{"id":827,"date":"2010-01-22T14:54:49","date_gmt":"2010-01-22T19:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tigoe.net\/pcomp\/code\/?p=827"},"modified":"2010-01-23T03:12:07","modified_gmt":"2010-01-23T08:12:07","slug":"bluetooth-mate-with-lilypad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tigoe.com\/pcomp\/code\/arduinowiring\/827\/","title":{"rendered":"Bluetooth Mate with Lilypad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coming late to the game, I’m trying out a Bluetooth Mate<\/a> from SparkFun with an Arduino Lilypad.\"\"Overall, it’s a nice Bluetooth radio to use with microcontrollers. \u00a0A few thoughts on getting it working:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This module mimics the 6-pin FTDI cable layout<\/a>. \u00a0It can’t plug directly to a FTDI cable, but it can connect to anything that can connect to that cable and replace it, like the LilyPad and the Arduino Pro. \u00a0SparkFun has been standardizing on the 6-pin FTDI serial cable layout. I’m happy to see more companies doing that, regardless of whether they plan products to pair with the FTDI cables or not, because it’s useful to have a standard layout for serial connections to microcontroller devices. \u00a0To give credit where credit’s due, Limor Fried of Adafruit<\/a> was the first person I saw do it with the Boarduino. \u00a0Yay. \u00a0It’s a good idea.\u00a0The only caveat is that the Mate doesn’t work with the older 4-pin LilyPads. I have a bunch of them, but didn’t have any 6-pin models handy.<\/p>\n

Once you’re connected, the Mate is really easy to use. The Roving Networks radio at its core has a nicely designed interface. When you power it up, it defaults to discoverable mode, and shows up as “FireFly-XXXX”. \u00a0Pair with it remotely using the passcode 1234, and you’ve got a serial port ready to connect to at 115200 bits per second. \u00a0There’s need to pre-configure the radio via serial or anything like that, as there’s been with other bluetooth radios. \u00a0For people building bluetooth microcontroller projects, this means you can concentrate on your circuit and not have to mess with the radio.<\/p>\n

The advantage of Bluetooth is its ability to connect directly to desktops, laptops, and BT-enabled mobile phones — Xbee and other small radios on the market just can’t do that. \u00a0I’ve never been entirely happy with Bluetooth modules, though, because their cost is high relative to other radios, and the configuration is just enough to be irritating. \u00a0This is the first one I’ve seen that addresses the second issue really well. \u00a0will the $20, easy-to-use BT module beat it? \u00a0Not until it comes riding into town on the back of a unicorn, I suppose. \u00a0I’ll keep looking for unicorns, but use this in the meantime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coming late to the game, I’m trying out a Bluetooth Mate from SparkFun with an Arduino Lilypad.Overall, it’s a nice Bluetooth radio to use with microcontrollers. \u00a0A few thoughts on getting it working:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,24,74],"tags":[89,90,85],"class_list":["post-827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arduinowiring","category-circuits","category-electronics","tag-bluetooth","tag-lilypad-arduino","tag-serial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tigoe.com\/pcomp\/code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tigoe.com\/pcomp\/code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tigoe.com\/pcomp\/code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tigoe.com\/pcomp\/code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tigoe.com\/pcomp\/code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.tigoe.com\/pcomp\/code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":829,"href":"https:\/\/www.tigoe.com\/pcomp\/code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827\/revisions\/829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tigoe.com\/pcomp\/code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tigoe.com\/pcomp\/code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tigoe.com\/pcomp\/code\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}