BlueSmirf gold problems

I received the BT BlueSMirf gold module yesterday. I shorted CTS/RTS on the module. I have been able to communicate to it via BT with the LYNX terminal. I have been able to brick it and bring it back by the PIO4 trick (solder a flying wire to PIO4 and touch it to 3.3V at boot then touch/disconnect 3 times to fully reset the BlueSmirf). I have tried SM,3 and SM,4 and those also did not seem to work.

The problem I am having is most probably due to my poor understanding of what I want to tell the BlueSMirf to do. The BT module is connected to a Freescale based controller. I removed the MAX232 chip and have connected the bluesmirf in its place. I have paired the BT module to the laptop using the XP SP2 pairing. Under devices, the firefly shows up. I get 2 serial ports:

COM14 Outgoing FireFly-D395 ‘SPP’

COM15 Incoming FireFly-D395

I can get into its configuration via BT using the LYNX terminal program on COM14 by typing $$$ before time out. I can then set it back to ‘data mode’ by issuing —. At this point, XP sees the Com port but my software program will / can not communicate via this port. If I fire up LYNX term and connect, it connects to the BlueSMirf and lights the green led. If I disconnect, the led goes out. If I fire up the software that I talk to this controller with, nothing happens. It cannot issue any commands and gets nothing back over this BT link.

Does it have to do with the Mode it is in? What MODE do I want it to be in? The Freescale controller has bidirectional communication TX and RX. Any help appreciated.

Keith

i have same proble…

and in additional i m not getting any incoming port…

i m just getting one outgoing port…

any body is there who can help us…

pls… reply someone…

I may be able to help, my Blue Smirf is up an running at least half way, that is I am sending data wireless from a bs2px to to my computer.

Thanks, Dan

Ok, between the documentation on the site, the ‘howto’ and reading the RN-41 documentation, I was able to get this to work. I did note some weirdness, though.

Personally, I like setting it to SM,3 mode. This way it will be ‘pre-paired’ with a certain mac address on the computer. If you change computers, you just have to pair again and it will function. Also in this mode, it is high speed with no overhead and it is just acting as a serial cable. I was able to get it to work like this with a BT dongle I also got from SparkFun on 3 different computers. So far so good. The only weird bit is that the windows BT applet (and the 3rd party applets, too) identify 2 ports on the RN-41. In my case it was com3 - SPP and com4. What I noticed was that in SM,0, the port that is used for communications is com3-SPP. When in SM,3 mode, the port that is being used is com4. Now, the identification of these ports (comX) will be dependent on how many serial ports are already set up on your machine but it seems consistent that the lowest number port is the SM,0 port and the higher number port is the one used in SM,3 mode these modes are well covered in the RN-41 ducumentation.

I have not been able to get the RN-41 to do anything useful in Linux (Ubuntu 9.10) and am looking for any help getting it top work. I have used Blueman to pair and set up the com port (/dev/rfcomm0) but when I try to connect, I get some hci errors and the blueman applet goes grey and nothing works. I would love to have thius working under Linux and would be happy just to use the command line to do it. I have not been able to get it to report to teh command line any services (sdptool -browse), though, and without this, it is difficult to say what is going on.

KeithG

Keith, looks like you learned a lot about the Blue Smirf! I have been using this module in a roundabout way for a year or so; at work we purchased several SerialIO Bluesnap Bluetooth serial adapters which use the RN21 and work quite well. Although the Bluesnap devices are kinda expensive, we love using them for the field work we do; their reliability and the battery life are fantastic. Although I dont know anything about linux, one of the guys I work with loves linux and he wrote some software that interfaces to the RN21 BlueSnap module. I will check with him tomorrow to see if he can give me some info that will help you out.

Dan

Keith, I know this is a bit cryptic but hopefully you will understand cuz I dont know anything about Linux. This is what I received from my co-worker:

$ cat /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf # show my bluez setup. This portion I know is for the automatic pairing where the Device is the Blue Smirf ID

rfcomm0 {

bind yes;

device 00:11:22:33:44:55;

}

$ rfcomm connect 0 & # start up bluez stack

$ minicom # set up for /dev/rfcomm0. And this I beleive is the Terminal Program

Dan

Not cryptic at all. I was able to get a response this time. I had tried it before, but something else must’ve been wrong. Tell your friend thanks!

KeithG

hi friends…

i have still some problem i can’t access the setting of bluesmirf gold…

can anybody explain the whole process?

thanks in advance…

Here is how it should work:

  1. When you power up the Smirf the red LED should blink fast for 60 seconds with the green LED off

  2. After that the red LED should blink slow with the green LED off

  3. Establish a Bluetooth connection to the Smirf by connecting to it using the software that was installed when you installed your bluetooth dongle or using the built in windows software

  4. Now you can establish a Serial Connection to the Smirf by opening its outgoing port number by any means for example opening a session of “HyperTerminal”

  5. Once you open the Com Port in HyperTerminal you the red LED should go out and the green LED will light

  6. “Command” Mode can be entered by typing $$$ with no CRLF (Note: You only have 60 Seconds from the time you power up the module to the time you send the $$$ or you will not be able to enter into “Command” Mode, also the Baud rate of your HyperTerminal connection must match the Smirfs Baud rate. If you have never changed the baud rate the default is 115.2K)

  7. At this point the Green LED should be lit and the Red LED should be blinking fast. You will also see the following in your HyperTerminal Window"

$$$CMD

  1. Typing “d” and Enter will display the Smirf Settings

Settings

BTA=00066602CE4A

BTName=FireFly-CE4A

Baudrt=19.2

Parity=None

Mode =Slav

Authen=0

Encryp=0

PinCod=1234

Bonded=0

Rem=NONE SET

  1. Check the documentation on how to set the Baud Rate and other settings

10.To exit “Command” Mode type “—” and Enter and you will see the following in your HyperTerminal Window:


END

  1. Note when using “Set Commands” they will not take effect until after a reboot of the Smirf

Dan

thnaks danhartong1…

most things are done by me…

only one mistake is there and that is my baud rate is 9600…

i will try with 115.2K then if i have any question, i will ask…

may be it will works with this baud rate…

thanks…

Hello

thanks to all

after long time my device is working properly with all functions…

specially thanks to danhartong1

thank you very much…

everything is working with danhartong1 information…