Arduino Bluesmirf and Android

Projects Discussion and Showcase Device Hacking
1

Hello all, i have some problems getting everything to work properly. By the tons of searching ive done it doesnt seem to be 'this' difficult. So im extending this out you guys in hope for some feedback.

Heres the problem:
I CAN connect the bluesmirf to arduino and successfully set the baud rate. meaning i have access to the CMD function of the module
I CAN pair the android device with the bluesmirf
I CANNOT send/receive data to/fro arduino.

What im using:
i have auduino uno, bluesmirf silver, and serveral devices.
I have tried this with several devices such as: Samsung galaxy S2, LG-G2X, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and a HTC Nexus one. The only one ive switched different roms has been the N1. so the other devices all run a custom rom. some CM other running something else. Either way, ive tried the Nexus(which ive seen used in multiple videos) with both custom and stock roms to no avail.

My set up:
I have done exactly what the instructions ive found said to do. Ive connected the arduino to my comp( which i have also tried on osx and ubuntu and xp).
I have hooked the tx/rx properly along with power. ive paired the android devices. ive installed the MeetAndroid lib for arduino, and installed the plugins and app for android. Ive tried running multiple things here, but ill describe this later. But mostly, i would have expected the test plugin to function over some of the other more 'advanced' tutorials, considering it only blinks a light once it receives something.

So...
After failing horribly at what should have been the simplest way to get up and going i began to try other things.

ive tried just about every tutorial you can find if you google 'android arduino bluetooth' or 'bluesmirf'
in attempt to not drag this out much further, ive tried using the rocketrobot, mobot, newsoftserial, softwareserial, follwed tips/code setting for LCD using the S2 app. seriously, almost everything the first 10 pages had to offer i tried. which there wasnt much relevant after that....
ive even tried the sl4a and python version......

I can show code if necessary but im not writting anything custom, so everything is already out there and possibly tried by most of you aswell.

One thing that caught my eye though was using the lamp demo. setting up for debugging i do infact see amarino open and succesfully connect to the socket.
So, im really hoping its something stupid im doing. I dont see the rx light switch light up and the serial monitor shows nothing.

if i can provide any further info to help possibly get me on the right track please let me know. anything, at this point, is invaluable to me and i will greatly appreciate your time.

Thank you

2

If there is a better place for this question could someone point me in that direction?

3

What I suggest is, take one set-up that you have the most information about and post that code and symptoms about that code and phone. It is good you have tried many things but at this point you need to focus on one combination only.

Then, after picking your best combination, go to programming help area, have links to your board(s), post your code, and any wiring schematics that can show your connections if you had to add wiring.

4

I know I'm a little late on the scene, but to go along with what cyclegadget posted, do you know about either the Arduino ADK or IOIO? The Arduino ADK is an modified Arduino Mega designed to interface with Accessory Development Kit (ADK).

IOIO a purpose-built microcontroller board, somewhat similar to Arduino Uno, but purpose built and program to interface with Android devices (1.5 and higher). Of the two the IOIO is cheaper (~50 USD) and would probably be much easier to interface with multiple individual Android devices, but it's designed to act as primarily an accessory to the Android device(s) (i.e. you don't program the IOIO directly, instead code is run through an app on your smartphone/etc... and instructions are sent to the IOIO) and not setup to do much without an Android device controling it.

On the otherhand, the Arduino ADK is a fully functional Arduino Mega that's been changed to interface more easily with Android devices so it can also run as a stand alone microcontroller. However, you likely still need to program a custom sketch for your project and its more expensive (~80 USD) than either the Arduino Uno or the IOIO. Although it has more I/O and its processing power and storage space are significantly better than either of those boards.