Here's an overview of the procedure for working with Bluetooth.
- Enable Bluetooth on your computer
- Turn on the robot
- Find and connect to the robot's adapter
- ...
- Profit!
The following instructions appear long, but they are mainly just verbose. After your operating system is configured for the USB adapter, the rest of the steps should take at most 5 minutes.
Enabling Bluetooth on your computer(Windows).
Follow the instructions that come with the MSI adapter. It is possible to use the Windows XP
drivers, but in my experience the MSI drivers work better. When this is all complete, you should
have a small Bluetooth logo(like the image at the top of the page) in your system tray.
If you have a built-in adapter, you can try using that, although I can't troubleshoot problems
with it.
Turn on the robot
When you flip the silver power switch, the additional microprocessor and Bluetooth adapter are powered up.
The green LED's on the robot and adapter will light up. If they do not light up, the first step is to make
sure that you have selected an appropriate power source. If you are using batteries, make sure that all of
the batteries are in place. If you are using wall power, make sure that everything is plugged in. If you
are still getting no response from the robot, e-mail me. The robots were all tested on 11/15, so they should
still be working.
Find and connect to the robot's adapter(Windows)
Now, the robot's Bluetooth adapter is on, and the computer's adapter is on. Right click on the Bluetooth
icon in the system tray, and choose "Explore my Bluetooth Places".
There are several options here that
you can play around with. Open the "Bluetooth Setup Wizard" and select "I want to find a specific Bluetooth
device and configure how this computer will use its services"(usually the second option). Hit Next. Now,
the computer will start searching for Bluetooth devices. You should eventually see the name of your robot
here.
(If you do not see anything, hit "Search again". If you still don't see anything, make sure that everything
is still powered up. If this fails, restart Windows. If you are still having problems, contact me.)
At this point, the computer has found your robot. Select the robot and hit "Next". You will most likely
be asked for a PIN for the robot. The PIN is 1234 for all robots. Hit "Initiate Pairing".
Now, you will be given a list of services that the Bluetooth adapter provides. Check "Serial", and you will
be given a configuration screen. This will let you change the name of the connection, and the serial port
number that the connection will be assigned. Write down the COM number, as this is what you will use in
your code to connect to the robot. Hit "Ok" and "Next", and then you're done.
Connecting to the robot for normal use
The previous steps only need to be completed once for each computer that will be communicating with the robot.
For normal use, go to "Explore My Bluetooth Places", right click on the robot connection, and click "Connect".
Some magic will happen, the icon will change to display "Connected" and the COM number for the connection. You
will also notice that the Bluetooth logo in the system tray will turn yellow. Now you are ready to roll.
It looks like this connection will be automatically closed after a certain period of inactivity(few minutes).
However, I think that the connection will be automatically reopened when you run your code, so there is no need
to manually renable the connection. Let me know if this is not the case.