Need Help regarding BlueSmirf and RCB3.

[shsan]

I have been trying for the past 3 days to hook a Bluetooth BlueSmirf module to the KHR2.

So far it's not good. But at least I know why.

I have created a page describing what I have done so far.

http://www.lessieux.com/mywiki/index.ph ... tooth_KHR2

If someone with some electronic background could take a look at the oscilloscope screenshots and give me any clue as to what is going wrong that would be greatly appreciated.

I am sure that I am quite close but there is probably something I have not done correctly.

My current setup is simple.
A 7805 to regulate the 10.8V into 5V used to power the BlueSmirf.
The same 5V power a 74HC04AP to invert the signals from and to the RCB3.
And that's it.
I am using a Switching power supply set at 10.8V for the tests and not the battery.
I have also linked all the unused inputs of the 74HC04 for the VCC.

shsan.

[shsan]

Well.

I can now certify that the BlueSmirf module do no like 11V...

I made an error and plugged the cable in the wrong place by 1 pin on my breadboard and BANG...

The Bluesmirf went in smoke... It might have been damaged before because of the strange signal I had with it alone already.

Oh well. Some things are perhaps not meant to be...

But I think we got an clearer idea of what's needed. A bluesmirf, inversion of the signals before passing to/from the RCB3.

The only question remaining is do we need to power the bluesmirf in 3.3V or 5V.

shsan

[PaulP]

Sorry to hear that, Not good.

Looking at the images there are some strange occurances in the normal configuration.

Sorry if this bit is obvious to you but to try and explain what i'm seeing..

$0Dh is 00001101 binary.

This is sent LSB first so 10110000.

add a 0 start bit and you get 010110000 which in your loopback image is spot on. The Stop bit is a 1 so only shows as a tiny glitch straight after the final 0. Hi Volt being 0 and Low Volt being 1.

On the first image, the working USB link, you can see the same pattern but followed by what looks like 0100 which shouldn't be there.

You can also see the RCB pulsing 0's at the beginning of its Tx before the actual data starts. There must be something in the USB module to filter that out.

The second image where tx and rx appear to be happening together. Firstly, are you using one of those plugin prototyping boards as they have terrible in-built capacitance. Comms hates them. I've seen things like that happen on a perfectly good circuit that worked fine when assembled on PCB.

[shsan]

I was wondering about the breadboard too.

Well I'll see with the next module. I'll be way more careful this time.
As for the first graph, I am not sure that it was sending a 0xD so I am not sure that we can compare it with the other graphs.

Since the capture is done on a trigger in emission the normal RCB3-USB will send a stream of command and I might get only the last character or command of the stream, so it's likely not a 0xD.

I'll try to assemble something next time instead of using the board.

I'll probably receive the module monday or so (well it's shipped already but I would be really surprised if it arrives before).

So more news next week.

[PaulP]

Good luck with it...

I'll be watching to see how you go with it as I'm considering getting something myself at the moment.

Getting fed up of it being tethered and falling over its own cable.

[heke]

So do you use standard bluetooth (for example USB bluetooth-stick) on a PC side ? Then how do you tell H2H to use bluetooth instead of COM-port ?

Or did you put Bluesmirf on both ends ?

[shsan]

I have one BlueSmirf from Sparkfun and one common BlueTooth Dongle on the PC side.
When connected the BlueSmirf is seen as a virtual Com port. (COM9 in my case).

For H2H, you just select that com port.

But it's not working, I have not yet managed to have the BlueSmirf module talk properly to the RCB3. No idea what's wrong.

[ryann2k1]

I have one BlueSmirf from Sparkfun and one common BlueTooth Dongle on the PC side.
When connected the BlueSmirf is seen as a virtual Com port. (COM9 in my case).

For H2H, you just select that com port.

But it's not working, I have not yet managed to have the BlueSmirf module talk properly to the RCB3. No idea what's wrong.

Hi shsan..
I am facing also the same problem.but i know much about electronics so I do not broken my BlueSmirf.
So have you found out the conncetion of BlueSMirf?
please would you mind to share ?
Thank you

Regards

ryann2k1

[heke]

Ok, so the RS-232 port in bluesmirf is seen over the bluetooth connection as a standard com-port for the PC.

I am planning to use a standard bluetooth dongle on a PC and a similar RS-232 <-> bluetooth adapter which Meltdown has succesfully used with KHR-1 (in my case an adapter from www.sunix.com.tw , model BTS1009).

[shsan]

here is what I have found so far.

http://www.lessieux.com/mywiki/index.ph ... tooth_KHR2

I have done other tests yesterday but I have not put the results online yet.
Obviously it was negative again...

[ryann2k1]

Hi shsan,
First, Maybe I would like to inform that BlueSMiRF is only capable being supplied up to 10 volts, more than that it would damage the board.

Second, Since the PC is RS232 level, so I assume that we need to convert output from RCB-3 board(in my case, RCB-1)which is in TTL level to RS232 level. But I have not done this yet, since I am still waiting for a reply from the saprkfun company for reliable information. If my assumption is correct than this would be safe to do.

cheers

ryann2k1

[shsan]

First the BlueSmirf is not receiving or emitting RS232 level so you won't need to convert that way.
However the signals are inverted (see info on my page) compared with the RCB3.

[shsan]

And I know about the 10V max. Believe me I spent 1 week giving it some 5V until I plug my cable in the wrong place by mistake.

I have probably done tons of stuff wrong but I was at least giving it 5V (well except once

[ryann2k1]

wow...1 week..no wonder why you plug it into the wrong place.

Hopefully this link is useful
http://robosavvy.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

I am planning to use DB9 to USB adapter and see what would happen.


cheers

ryann2k1

[shsan]

It is an interesting route indeed.

If i had a RS232 cables and not the USB one. I don't remember seeing the KHR2 with an RS232 cable.