Electronics > Electronics

Bluetooth R/C Car... But Adapter and Mini SSC II not talking

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Gertlex:
Hello people... this place seems awesome (I like the smilies too) 8)

First, if you'd like pictures of the project, see here:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Eerelson/BluetoothCar.html
(I'm a few steps behind on the pictures... but not much)

I got the last part I needed for this project of mine today: the bluetooth adapter.  Specifically: IOGEAR Bluetooth to Serial Adapter GBS301 (class 1, Bluetooth 1.1)

I can successfully connect my laptop (built in bluetooth, Dell Wireless 355 Module; Bluetooth 2.0; don't know what class).  I get the windows just like on Sparkfun's guide. And of course, I've read the SOR guide.

I can control the car fine with a serial cable connection to my desktop.

I'm using Seetron's Mini SSC II, with three HS-422 servos.  9600 baud, 180? of motion.  Programming with visual basic 6, using the .DLL file provided by Seetron. (VB 2005 .NET didn't work with the DLL).

I've verified that the baud rate on the adapter is 9600... though I'll be testing 2400 this evening, out of desperation.

Same results both with supplied AC adapter, and with ~5.3-5.4V DC that will be used on the car.  Likewise, I verified polarity of the battery supply and AC adapter before plugging in to the battery supply...

I lack the experience to test the adapter with another device or computer.  If anyone can tell me/point me to how to connect my laptop and desktop, and just send a text message, i.e. via command prompt-style interface, using a bluetooth serial connection, that would be great.

One point of interest, for anyone familiar with the MiniSSC, is that for my adapter from telephone to serial cables, Green wire goes to Serial 2, Yellow to Serial 5.  This is different than what the product info from Seetron states: Green -> 3, Yellow ->5.  I had to do this to get the serial cable working.  Does anyone know why?  I expected that I'd have to do this with the bluetooth connection, after reading the following guide, though: http://alex.seewald.at/BlueCar/

Anyone have relevant experience with this? Anything else I can give you info about? (that's relevant to this problem :P )

Thanks,
-Gertlex
P.S. Yes, this is my first full-scale robot work... But i've got bits and pieces of experience from other stuff.  The bluetooth is the *only* thing holding me up right now :/

dunk:
hi Gertlex,
so the first thing i would do is verify your bluetooth link is operating as a serial link.
the easiest way to do this is with a loopback on the remote end.

to do this, power up your bluetooth to serial adapter. connect together pins 2 and 3 on the 9 pin DB9 connector.
now open up mincom (or another piece of terminal software) on your computer. make sure the baud rate is set to the same as your bluetooth to serial adapter and connect to whichever com port your computer's bluetooth is appearing as.
make sure no flow control is selected.

now, when you type in minicom, the characters should go over the bluetooth link to the bluetooth to serial adapter, out pin 3 on the DB9 connector and back into pin 2 (because you have pins 2 and 3 connected), back over the bluetooth link and appear on your screen.
if what you type is echoed back to the screen your blutooth link is working.

let us know how you get on.

dunk.

Gertlex:
I can't find mincom on my computer, and am having ambiguous results with google (but still looking). EDIT: Ok, now I see you called it minicom the second time around. Looking for that now... EDIT2: OK. I'm having zero luck finding an executable i can use for this... :( Link please?

I've seen the thing about no flow control before (in the guide I linked).  For advanced configuration (using hyperterminal), the manual shows a screenshot for the setupup of the HT connection with the Flow Control: Hardware. Other options here are on and off, I think... but that shouldn't be what I'm looking for, since that spot doesn't change the adapter in any way.
Here's the manual... Page 26 has the screenshot I referred to.

Listed various places: "Supports RTS/CTS Hardware flow control"

dunk:
ooo, sorry.
you don't want minicom.
you want hyperterminal. hyperterminal is the windows one.
my bad.

dunk.

dunk:

--- Quote ---Listed various places: "Supports RTS/CTS Hardware flow control"
--- End quote ---
the bluetooth to serial adapter may support flow control but the servo controller does not.
you do not want to use flow control.

dunk.

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