GoForSmoke:
So both Arduinos have a common ground? A wire that goes from ground of one to ground of the other?And you still have all the serial channels wired to the RX and TX of each with RX of each going to TX of the other plus whatever diodes zoomcat outlined?
Let me know when you want to try using separate, isolated and testable serial channels between Arduinos and PC (those being Serial on each Arduino going to a PC), and one channel between the Arduinos themselves and one channel just for the Bluetooth. Then we can try each piece and isolate errors to fix them rather than poke at a chain of probables and hope for the best.
No they do not have a common ground as they are only communicating VIA bluetooth they have no wires between each other. The slave is plugged into the computer so I can get a read out of serial monitor. The master is not plugged into the computer at all. I'll move the BT to a software serial tonight though I do not think that will help has the issues persist when I have both unplugged from the computer but maybe it just needs a software serial.
@TheHazardousMind: I will give that a shot when I get off tonight and see is I get any luck.
So for the symbols don't seem to be random. I Had it print the hex value and A is always 23 which is #. It seems its not transmitting/translating correctly.