I posted a quick tutorial on how I got my Bluetooth Mate working with an Arduino Pro Mini:
http://www.jhwarren.com/bluetooth-mate/
Hopefully it helps some people out.

Hey, I have a question regarding the level shifting in the schematic.

If you connect the Bluetooth mate to, let us say, an Arduino, then the TX (Arduino) would be connected through the resistor to the RX(Bluetooth Module). Meaning that the voltage at RX in the bluetooth module will be 5V at some point during transmission!

Why aren't there any Mosfet on the RX-line (for proper level shifting)?

Hey,
Anyone know how to get this device to show up in the bluetooth menu on an iPhone/iPod/iPad? It shows up on my windows machine as FireFly-13BB, but it does not show up at all on the iOS devices...

Update: I got it to work a few times (the light turned green), but most of the time I just get the message, "Serial port /dev/tty.FireFly-2776-SPP' already in use".
When I did get a connection, I looked in the system prefs and it showed that it was connected, but if I look in the Sys Prefs when it complains about being in use, it shows "Not Connected".
I have been testing with a terminal emulator app (coolTerm), the "screen" command in the OS X terminal and the Arduino serial monitor.
I preloaded some test code on the Arduino Pro another user had posted a link to here using an FTDI cable. The few times I got a good connection, I did see the expected steam of numbers and it did respond to my input that reset the stream to 0. I just can't figure out why it will connect every time I try now... ???
Also trying to upload code to the Arduino via BT fails with the "Already in use" or the " programer, did not respond" Errors. I read someplace that is was possible and other places that said it's not. So if the device was operating properly would uploading code like this work or not?

Hey I wanted to post a few RTFM issues with these modules since you literally have to read all the documentation to get these modules to work.
The key is is '1234'
For 2-wire serial (TX-RX-GND) you must connect CTS and RTS (shorting the pins)
The module defaults to 9600 baud, 8N1 and H/W flow control. (I tried it at 115200 and had trouble (but I was still hacking then, so maybe that works too)
For Arduino users
RX-I(Blue)-->TX(Arduino)
TX-0(Blue)-->RX(Arduino)
You CANNOT program the Arduino through this interface
If you are having connectivity problems try this:
Unplug USB and power externally.
Transmit and receive from Hyperterminal or some other terminal. The Arduino serial port terminal sometimes drops the bluetooth port.
I found that the intel integrated bluetooth in my laptop kept resetting the connection, but a belkin dongle worked just fine.
Also worth noting: Breadboards seem to act like Faraday cages and completely shield the signal in one direction, so be careful monitor your signal strength!
Also consider swearing at it... that seems to help too;)
Hope this helps!

Hi, the question is .. this bluetooth has compatibility with arduino UNO .. in the specifications says arduino pros and lilypad… is a rule? or I can arduinoUno

I have a question, this bluetooth is compatibility with android and arduino UNO??... in the specification says only arduino pros and lilypad

Easy device..

Does anyone having problem with its distance? I was in a room (5mx3m) with door open and start loosing communication after 3 meters away from the door.

This mate-gold used for a RC car and I use Bluetooth dongle, I have tried 2 different dongles and both are claiming 100m distance.

Hi, I have problems with bluetooth mate parity, I put this script:

//#include  
#include 

int bluetoothTx = 2;  // TX-O pin of bluetooth mate, Arduino D2
int bluetoothRx = 3;  // RX-I pin of bluetooth mate, Arduino D3
int ledPin=13;
SoftwareSerial bluetooth(bluetoothTx, bluetoothRx);

void setup()
{
  pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);
  Serial.begin(9600);  // Begin the serial monitor at 9600bps

  bluetooth.begin(115200);  // The Bluetooth Mate defaults to 115200bps
  delay (300);
  bluetooth.print("$$$");  // Enter command mode
  delay(100);  // Short delay, wait for the Mate to send back CMD
  bluetooth.println("U,9600,N");  // Temporarily Change the baudrate to 9600, no parity
  // 115200 can be too fast at times for NewSoftSerial to relay the data reliably
  bluetooth.begin(9600);  // Start bluetooth serial at 9600
    digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);
}

void loop()
{
  if(bluetooth.available())  // If the bluetooth sent any characters
  {
    char toSend = (char)bluetooth.read();

    if (toSend == 'h'){
        digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);
    }

    if(toSend == 'l'){
        digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);
    }
    // Send any characters the bluetooth prints to the serial monitor
    Serial.print(toSend);  
  }
  if(Serial.available())  // If stuff was typed in the serial monitor
  {
    // Send any characters the Serial monitor prints to the bluetooth
      char toSend=(char)Serial.read();
      bluetooth.print(toSend);
  }
  }
  // and loop forever and ever!

