Bluetooth Bee setup

It took me quite a bit of time and research to determine how to set up my Bluetooth Bee/XBee Shield combo. I found this article at the Seeed Studio site and followed it to get to the setup I am using now.

I created one sketch to configure the BT Bee as I wanted it and a template for using it within my apps.  The first sketch below is the done once to configure the BT Bee for later use.  It is very similar to the code in the article above except that I used pins 0/1 for RX/TX instead of the NewSoftSerial library.  Because of that, though, I have to remove the BT Bee, upload the sketch, then reinstall the BT Bee and it will be configured after power is applied to the Arduino.  I’m willing to put up with that because it only needs to be done once for an individual BT Bee.

The second sketch is a template of how to incorporate BT Bee communications into a application sketch.  Basically, after the configuration is completed, only the “INQ” command is needed to initiate pairing with your other bluetooth device.  I anticipated always using my Arduino/BT Bee in slave mode so the configuration sketch reflects that choice.

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Wireless arduino digital setting circles

One of the projects I’m going to be working on is digital setting circles for my telescope.  I will the arduino and using Bluetooth to connect to my netbook.

I ordered an Seeeduinio v2.21, Bluetooth Bee, XBee Shield, 16×2 LCD and various parts from Seeedstudio.  I specifically wanted the Bluetooth Bee and XBee Shield combo so I was willing to wait for delivery from China.  The original order was delivered in only 15 days which included the Christmas holiday!  A subsequent order took 25 days.  The service was good but next time I might order from a US distributor to get things faster.

I have had some time to get started on the Bluetooth programming and I will post how the Bluetooth Bee is working.  And give you a description of the plans for the digital setting circles.

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