Multiple Bluetooth BoeBots in MSRS lab environment?

Rick Olson

I'm considering using the BoeBot and the MSRS in a lab class, but I don't know very much about the inner workings of how a PC uses Bluetooth to communicate with the BoeBot. I can control my single robot by putting a bluetooth adapter on the PC and selecting the 'bot, but what would happen in a lab environment with 5 or 6 teams all trying to use bluetooth to control separate robots? Is there a convenient way for each team to identify which robot is theirs so they only communicate with their EB500 and don't send signals to the others?

Thanks in advance--

Andy Lindsay (Parallax)

Yes, that should work fine. Each eb500 has a unique device address, and they are designed to work in environments with multiple Bluetooth devices. Each PC that a team is using can be configured to talk to a particular eb500 through the Bluetooth Settings utility, which is typically an icon in the system tray that you can double click. You can use the utility to see all the Bluetooth devices in the neighborhood, examine their device addresses, select which one you want the PC to talk to, and find out what COM port it's on. After each PC has been configured to talk to a particular Bluetooth device, all Microsoft Robotics Studio needs is the COM port number of the particular Bluetooth device it will talk to.

It's going to be really important to test this out before the class starts. Call our sales department at 888-512-1024 and find out what the return policy will be. There should be a time window that you can use to test and make sure this system will work before a restocking fee would apply.

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Andy Lindsay

Education Department
Parallax, Inc.