Reliable Bluetooth with Aduino Uno ?

Hi,

As a beginner in this totally new world (for me), I'm trying to understand how all these arduino things work together.

My project, a (rather simple I think) data logger sending data over bluetooth, should only need an arduino Uno (or maybe the upcoming Leonardo).

The thing that's not clear for me is what is the best reliable solution to add bluetooth capability to such a board.

My current need is only to send data from the arduino board to a cell phone, BUT I may need in a second step to receive some data from an external 5Hz GPS (and send them back to the phone too). Thus, I need something that fits both needs from day 1 (don't want to buy a second card in a few weeks/months).

Can you please give me some clue, be them as PM if you can't cite any shield manufacturer or public if it doesn't matter.

I've seen a rather expensive solution, from sparkfun (gold and silver things) and a less expensive one from Itead (BT Shield v2.2) and I clearly can't say with this difference between the two prices.

Please, also consider this : I may add another shield, like a SD card shield, in a near future too.

Thank you !

Does anyone use bluetooth shield ? I'm surprised not to have a single answer.

Any help/comment appreciated. I'm gonna choose a module like Itead BT Shield 2.2 if no answer.

That should work fine.

Also, its not that hard to use the little BT modules like the BlueSmirf.

What's the application? Have you considered a USB host shield and a wired connection?

@delirii

I just received my order from Itead. I have the Bluetooth shield 2.2 and the slave one and a SD sheild also. I am new at this also ( programing Bluetooth ). I am planning to transmited / received data to / from my cell phone. I will experiment using my PC bluetooth serial adapter using Processing ( I hope that work ) to comunicated with the Ardiuno with the Bluetooth. As for the programming, I hope it is just sending/receiving data to a serial port ( Arduino & Pcocessing ) , that will make it simple to do. But it is my phone that I have an issue with. I read about the Bluetooth programing for my cell phone Nokia ( Java 2 ME ), and the programing is .... ??????? :fearful: Complex and Hard to understand. That will be a challenge to do.

@Si : thank you for you answer. Glad to hear everything's gonna be alright with this kind of module. Blue smirf is quite expensive, that's why I'm not considering it.
I can't use a wired connection, because the piece of software I'd like to communicate with is a closed source (but free) software, waiting for a ... bluetooth connection :slight_smile:

@Techone : We will be at leahttp://developers.sun.com/mobility/midp/articles/bluetooth2/)st two of us developping something around this shield. I won't develop (at least at the beginning) something on my phone as the software I want to use already exists (and works perfectly). For your problem on the phone side, did you read the Sun official documentation about J2ME and bluetooth support (Oracle Java Technologies | Oracle) ? It doesn't seem to be too complicated (but my point of view is a little biasied as I'm a Java developer).

You can get a bluetooth to serial module ln ebay for about 10$ free shipping
It works great for me, using it for serial communication with my android phone and just a serial to bluetooth app
works with my uno great @ 9600 serial

One more question, since I'm about to receive a low cost BT shield among many other things :

How to determine the right baud value ? I want an optimized set up and I don't want to waste some resource. The baud rate can vary a lot, I just want to pick the right value for my use case.

Thx

@winner10920

I am glad it work for you. For me, I will be trying to experiment amd trying to communicate with my PC / Ardiuno. I just hope it a simple serial init code ( Arduino side and Processing side ). But using my cell is well ... another story ...

@delirii

I did read it, I download the JSR 82 and Bluetooth API and try to install in my Netbean IDE subdirectory ... ( I don't thing I got it right ). And read the site, try to read / understand it, read others site about the Bluetooth API , and try to read / understand the Java ME code.... Just say ----> :astonished: :~ <---- I simply need a simple JAVA ME 2 "Hello Word" to communicate with my PC or Arduino so I can understand more about it. I did a "Hello World" code to send from PC to Arduino using Processing ( in my PC side )

Sorry to be "off topic"

I just hope my ITead blutooth shield will work.