Technical details of the difference between dual mode and BLE bluetooth modules

#1

Hi,

I was wondering what the technical differences are between the dual mode modules and the ble module. I purchased the BLE which is based on bluettooth version 4 hoping to use it to control my starter robot from multiple bt enabled devices.

When I was doing my research I could only see that the difference was that the dual mode supported version 2 and 4. Now I can see that the product page has been updated to state that the dual mode is more suitable for controlling using a mobile app but I don’t understand why the ble can’t be used with more than just the ios devices. My Samsung Galaxy S4 has bluetooth 4 shouldn’t it also connect in the same way?

Android documentation states that android 4.3 supports BLE but apps need to specify that it requires BLE in the app permissions.

I would love to hear from people at makeblock and others in the community to learn more and see how we can go about expanding the support for robots connected with the ble module.

#2

Hi @hbohosian

I’m Johnny of Makeblock. Sorry for that problem. Which version of you Baseboard? Orion or Leonardo?And which port of the Baseboard did you connect with? If you use Baseboard Orion, please check that the bluetooth should connect to Port_5.

As for the BLE, since the version of that module is very old, the transmission rate of it is very slow. Even though the Galaxy S4 has bluetooth 4, the App could not be very smooth when we use BLE. There is no such problem about Bluetooth dual module. We redesign it recently.

#3

Hi @Johnny

Thanks for your response, I think I have an orion, it is the one with the buzzer right? I have the BLE plugged into port 5 I can pair with the iOS app but it doesn’t respond. When I upload a sketch to println the bluetooth.read() to serial it shows funny characters in the serial monitor when I move the motor slider but nothing when I play with the joystick. Can you recommend what I should do to make it work?

Also it is great that your current product page makes a note about which bluetooth module is required to use with a broader range of devices but that doesn’t help me, when I was doing my research 2 months ago when I purchased this it wasn’t there. The product description doesn’t say enough about which product is more suitable. When I was researching the product descriptions were very similar.

#4