Hello and Bluetooth problems

[iplewis]

Hello,

I'm new here, and also new to mindstorms. I can't get my computer and NXT to connect (pair?) via bluetooth. I have

NXT2.0, brand new, versions:
FW 1.28
AVR 1.01
BUILD 1902091856

a fairly new HP laptop, with built in bluetooth (described as an HP bluetooth module, but if you poke around a bit there are references to broadcom), running windows 7 (32 bit).

Lego mindstroms software, installed from the CD, version 2.0.f4

I have turned on bluetooth on both devices, and set them both to 'visible'

When I 'scan' then the PC finds the NXT (though it sometimes comes up as 'no name' and sometimes as 'NXT'). When I try to connect, I'm prompted to enter a passcode on the PC, which I do, but the NXT doesn't appear to notice, and never asks me to put in a passcode. Does it have to be in a special 'connecting' mode or something?

Anyone got any bright ideas?

A couple of asides; I sync my phone with my laptop using bluetooth, so I think the laptop bluetooth is generally functional, though may be incompatible with the NXT I suppose.
Also, if I scan for bluetooth devices from the NXT it finds the PC, and I can connect/pair them. The NXT then shows up as a 'bluetooth device' on my laptop. Having done this doesn't seem to have any effect on the behaviour described above, so I still can't seem to use it from the LEGO software.
I haven't actually tried connecting with USB, as I thought bluetooth would be more useful.

Any help appreciated....

Cheers,

Ian.

[h-g-t]

Not a Bluetooth expert but a couple of things spring to mind.

Have you installed the latest Fantom driver from http://us.mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/sup ... spx#Driver ?

There is also a more recent firmware (1.31) available on that site.

Make sure you are only pairing the NXT with one device at a time, if it is connected to the PC then the laptop cannot connect to it.

Are you trying to link using the same line that another device (phone, perhaps) has claimed?

When I had problems I cleared all the contacts from the NXT and computer then started again from scratch and it worked (usually).

Apparently some Bluetooth chipsets (or their drivers) are not compatible with the NXT. I use a very cheap one from ebay but another I tried did not work.

Most of the time nowadays I just use USB, it is almost as convenient and much more reliable.

There are plenty of discussions of this problem in here, have a look round and see what you can find.

[iplewis]

Thanks for the quick reply

Have you installed the latest Fantom driver from http://us.mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/sup ... spx#Driver ?

I think this got installed from the CD. I seem to have 'LEGO Mindstorms NXT driver v1.17.770'. The version on the web is 1.02, and refuses to install, claiming that I already have a newer version. I think this all makes sense....

There is also a more recent firmware (1.31) available on that site.

I guess I could try this, but presumably most people get bluetooth working without it.....

Make sure you are only pairing the NXT with one device at a time, if it is connected to the PC then the laptop cannot connect to it.

I may have confused you. When I wrote 'computer' 'PC' and 'Laptop' they are all the same thing!

Are you trying to link using the same line that another device (phone, perhaps) has claimed?

What is a 'line'? I haven't come across this term in connection with bluetooth before.

When I had problems I cleared all the contacts from the NXT and computer then started again from scratch and it worked (usually).

Apparently some Bluetooth chipsets (or their drivers) are not compatible with the NXT. I use a very cheap one from ebay but another I tried did not work.

Most of the time nowadays I just use USB, it is almost as convenient and much more reliable.

There are plenty of discussions of this problem in here, have a look round and see what you can find.

Looking would be easier if the search did not ignore 'bluetooth'

I was intending to use Bricxcc / NXC for any 'real' work (play ); I thought it would be easier to get things going with the 'official' software, but reading around some people seem to find bluetooth flaky with the 'official' software. Would I be better off trying Bricxcc?

Cheers,

Ian.

[ricardocrl]

I think this got installed from the CD. I seem to have 'LEGO Mindstorms NXT driver v1.17.770'. The version on the web is 1.02, and refuses to install, claiming that I already have a newer version. I think this all makes sense....

That is very interesting! Any one else knows about this newer version? Is it "downloadable" from somewhere? I wonder if they had also a new SDK, but I doubt.

Are you trying to link using the same line that another device (phone, perhaps) has claimed?

What is a 'line'? I haven't come across this term in connection with bluetooth before.

I think he meant a established Bluetooth connection with the NXT, using another device at the same time. I don't think it's the case, as you said before (laptop=pc=computer)

Looking would be easier if the search did not ignore 'bluetooth'

I agree! It has already been discussed, the "serach" limitation. :/ Sometimes, all the words I can remember to search are all ignored.

Some questions:
1) If you are able to pair the NXT with the PC, starting from the NXT, they became paired. Nothing else needs to be done, I guess. If you look at the list of Bluetooth devices, do you have your NXT there?

2) Are you using windows Bluetooth drivers, or other drivers? I know that, for instance, the Toshiba drivers had some incompatibilities with the LEGO drivers. It happened to me and I had to uninstall the drivers and use the windows ones.