And in the Serial Monitor , I put $$$, and D for settings, and after I to inquiry. So when a I put C, appear Trying and next Connect Failed. Someone could help me?

How is this different from using xbee?

I am looking for a example or instructions tot connect 2 together to transmit a serial signal. The need to connect automatically o each other

Does any one know how to set this up or were to find it? Thanks!

Will this work with 3.3V Arduino ? Or will I need level converters?

Hi, does the modem only supports 115200bps as the maximun serial communication?

because i was reading in the "RN-41 AT Command Set" that the RN-41 can be configured even up to 921kbps for serial communication.

I'm having problems with receiving large amount of data from the arduino mega. It basically drops it after about 5-10 seconds. Similar to what is mentioned in the article below. I went through various experiments with the setup and currently what works is the 57.6 mode with S~,1 which makes the bluetooth mate to be recognized as a modem (not sure if this was necessary at all) but what really made the difference is using a minute delay before the transfer starts: void setup() { Serial.begin(57600); delay(60000);

Can anyone explain why is this needed?

article mentioned: http://blogs.gnome.org/desrt/2012/04/29/arduino-remote-programming-with-the-bluetooth-mate-rn-42/

Hey guys! i have ordered a bluetooth mate gold for my project and want to conneect the bluetooth module with my android phone. I can only pair the device with my phone. It keeps on saying paired but not connected. I need this thing to get working and connected with my phone as i am building an application for HRM and need this module connected in order for my application to work. Any help will be appreciated. Thanx

Hi,

Just received my Gold Mate and trying to connect the unit using FTDI USB to Serial cable (TTL-232R-3V3-WE). I cannot connect via the serial interface.

The unit powers on and can see it with BlueTooth and able to pair. However, the serial side is a different story.

My cable is connected to the board the following way:

From Mate Gold to FTDI:
GND ..... Black (GND),

CTS-1 .... Green (RTS#),

VCC ... Red (5V),

TX-0 .... Yellow (RXD),

RX-1 ... Orange (TXD),

RTS-0...Brown(CTS#)

I am using minicom and set the baud rate to 9600 8N1 and when I enter $$$, I get no response back. I have tried 115200 8N1 and get nothing as well. I have tried rebooting to get within the command window and no luck either.

I am wondering what I am doing wrong here. This is pretty straight forward, but right now, its kicking my butt.

Appreciate any feedback.

Don

Update the datasheet link, This is datasheet version 3.1, the latest is 3.3r Also RovingNtworks changed their website, update all the links to that website.

I've more or less got this working on an arduino uno and paired to a macbook running on snow leopard.

I can get communication to happen in terminal, term, and processing, so that's a good start. I'm using this to control leds and 2 dc motors running off an ardumoto shield.

The issue i'm having is that i am trying to control this with my mac's keyboard. I've got that part working, more or less - but what i'ld like to do is have the motors drive in one direction while i hold a key down. I've been using this instructable as a starting point:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-controlled-Bluetooth-bot/step4/Code/ I've modified that code as necessary to run on an ardumoto shield and it does seem to work - with the caveat that instead of continuous motion, when i hit the "i" key - the motors only turn for 25ms, then stop. On that link the author is able to hold down keys and have his robot move continuously. i can change the code to another delay factor and get longer movements, but thats not really what i want.

Anyone gotten anything working along these lines on Mac?

I am using bluetooth mate connected to Arduino UNO. I set up baud rate to 115200 and i was trying to send analogic input reading from arduino to processing using BT connection. The problem is that when i connect BT (green light on) and i start receiving data from Arduino through serial port, the connection fails after some seconds. However, if i wait 1 minute after having the green light on, it works fine. Is it supposed to take so much time to works perfectly? At Hyperterminal it connects imediatly and works fine! Thanks in advance.

Has anyone successfully connected this bluetooth with itseft so that two Arduinos can talk to each other through the bluetooth connection?

