Compatible Bluetooth Dongles
[EDIT] Here is Kristian’s post with more detailed explanation of the example sketch.[/EDIT]
Kristian Lauszus from TKJ Electronics, a man behind PS3 and Xbox360 code in USB Host Shield 2.0 library did it again! I’m pleased to announce that the library now supports standard RFCOMM/SPP implementation, thanks to Kristian’s work.
RFCOMM is basic Bluetooth service and SPP is serial port emulator on top of this. The code allows interfacing standard USB Bluetooth dongles to Arduino boards using USB Host Shield v.2.0. Bluetooth dongles (the ones I’ve tested can be seen on a title picture ) are widely available, cost much less than specialized serial Bluetooth modules (I have a couple of powerful class 1 dongles bought on eBay for $1 shipped) and won’t occupy precious serial port on Arduino board. Even though most dongles are compatible with the code, there are also some that don’t work. The code has been tested for compatibility with all major OSes – Linux, MacOS and Windows 7, as well as Android devices. It will likely work with any RFCOMM client, however, more testing is necessary.
The example code is a simple SPP server. It needs to be started before attempting to connect to it from a PC/phone. Once started, the state of the server is printed on a terminal. After that, the device can be discovered/paired/connected to; it is then possible to send characters from one device to the other by means of a keyboard. In the coming days I will write a series of posts with details of connecting different Bluetooth devices to Arduino. In the mean time, enjoy the code! Please give it a try and let me know what you think.
Oleg.