Bluetooth link to replace serial cable for OOPic

You might try posting this to the oopic support forum ...

I believe the wcm uses standard RS232, so you might try it on a PC that has a regular RS232 port, so you don't have to interpose the USB dongle in between. There may be some compatibility issues, hardware handshaking problems, etc.

Also, lately I've been playing around with RF downloads to the oopic, using a different RF device than bluetooth, and it does take some fiddling to get the parameters all straightened out so the oopic IDE can talk properly with the remote oopic chip. Eg, this involves proper packet lengths, timely full-duplex responses from the target, 100% reliability in the RF link since the oopic doesn't automatically perform retries and will hang without the proper response, etc.

Basically, I''ve found that doing a "wire replacement" isn't completely straight-forward.

- dan michaels

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The Bluetooth serial usually expects a PC to be on each side. Have you tried a null modem adapter (swaps pins 2 and 3) on the serial port side to the ooPIC?

DLC

: Hi,

: I have an oopic II+ microcontroller with RS232 level converters and I : am currently programming it with a serial cable connected to my PCs : COM1 port. I want to replace the serial cable with a Bluetooth link to : allow wireless dat transmission between the PC and the robot as it : executes my program.

: I have the HPU-100 USB Bluetooth dongle and HPS-120 RS232 transceiver : from Total Robots

However, I cannot get the two to communicate. I have the HPS-120 : connected to the DB9 connector of the RS232 converter board, and it is : receiving power etc ok. I have installed all the drivers for the USB : dongle, but it always shows up that it can't find any bluetooth : devices. It does show up in device manager that I have the drivers : correctly installed so that should not be the problem.

: Has anyone used these modules (or similar) before and can tell me if : I'm missing something obvious?

: Thanks, : Niamh

I have tried connecting directly to the RS232 connector and with pins 2 & 3 swapped and had no luck (this had caused me a huge headache setting up the basic serial comms so it was one of the first things I checked)...I think from the documentation with the HPS-120 that I shouldn't have them swapped but either way I've had no response. I know that the devices I'm using worked together before on the same robot so handshaking etc. is at least possible - I have no way to contact the previous user though so that's not an option. I've checked the port settings on each of the Bluetooth enabled ports in Device Manager and the settings are the same as used in OOPic (9600, 8, None,

1, None) so that should be ok. I think one of my problems could be getting the USB dongle to actually emulate a specific COM port - after installing the drivers it sets up about 17 ports in device manager so I don't know if I need to tell it which one specifically to use or if it does this itself. I've tried contacting the suppliers but so far I've had no response. And the documentation for the devices just gives instructions as far as installation so its no use to me. I realise my specific setup is probably not the same as what someone else has used, but if you've any other pointers it would be greatly appreciated, I'll try anything with it at this stage! Thanks, Niamh

I have tried connecting directly to the RS232 connector and with pins 2 & 3 swapped and had no luck (this had caused me a huge headache setting up the basic serial comms so it was one of the first things I checked)...I think from the documentation with the HPS-120 that I shouldn't have them swapped but either way I've had no response. I know that the devices I'm using worked together before on the same robot so handshaking etc. is at least possible - I have no way to contact the previous user though so that's not an option. I've checked the port settings on each of the Bluetooth enabled ports in Device Manager and the settings are the same as used in OOPic (9600, 8, None,

1, None) so that should be ok. I think one of my problems could be getting the USB dongle to actually emulate a specific COM port - after installing the drivers it sets up about 17 ports in device manager so I don't know if I need to tell it which one specifically to use or if it does this itself. I've tried contacting the suppliers but so far I've had no response. And the documentation for the devices just gives instructions as far as installation so its no use to me. I realise my specific setup is probably not the same as what someone else has used, but if you've any other pointers it would be greatly appreciated, I'll try anything with it at this stage! Thanks, Niamh

The plot thickens. The ooPIC IDE wants your serial port to be COM1 to COM4. If you go any higher it can't "see" it. Try making sure that you have a serial port for it in that range. A simple "loop back" to a hyperterm type serial connection can test your setup.

DLC

: I have tried connecting directly to the RS232 connector and with pins 2 : & 3 swapped and had no luck (this had caused me a huge headache setting : up the basic serial comms so it was one of the first things I : checked)...I think from the documentation with the HPS-120 that I : shouldn't have them swapped but either way I've had no response. : I know that the devices I'm using worked together before on the same : robot so handshaking etc. is at least possible - I have no way to : contact the previous user though so that's not an option. I've checked : the port settings on each of the Bluetooth enabled ports in Device : Manager and the settings are the same as used in OOPic (9600, 8, None, : 1, None) so that should be ok. : I think one of my problems could be getting the USB dongle to actually : emulate a specific COM port - after installing the drivers it sets up : about 17 ports in device manager so I don't know if I need to tell it : which one specifically to use or if it does this itself. I've tried : contacting the suppliers but so far I've had no response. And the : documentation for the devices just gives instructions as far as : installation so its no use to me. : I realise my specific setup is probably not the same as what someone : else has used, but if you've any other pointers it would be greatly : appreciated, I'll try anything with it at this stage! : Thanks, : Niamh

Thanks for the help, turns out it was a driver issue on teh PC - had to wipe the whole hard disk and start again from scratch to get it going! Have it all working now though. Niamh.