Arduino->Bluetooth-> Wireless Link

The association timeout is a deal killer for me, is there any known way to disable it? I was hoping to use it to periodically reprogram a difficult-to-access arduino pro. If I have to power cycle it, it defeats the purpose.

I set the baud rate to 115200bits/s but I've experienced the transmission much lower, around 12000bits/s. If I use wired connection instead of bluetooth the transmission is fine. Does somebody else experienced the same situation?

I recreated this board on my own using the same BT module, however when streaming serial data from the arduino ( adxl345 accelerometer raw data... so 3 numbers with commas between them ) I end up getting a lot of -1, -1, -1 and then occasionally it will show appropriate values. I do not have this problem with the usb cord, only the BT connection. Any ideas?

Double post

Hey, has anyone tried using the ArduinoBT bootloader on an Arduino Pro? Seems to me that with little modification it should work the same... right? Maybe just changing the pin assignments of Tx,Rx and Reset? I won't have mine until the middle of August so if anyone has any thoughts on this, I'd really appreciate it! Thanks!

I've made a new tutorial based on Jonathan Warren's post, with updates to new parts and also making it easy for Mac users. Please check it out:
http://www.rioleo.org/setting-up-the-arduino-pro-mini-and-bluetooth-mate-on-mac.php

I am struggling to get my BT Gold module to autoconnect to my droid phone. The devices are paired. I can connect from the phone to the module with blueterm. I can see the phone when I do an inquiry scan. I have tried slave mode and master mode on the BT gold. What am I missing?

HEY guys I'd made the bluetooth paired with my computer, but my problem is when i ran my code in processing and the computer do not send data to the bluetooth. Although the bluetooth has the start LED on it seems it doesn't work because arduino do not receive anything, and my code is correct because when i conect the arduino by direct (usb wire) serial to my computer everything is perfect. I red about NewSoftSerial and try to used it but it keeps making the same someone can help me please?? I also used Putty and the counter program, nothing happen!! I'm desesperate!!! ANYONE THANKS!!!

What is the difference between the bluetooth modem gold, and the bluetooth mate gold???
Which would you want if for example you wanted to control your arduino remoted with your android phone to do something?

Hi,
what are others experiences with the length of the open-air connectivity? I was able to connect with my PC for appox. 10m. Is this maybe because I used built-in bluetooth receiver in my laptop?

Hi,
I have a problem with this one. I cannot even get the lights turn on. I use a Lilypad 328, and power it with this battery:
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8483
The Lilypad leds blinks but not the bluetooth ones. Anyone can help me?
Thank you

I'd just like to know max distance using class2 cellphones...

Ah man, I brought this instead of the bluemirf...
can i still use this and connect to the bluesmirf pins on a protoshield v2.0?
Thankfull for help :)

I using this product, to control PIC16F877A PWM. when i using the windows vista system to connect this bluetooth. The problem come out, i can connect it, light become green color, but can not send any data.( i using the visual basic 2005 create a window to control the PWM). MY PC have bluetooh, n it connect my pc bluetooth, become green led, just i can not send any data. Can u Help me, what is the Problem? Why can not send the data go out.
i try to use the "LynxTerm SSC-32 Terminal" this software to test(http://www.lynxmotion.com/images/html/build125.htm), also no data send back.
Can u give me a ideal?
Thank you very much

Is there a way to get a output from this in some way saying a paired device is in range? (looking to make a "push to start" circuit in my car with my phone as the wireless key. Thanks!

what does this weigh ???

Setting baud rate works( display command says), but junk data is displayed even after booting.I'm using this module with "9DoF AHRS Razor board".I would like to reboot the "9DoF AHRS Razor board" when PC program try to access bluetooth COM# port.When i use this board with USB cable & if i open COM port ,it reboots.How can i achieve this functionality with this BT module.
Thanks.

Any way to get this guy to not reset the Pro after you disconnect?

I just got one of these BlueTooth mates and an Arduino Pro this last week, but have yet to get it working. I tested the Arduino Pro with an FTDI cable and that works fine, but so far I have failed to get the BlueTooth Mate working with the Mac or Arduino Pro. I paired it with my Mac Pro (10.6.4) using the code "1234" and it showed "Success pairing Device!". The device also shows up in the system preferences bluetooth settings, but shows connection as RED Not connected. The LED on the BlueTooth Mate changes from fast red blink to slow red blink, but never goes green. What am I doing wrong?

