Bluetooth Mate Gold not working with LilyPad

Development Boards Arduino
1

Hi,

I try to use a Bluetooth Mate Gold with a LilyPad 328. I plugged it like this:

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http://dlnmh9ip6v2uc.cloudfront.net/ima … 358-04.jpg

I soldered the bluetooth board to a 6-pin right aangle connector as suggested on the board page:

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9429

I powered the board with this battery (3.7V):

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8483

But I also tried with the 5V or 3.3V of an Arduino Uno board.

My problem is that no light turns on on the bluetooth board. The Lilypad leds blinks when I turn the power on, but not the bluetooth one. I try to follow this tutorial without any success: http://www.jhwarren.com/bluetooth-mate/

I don’t think it is a matter of bluetooth dongle since it seems I cannot even get it powered. Do you think my bluetooth board is broken? I hope not, it’s brand new. :oops:

Can anyone give me help or advices?

Thank you

2

OK, seems that the bluetooth mate was defective. Sparkfun replaced it and it works fine now.

I had two other problems that I solved:

Pb 1) The board only worked if the Lilypad board was powered with 5V.

Solution: it appeared that the board didn’t get enough current. This is because I only used one thread, but the resistance is not negligible, even on a few centimeters. I used this thread: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8544 the specification says 82 Ohms per foot. I had between 30 Ohms and 50 Ohms on around 7cm. I solved this by sewing several threads. Now I have less than 10 Ohms and it works. However I consider using a less resistive thread for parts that need more power (http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8549)

Pb 2) When I read or wrote through the serial port (after pairing, creating the COM port etc.) I got crap characters. For example instead of reading “test” I read “àààààààààààà”.

Solution: the speed rate was not appropriate. Using the FTDI or the serial cable I had to use 19200 bauds. I thought it was the maximum speed supported by Lilypad. I tried 115200 bauds and it worked fine. Looks like it’s the default speed for the bluetooth mate.

So everything is fine. Hope this could help some people in the future.