access Point mode = hotspot, I think. The subset of customers I worry about presumably do not have this feature enabled on their phones as it costs $30/month on some carriers.

Correct, AP = hotspot in this context. You could do both (using a BT4.0 module and an imp - the imp could run the processing for the BT4.0 link)…

I have exactly no idea how common this is, but I know several people who have wifi hotspots in their cabins so they can connect devices, but don’t actually have internet access.

I also know filmmakers who do the same thing, but deliberately don’t connect out to the net in general for security reasons.

There are so many industrial applications that require a closed network, not just for security reasons, but for performance reliability. This is where an internal imp server would be awesome. Please either release the server to open source or provide an protocol specification so someone can build their own.

Sorry, the server is proprietary and will not be released as open source. There will be enterprise server options which allow devices to use a local server around the end of 2013.