3) Before starting the official software (before the program tries to connect with the NXT), check in the LCD of the NXT if the connection symbol is opened, "<", or closed "<>". It should be opened before you start! Otherwise, it means the connection is already established by some other software/device and the connection is busy (or the "line is busy").

[iplewis]

Some questions:
1) If you are able to pair the NXT with the PC, starting from the NXT, they became paired. Nothing else needs to be done, I guess. If you look at the list of Bluetooth devices, do you have your NXT there?

2) Are you using windows Bluetooth drivers, or other drivers? I know that, for instance, the Toshiba drivers had some incompatibilities with the LEGO drivers. It happened to me and I had to uninstall the drivers and use the windows ones.

3) Before starting the official software (before the program tries to connect with the NXT), check in the LCD of the NXT if the connection symbol is opened, "<", or closed "<>". It should be opened before you start! Otherwise, it means the connection is already established by some other software/device and the connection is busy (or the "line is busy").

1. Yes, I can pair them , and NXT appears in my list of bluetooth devices. I can then use the NXT Remote program (via a 'virtual' com port) to control my robot (which is very cool ) but NXT-G (the LEGO software) will still not see the NXT, so I can't download a program.

2. Good question. All the bluetooth 'stuff' on the PC is branded as HP, but seems to have been manufactured by broadcom, and broadcom also supplied the driver. I also have a directory called WIDCOMM in 'Program Files' and I have read that broadcom and widcomm drivers are the same. Under device manager I also have 'Microsoft Bluetooth enumerator'. How the broadcom/widcomm driver and the microsoft enumerator interact with each other, I have no idea! (or even what an enumerator is.....)

3. Yes, the symbol is OK "<"

I've also tried Bricxcc with no success. I guess the things left to try are to change the bluetooth drivers, or change the NXT firmware..... (or stick to USB!)

Cheers,

Ian.

[ricardocrl]

I agree with trying changing the BT drivers, but the FW shouldn't be a problem. At least, I've never heard such problem being solved by changing the firmware. Well, it doesn't hurt to try.

You can also try to revert the LEGO drivers. Trying with the ones in the webpage. It doesn't make sense to work better with an older one. But once again, it doesn't hurt.

I am sorry for LEGO to have such anoying problems with Bluetooth. It can be a real pain, even for people quite used to computer issues...

[iplewis]

Well, I have made some progress. I replaced the HP driver with a generic one downloaded from broadcom (Device manager now tells me that I have a 'broadcom 2070 bluetooth', rather than an 'HP integrated module'!), and NXT-G recognised my NXT! I don't think that it asked me for a passkey, so I assume that I'd already paired it with windows, but I wouldn't swear to it.

Anyway, I played with that for a bit and decided to give Bricxcc a go. That didn't work, and now NXT-G doesn't either.

When I tried to detect with Bricxcc, there was a lot of activity - the NXT asked for a passkey (though bricxcc/windows never did) windows said it was installing drivers, and there was a popup which said it was configuring bluetooth services, and sometimes another one saying that something had been installed on a com port, but ultimately I got a message from Bricxcc saying that it couldn't find the brick I did this a few times, trying short and long bluetooth strings, com ports and 'auto' and 'search' options, and pretty much the same happened every time. Incidentally, this is a change from the previous (HP) driver, where nothing at all happened (no popups, no requests for passkeys on the NXT)

Atter that I went back to NXT-G and it won't find the NXT now.

So I guess I'll try wiping the drivers and re-installing again. At least NXT-G worked that way....

Any tips for Bricxcc? I've read John's post here and everything mentioned there seems to be in order.

Cheers,

Ian.

[mcsummation]

Do the pairing using just the Windows function. Double click on the Bluetooth icon in the systray to do it. That seems to be the most reliable way of doing the pairing. I have a lot of trouble with NXT-G killing my Bluetooth connection. I don't know why but it will, randomly, kill it.

[ricardocrl]

Yes, I suggest the same. Do the pairing first, with Windows (with whatever drivers you have installed). You should get the passkey request popup on the NXT when you pair. When you get the message about opening a COM port, it´s a good sign!

If you succeed up to this point, in the properties of your Bluetooth device, you will find in "Services" the COM port opened, like COM22. If you have 2 COM ports opened, in and out, the one that matters should be the income one (I think).

Then, in the BricxCC connection window, in the port, type: BTH::<NXT_NAME>::<MAC_ADDRESS>::<COMPORT>. Eg: BTH::NXT::00:16:53:05:D9:58::22.

Sometimes, just by restarting the NXT and trying connecting again, works. lol At least for me, sometimes it just works.

[afanofosc]

If things don't work quite right with your built-in BT hardware, sometimes it is easiest to drop a couple bucks on a cheap bluetooth dongle that uses the CSR chipset (Cambridge Silicon Radio) and the Widcomm BT stack. You can get them for less than $5 on many different internet sites. I got one from dealextreme.com.

Also, for now, the latest Fantom drivers are only available on the RobotC website (version 1.2).

John Hansen