Robot Starter kit Bluetooth firmware update

#21

Hi @Gr8Scott,

Which version of sketch did you use here?

#22

There isnā€™t anything in the sketch that mentions bluetooth

This confused me too for some time but it is correct. The Bluetooth is accessed through Serial. There doesnā€™t need to be anything BT specific in the sketch.

#23

V1.20101 is the version I used of the mbot firmware. Is this old? I thought it was current. If it is current, what else should I look at to get this puppy connecting to bluetooth and operating on itā€™s own using the ultrasonic sensor?

#24

Hi @Gr8Scott,

Please check these things below,

  1. The Bluetooth module should be connected to Port_5(Makeblock Orion, if it is Baseboard, connect to Port_4)
  2. If you have upload the firmware to Orion, when you open the App and click the button at the bottom right corner, the screen should like this,

Could you find the "Makeblock"here? Choose it and click the top right corner, then wait for a second, the Bluetooth should be connected.

When the Bluetooth is connected between module and phone, the blue LED (on the Bluetooth module)should keep lighted. If it is not, the LED should keep blink.

#25

Tried switching ports and that didnā€™t change anything. Tried uploading the baseboard sketch instead of the mbot sketch and nothing changed then either. Also switched ports from 5 to 4 and back repeatedly. The robot never tried to move and the bluetooth never hooked up. It says it ā€˜failedā€™.

#26

Hi @Gr8Scott,

Please wait for a moment, our engineer is checking on this bug.

#27

Sorry for the iOS app has a wrong firmware file. The new firmware for orion is updated.Please check it , if your app doesnā€™t work for control dc motors. https://github.com/Makeblock-official/Makeblock-Firmware/tree/master/tool
the source:https://github.com/Makeblock-official/Makeblock-Firmware/tree/master/mblock_firmware

#28

This is explains why when I connected with my iOS tablet to control my robot that it hosed things up. I then went back to the android and after a 3 times it finally stopped asking to upload firmware and allowed me to use Makeblock again.

#29

I am using android btw.

#30

I too had trouble initially. The Android App now works every time.

I couldnā€™t figure out how to use the Audrino IDE to upload (I suspect it had to do with the Bluetooth being hooked up now after reading more).

I use codebender.cc to upload test sketches to ensure the board itself was working.

I then installed and used scratch and updated the firmware through scratch and USB.

I turned off the on board speaker that likes to scream at me.

I then tried again with the Android app, it uploaded the firmware and showed a pairing screen and code to accept pairing.

I then was able to control the robot, and have no further problems with the android app.

#31

Your english looks great to me Jachred. I thank you for the information. Seems like Iā€™m not actually uploading anything through codebender. I think this may be the same issue I have been having with using the arduino programming software. Iā€™m using the arduino Uno as the board and port 3 automatically shows up with no other options for ports. The manual tells me to select port 8 IIRC, but that port never shows up as an option for me.

#32

I used Chrome 32 Bit (64 Bit doesnā€™t work). With the codebender plugin and driver for an Ardruino Uno.

https://github.com/Makeblock-official/Makeblock-Library/tree/master/makeblock

Downloaded as a ZIP and uploaded to codebender as a custom library.

Also

is the one I used but I notice there is an updated one there from 2 days ago.

I uploaded that as well. Then I just chose the RGB light show and Motor Sketches from the Library and uploaded them into the board.

I am not good at writing my apologies. I normally donā€™t post on forums because of my poor writing skills.

#33

Not sure how that got turned around. I ended up editing my previous post instead of putting in a new one. I will re-include my text for the sake of continuity.

Your english looks great to me Jachred. I thank you for the
information. Seems like Iā€™m not actually uploading anything through
codebender. I think this may be the same issue I have been having with
using the arduino programming software. Iā€™m using the arduino Uno as
the board and port 3 automatically shows up with no other options for
ports. The manual tells me to select port 8 IIRC, but that port never
shows up as an option for me.

#34

Updateā€¦ I uploaded the buzzer and motor test from the makeblock academy and both worked as expected. I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to get this thing to function. Finally making strides. Thank you all sooooo much for the help!!

#35

Greatā€¦ I hope you can play more. This hardware platform is great, but as others have said the software leaves something to be desired. Makeblock teamā€¦ If you would like I think I could help. I have been trolling(not in a bad way) through your sites, and you need to reconcile quite a few pages to make things more clear and concise for everyone starting out on your product. I can see this platform going a long way if we can clean things up a bit.

Regards,

Nine
-oo-

#36

Guess I need to tell everyone what worked for me instead of just celebrating the success LOL. That was a bit selfish of me.

Codebender.cc that Jachred recommended was my key to getting programs on the board. I then went to the following link http://learn.makeblock.cc/orion/ and tried uploading the two sketches they have posted there individually. I donā€™t know why using the arduino software that I already had on my computer didnā€™t work, but it didnā€™t. After that I tried uploading the ultrasonic example in the library with success.

#37

I had a problem loading the firmware as well. I found that the code doesnā€™t want to work with the latest version of Arduino software but works fine with the older 1.0.6 version.

#38

I have noticed that the Bluetooth really doesnā€™t play well with others. After unpairing a couple of devices (headphones, another robot) it seemed to connect much better. And as stated here when upgrading the firmware you really have to unplug the BT. While the connection problem is better, now the app crashes when I try to use it and when it doesnā€™t crash I get no response from my bot at all. I have another full kit and instead of taking this one apart for testing I am going to pull the motors and modules from it and do a bench test of the whole thing. I guess I was being too much of an optimist in believing it would work out of the box. But on the lighter side from viewing the post on the forum, it isnā€™t just me! I do wish to thank those who post here because I couldnā€™t have gotten as far as I have without you!

#39

SUCCESS! After we tried and encountered problems so many times, we discovered that the problem is the Android version of the phone. Use atleast Android version 4.3 to support the Bluetooth Module(BLE) 4.0(tested on the Orion board)

Make sure you uploaded the firmware below.
mblock_firmware.zip (27.5 KB)

Reference: http://www.makeblock.cc/me-bluetooth-module-ble/

https://www.google.com/search?q=android+v4.3+support+bluetooth+4.0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=+android+4.3+support+bluetooth+4.0

#40

I try to update the firmware, but still the message appears: ā€œFirmware not found, plese upgrade firstā€ I downloaded the Firmware.ino from 11/20/2014, and uploaded by usb, but no success. The same message appears. What is wrong?
I am using bluetooth dual module and Base shield based on Leonardo.