Just curious, how hard would it be to make one of these talk to a jailbroken 3rd gen iPod Touch?

It works very well as a Serial link between Arduino and PC. Bluesmirf: connect Tx to Arduino D0, and Rx to Arduino D1 - also +5v and GND. Make sure serial speed is set to 115,200bps in Arduino sketch (I could not get it to work at any other speed).
All that is needed is a bluetooth adapter for PC, I use Blueman in Ubuntu linux to connect Bluesmirf as a Serial device - rfcomm0 on my machine. Then open a terminal and type the following to see the serial readings:
$screen /dev/rfcomm0 115200
Setup takes about 5 mins from opening package to reading serial monitor wirelessly.

I can power the BTMate and transmit serial data between my PC the Arduino Pro.
Now I'm trying to connect two arduinos through bluetooth and transmit data from one to the other. In order to connect the two bluetooth modules without using the computer, I need to enter command mode to configure the right settings so the modules can link to each other on their own.
I have been successful at entering command mode (using the '$$$' and the BT returns 'CMD'). But after that I can't seem to get any sort of response for any other commands, not even the '---' which is supposed to exit command mode.
Any insight into this would be greatly appreciated.

How would one go about setting this up with an Arduino Duemilanove?
I know where to connect: Vcc, GRND, TX, and RX.
I don't know how to connect: RTS and CTS.
I've noticed that CTS goes to GRND on the Arduino Pros. But there's no RTS pin on my Arduino Duemilanove.
Thanks in advance

I'm curious if it works in small distance (3m) but not open air. I am planning to place it inside a plastic box and into a foam ball.. so there will be approx 4 inches of foam, some plastic and a hand most of the time in the zone. Will it still work?

If i had 2 Lilly pads attached to these could i communicate between the two or is this strictly a connection to a computer.

The picture of the bottom of the board shows a silk-screen label of "PIO6" (the only connection that isn't on the edge of the board), but the schematic shows PIO4 goes to "JP2", and PIO6 is not connected. Which one is correct??

I am having difficulties getting this to work. I have a RRRB arduino clone and I am using a MacBook Pro. My Mac sees there is a Firefly device to pair with. What is the pass code? If no pass code how do you set it up? I was able to get the Bluetooth Mate to slowly blink red.

Wow, very nice product! Was looking for a way to wirelessly talk to MaxMSP but this seems to be the best way to have a very easy serial connection. And it's not that expensive compared to for instance the xBee...

Can you auto reset wirelessly with this device? I dont see a dtr pin :S
Sorry if this is a dumb question

Having real difficulty getting this to send serial data.
Soldered on an header an connected to an Arduino Pro Mini.
Can connect and place in command mode, but other than that no other serial data is getting sent over. Cant even exit command mode or read the settings back.
Unit is brand new (other than adding the header) so everything is at defaults.
Have another of these which straight from packaging. Can connect, put in command mode but thats it

Has anyone got one of these units up and running properly? All I can do is pair it. I've tried it with my Arduino Pro Mini, Arduino Diecimila, and with Windows XP, Windows 7, and on a mac. No luck getting it to do anything but blink its red light. I've run out of ideas. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hi, I had quick question about the headers used for this module.
I soldered the female header (PRT-09429) to my custom pcb and used the right angle header (PRT-00553) to hold the module. But the right angle header pins do not seem to make good contact with the module.
Is there a way I can secure the module without soldering it with the pins? I am just concerened about damaging the chip

100-9 is 20% off? Does this mean I have to order exactly 91?

I'm looking to control my playstation with a PIC, using a bluetooth interface.
Is this compatible with the PS3? I tried finding information on what protocols they use. I've come up with HID and L2CAP. I see this uses SPP -- is it possible to convert this to HID? Can I use SPP with the PS3?

yes, you should be able to program an Arduino wirelessly with this, it's just a wireless serial connection.

Hi, one thing is not clear to me: is this a replacement also for an FTDI Basic Breakout board? if I deploy a prototype with an Arduino Pro and one of these, will I be able to patch the software later via Bluetooth or I will have to open it and connect the FTDI again?
also: I have a Pro Mini; is this OK also for that model or just for "normal" Pro and Lilypad? Thx!