Bluetooth confusion

Projects Networking, Protocols, and Devices
1

Hi-

I have a need to provide a BT capability on a custom breakout. This breakout will connect to my custom Arduino board through a standard header. I have been doing some research on the subject for a few days now. During the past day or so that work has led me to more confusion than anything else. So I thought I'd ask the forum for some clarity. I need to get a game plan together asap.

I have customers with older smartphones who will want to use those devices to communicate with my Arduino board. Thus from what I have learned either an HC-05 or HC-06 would be a good approach. That would involve a simple 4-pin connector with TX, RX, +5V and GND (plus some circuitry). This is an example:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0093XAV4U/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

However as I mentioned I'm developing a custom breakout and so I thought of utilizing this instead:

http://www.mdfly.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8_47&products_id=1047

Either way the CSR BC417 chip is being used. I noted that communication occurs over serial (TX/RX), even though the BC417 has SPI pins. I read a few websites that stated something along the lines of needing a custom driver (whatever that meant) to communicate with the BC417 via SPI. Also that an expensive license is involved. However I couldn't seem to find any information that would allow me to understand anything further than that.

So does anyone know? Can I communicate with the BC417 via SPI simply by connecting it to the SPI bus from my primary Ardunio board? What's the story with this special driver and IDE and licensing?

Thanks

2

Seems that you are intent on making something easy difficult. You might also check on the old smartphones the clients are talking about. The older the phone the more likely it is to be on IOS, and I don't think they are compatible with HC-0x.

3

Hi Nick,

Well no, I have a reason why I am investigating how to send data to the BC417 through the SPI bus as opposed to the serial option of TX/RX. That reason why is because I am making custom breakout already and I'd like to add this functionality to that breakout. If I use an off-the-shelf product like the one shown above I'd need yet another header to interface with that second breakout, and I just don't have space on my board for it. Said another way, I have room to add one header for one breakout. So I'd like to combine functionality into that breakout.

So if anyone has any answers to the questions I posed, I'd be grateful for the feedback.

Thanks!