How do I use the eb500 Bluetooth chip with vista?

rage404

I'm running Vista and in following through the eb500 instructions It talkes about Hyperterminal, Vista does not have Hyperterminal. Is there an updated eb500 sheet with instructions on how to use Vista to make a connection to the eb500 bluetooth chip·attached to·boebot?
Thanks for reading,
Jeff

Franklin

You can use any terminal program. Google for it. I use hyperterminal private edition and ucon

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- Stephen

rage404

Im new to the whole robotics sceen so I'm not sure how to use other programs. I was hoping for maybe a step by step how to get it connected like in the manuel. Figuring it out myself with other programms may take me years.

Franklin

Getting a good book on Vista and studying is the only way to learn

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- Stephen

Chris Savage

Using HyperTerminal implies you have it connected to a PC. If so, how are you connecting it? The EB500 uses non-inverted TTL level serial whereas the PC uses inverted RS-232 level serial. Without using an EB600 adapter, MAX232 line driver or some other appropriate interface you would not be able to connect the device directly to the PC.

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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support

rage404

Currentley I have an internal bluetooth card in my laptop that i was planning on using. Is there somthing else that i need in order to communicate between the two? I can see the card with my computer just like I can see a standard bluetooth mouse, I was assuming this connection was all i would need.
I have the USB boebot kit and the A7 engineering eb500 card. From what i read on the "Boe-Bot Kit for Microsoft Robotics Studio" purchasing page this seems to be all I would need. Is this incorrect?

Chris Savage

Since you have your own BT adapter then you can establish a connection to the EB500. The program on the BASIC Stamp would need to be written to communication with the remote host through that connection. Examples of this are included in the Microsoft Robotics Studio although the remote host is typically using a C++/C# or VB program for communication.

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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support

Andy Lindsay (Parallax)

If you can see the Bluetooth module on your PC, you can use the BASIC Stamp Editor's Debug Terminal to exchange information with it.··Assuming you have downloaded the BASIC Stamp Editor v2.4 from www.parallax.com and installed it, here's how to get set up.
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P······ Open the BASIC Stamp Editor.
P······ Click the Edit menu and select Preferences.
P······ Click the Edit Ports button.
P······ Right Click the COM port entry that matches the one for the eb500 that you can see in your Bluetooth manager, and select Include port.
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Next, try the attached BASIC Stamp 2 programs.· To communicate with them, you will have to open a Debug Terminal and select the eb500 COM port as follows:
·
P······ Open the Program with the BASIC STamp Editor.
P······ Click the Run menu and select Run.
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After you have loaded the program into the BASIC Stamp, you’ll need to open a Debug Terminal.·
·
P······ Click the Run menu, select Debug, then New.
P······ Click the Com Port dropdown menu and select the COM port that was assigned to your eb500.
P······ Press and release your BASIC Stamp carrier board's reset button to restart the program.
·
The blue windowpane will display serial messages sent by the BASIC Stamp to the PC over Bluetooth, and you can type messages into the white windowpane just above it to send serial messages to the BASIC Stamp (also serial over Bluetooth.)

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Andy Lindsay

Education Department
Parallax, Inc.

Post Edited (Andy Lindsay (Parallax)) : 3/20/2008 6:54:39 PM GMT

Ed B

Andy,

Thanks for your post. I was able to get my eb500 working in short order.
Just for clarification, can I load a program via blue tooth or do have to load
it using a serial/usb connection and then execute it?

Thanks again,
Ed

Andy Lindsay (Parallax)

Good, glad to hear it.

At present, programs have to be downloaded to the BASIC Stamp by either a serial port or a serial over USB connection. I'm hoping that we can find a bluetooth transceiver with access to the other serial lines required for program downloads. The eb500 only has the serial tx and rx.

Andy

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Andy Lindsay

Education Department
Parallax, Inc.

rage404

Thanks so much, It was pretty agrivating trying to use MSRS to get the boe-bot to move. Using your programs really helped me out because now I at least know that the boe-bot and my computer are working and all I need to figure out is the MSRS interface.
Thanks for keeping me from throwing this out the window.