Hey all,
I'm working with a BLE shield (v1.0) on top of my Arduino Uno R3, all of which is connected to a Mac running 10.9.5, and I can't figure out how to connect to the board through bluetooth. My end goal is to have the board send data out to an app, but whenever I open up my Mac's bluetooth options (or the same on my phone), the board isn't even on the list of devices to pair with. Is there some setup that I have to run to get it to be discoverable? And, once it is, so I just use a standard Serial.print command to send out data to the device I pair it with? I've done a lot of googling, but haven't been able to turn up anything useful. Any and all advice would be appreciated!
LeonKennedy:
Is there some setup that I have to run to get it to be discoverable?
No. So long as power is applied and the LED is flashing, bluetooth is discoverable. All the work is done at the other end - scan for devices.
And, once it is, so I just use a standard Serial.print command to send out data to the device I pair it with?
If the device is connected to hardware serial D0,D1, then yes. This means you can test the code on the serial monitor, and us it with bluetooth without any changes.
You might find the following background notes useful
http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~npyner/Arduino/GUIDE_2BT.pdf
http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~npyner/Arduino/BT_2_WAY.ino
To discover the device - I've plugged the board in a few times, but it's still not showing up on my laptop or phone. Any ideas as to what's going on?
Yes. The LED flashes when I power the board(s) on.
It's strange; I couldn't find it on my macbook or iPhone, but I just checked on my Android phone and it's discoverable through the bluetooth there, which is good enough for my purposes. The problem is that when I try to connect it prompts me for a pin. On my phone, (a xiaomi), there's a small gray circle icon with a white exclamation point in it next to the device name. When I attempt to connect, it asks me for a 4-digit pin. I'm not quite sure how to find this. Is this a standard thing for these boards? I bought this in China and I'm beginning to suspect it's not quite 100% legit.
It is normal to be asked for a PIN, but I thought BLE devices had a 6 digit PIN. I understand the HM-10 has six digits but this might not be true for all types. The default PIN for them is 000000, so, if it specifically asks for four digits, you might try 0000 or 1234.
What you see on the phone is probably normal. Far more noteworthy would be the name of the device the phone can see but you don't talk about.
I tried 0000, 1243, 4321, and every string of 4 of the same number (1111, 2222, etc.) with no success. The device name is "BLE Shieid", Which is part of the reason I'm skeptical about its authenticity.
I'm afraid I can't comment, but I was wondering if the device is not actually BLE. Apparently it is - or claims to be! You might (desperately) try a six digit PIN "000000". I have checked the HM-10 manual and it is 6 digit.
I would like to see a link to you shield.
Hahaha. Okay, so it was just a 6-digit pin: 000000. Everything's working fine now; I'm connected. Thanks so much for the help, and with such a simple fumble.
OK, that's good. Can you confirm that you really were asked for a 4-digit PIN, or did you just expect to be asked for 4-digits?
The device asked me for a pin and my traitor xiaomi phone suggested, oh so helpfully, that I try 0000 or 1234. Thanks, phone. So I was never told explicitly that the pin was 4 digits, I just assumed based on hte prompt.