Checking if the bluetooth module on my Arduino board works - bluetooth

Question

I'm trying to have my Arduino UNO board to work with a BlueSmirf Gold (http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10268).
I wired it as explained on various tutorial (for example here: http://www.instructables.com/id/how-to-Control-arduino-by-bluetooth-from-PC-pock/)
I've set the baud rate to 9600 as explained here: http://forum.sparkfun.com/viewtopic.php?p=94557
I manage to connect to it using the default Arduino serial terminal, ZTerm and my phone (using Amarino). In every cases, the green light on the bluetooth modem turns on, so until there it looks good.
The main problem is that my modem does not seem to be able to send/receive anything (the only time I've had any response was when I've set the baud rate to 9600).
For example, I have this code (simplified here, but the main idea is there):
int out_pin = 2;
String readLine() {
char command[100];
int i = 0;
if(Serial.available()){
delay(100);
while( Serial.available() > 0 && i< 99) {
command[i++] = Serial.read();
}
command[i++]='\0';
Serial.flush();
}
Serial.print("command: ");
Serial.println(command);
return (String) command;
}
void menu() {
if (Serial.available() <= 0) {
return;
}
String command = readLine();
// Do thing based on the command
}
void setup() {
pinMode(out_pin, OUTPUT);
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
menu();
}
Logically, when I send something via the terminal, I should get it back (which is what happens when using the usb serial).
When I connect to the board via Bluetooth, it just stays silent.
I also tried this piece of code:
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
Serial.println("Spam ...");
}
Works fine when using the usb serial, but I get nothing when using bluetooth to connect to my board.
With both codes, I also tried to use the monitor tool in Amarino to send messages to the board, but it seems that it never got it.
I've tried various other things:
- do not have the USB serial available (I powered the Arduino board via USB but using a plug wall adapter. I'll try later on with a 9V battery but I don't have it available at the moment)
- do not connect CTS-1 to RTS-0 in the modem (some tutorial tell to connect them, the other don't. So as I doubted I tried both solutions).
The only time I've had something that looked like a communication was with this setup:
Arduino - Phone connected via Bluetooth
The Amarino monitoring was on
Arduino - Computer connected via the USB serial
When uploading the new code to my board, some parts of it were displayed on the monitoring tool on the phone.
It happened one or twice and I can't reproduce it now.
I'm pretty sure I've done something wrong somewhere (it seems at least it's the most logical explanation) but I'm also wondering if it could not be a problem with the Bluetooth model (I mean, even the sample tutorials do not work).
So the questions are:
is there something I missed/forgot to do that could help me solve the
problem ?
if not: is there a simple way to check that my Bluetooth modem
works fine ?
Thanks,
Vincent

Answer 1

I still don't have the answer on the second question ("is there a simple way to check that my Bluetooth modem works fine ?") but I've finally be able to send/receive messages from the Bluetooth modem.
As I was guessing (at least how I understand it) that was a problem with the two serials (Bluetooth and USB) on the same board.
To solve that, I've plugged the BT TX-1 on pin digital 5, RX-0 on digital 3 and used the following code (based on the SoftwareSerial tutorial):
#include <SoftwareSerial.h>
SoftwareSerial bluetooth(5, 3);
void setup()
{
// Start the hardware serial port
Serial.begin(9600);
bluetooth.begin(9600);
}
void loop()
{
bluetooth.listen();
// while there is data coming in, read it
// and send to the hardware serial port:
while (bluetooth.available() > 0) {
char inByte = bluetooth.read();
Serial.write(inByte);
}
}
It sends all entries received from Bluetooth on the default serial (in my case USB).
I've checked with Amarino and messages sent from my phone are displayed in the Arduino serial monitor.

Answer 2

Same problem here. I tried connect vice versa the 0 and 1, RX and TX(i.e. RX to RX and TX to TX) and I got some communication of gibberish as opposed to nothing at all.