SparkFun Forums 

Where electronics enthusiasts find answers.

All things pertaining to wireless and RF links
By bsculley
#22912
I just received my Bluetooth dongle and BlueSmirf module. After some fiddling around I got everything hooked up and talking (the light on the BlueSmirf turned from green to red, and the bluetooth software said it was paired, connected, etc.)

Problem is the smirf doesn't seem to be doing anything useful. I can't get it to respond to the +++<cr> sequence or any of the AT commands (using Hyper Terminal), and my remote device isn't able to send or receive data. I have jumpered the CTS/RTS terminals, but with a wire on the terminals, not solder.

Does anybody have an idea here? Or even a reliable way of testing the whole rig to see if it's operating properly or isolating any problems?

Any thoughts will be gratefully appreciated.

Thnaks, Bob
By dom44
#24082
did u manage to solve the problem? I am having the same problem and dont know what to do... :(
it was working fine on my old laptop, but the laptop got busted and i had to buy a new one, now when i test it with the same bluetooth dongle and the same bluesmirf circuit it does not work..... does not even respond to +++
By SnarkyFish
#24462
I just got my bluesmirf christmas present in and got some time to tinker with it. I initially saw the same kind of problem.

i tweaked my hyperterminal settings, and started seeing 'OK' responses from the smurf.

in the hyperterminal connection properties, click the settings tab, click the ASCII settings button, then check 'Echo typed characters locally'

not only will you be able to see the characters you're sending the little bugger, it's responses will suddenly start showing up as well.

(no clue why this did it for me.. )

good luck!
By sprior
#24963
I was having trouble getting my BlueSmirf to do anything. I had the RTS pin strapped to the CTS pin and was trying to connect using 9600,N,8,1 from Hyperterminal. Sending +++<CR> was getting no response. The only was I finally fixed this was by wrapping TX and RX together - then +++<CR> started working and I could use AT commands. If I had to hazard a guess, it would be that such commands are only recognized if they originate from the wired side of the device, not the wireless so wrapping TX and RX together fed those commands back into the wired side even though they originated via bluetooth.
By shaggy hiker
#25231
I appear to be having something like the same problem. I wrote a little program to talk to an OOPic through the BlueSmirf device. That appears to be working fine. However, when I use HyperTerminal to try to send AT commands to the device, behavior is as such:

When I first connect, if I send +++, I receive an OK. Not subsequent messages are responded to in any way, regardless of what they are. Also, the +++ will screw up any further communication through my custom program until I toggle the power for the OOPic. That latter part doesn't bother me, since I don't intend to do much with the AT commands. However, I want to reduce the power consumption (which I currently am reading to be only 10mA, which is less than the normal consumption I see in the documentation).

I have RTS jumped to CTS, and I tied the Tx and Rx together. At first, I thought the Tx - Rx tie actually did something, but I was fooling myself.

Are there any further suggestions?
By Fozzy0007
#25959
I was able to get the Bluesmirf and the OOPic-R to work. I haven't tried to use it with Hyperterm, but i do use Bluetooth in order to have my Windows Mobile device communicate with the OOPic. I also program the OOPic from my laptop using Bluetooth.

Feel free to check out my how-to at:
http://www.wimobot.com/Assembly.aspx
and go to the section marked "Hooking up Bluetooth"

Hope that helps,
Brian
By pelrun
#26026
I've been successfully configuring my Bluesmirf's over bluetooth with no problems without having to connect rx/tx; in fact I'm not sure I can use that trick because mine are from the batch of cheap test-failed units SF sold recently and I'm not sure those lines are working yet! :D

What I discovered whilst playing (and what the AT command manual explicitly confirms) is that Hyperterm is buggy!

HT wouldn't work from an initial connection; it wouldn't even let me reconfigure the serial settings (the appropriate button is greyed out). Once I told HT to disconnect and then reconnect everything started working fine and the configuration button is enabled. I have to do this everytime I restart HT too.

So I don't bother with HT anymore, because my linux palmtop with minicom is much less troublesome :D
By teekay_tk
#26404
some where in the blueradios AT commmand document it says that there problems with hyperterm and blueradio device especially if you have installed and resintalled a few bluetooth stacks.

that may be the problem. try using other terminal
By Jay C
#26717
Hey guys, I just got my BlueSMiRF today. I was having trouble with Hyperterm but decided to try some different settings. For the properties of my Sparkfun connection I chnaged the Hardware control to off. Bingo it works fine.

Hope this helps others trying to use Hyperterm.

Jay
By cedtat
#40814
Sorry to get back this post but someone here may have find an answer to my problem.

I actually able to connect to the bluesmirf module but +++ command or AT commands are not responding.

I shortcut RX/TX and i get an echo when typing in terminal but after typing '+++' and a carriage return, nothing happen.

My ZTerm is connected at 9600 bauds, i've tryied a lot of things but probably miss something.

Can someone help me ???

Regards,
Cedric
By Jay C
#40826
Try 115200 Baud.
By cedtat
#40860
Very clever ! It is working ... :D

All tutorials were saying to configure it because delivered configured at 9600 bauds but it seems that it changed ... too bad there was nothing with it to explain at least how to connect ... no doc ... poor support but great users on the forum :twisted: !
By Jay C
#40862
I downloaded the document from BlueSmiRF. Although it's not spelled out in big bold letters it's in there :) Good to see you have it working, mine still works flawless.

Jay
By Ryansway
#41958
Same problem with a recently purchased bluesmirf. Connects ok using zterm, but only spits out a pile of gibberish, like this

ÇÇÇÇÇÇÇÇÇÇÇÇÇÇÇÇ®L÷Ç

Connected to an Arduino, set at 115200, red light comes on, nonsense comes out :(
By Jay C
#41981
Ryansway wrote:Same problem with a recently purchased bluesmirf. Connects ok using zterm, but only spits out a pile of gibberish, like this

ÇÇÇÇÇÇÇÇÇÇÇÇÇÇÇÇ®L÷Ç

Connected to an Arduino, set at 115200, red light comes on, nonsense comes out :(
Red light is a good sign. What are your other settings data, parity, stop? The gibberish means your PC is expecting 1 thing but the SmiRF is sending something else.

You should be 8,N,1

Jay