Bluetooth Terrible Documentation

#1

I see that I posted a couple of years ago, and I still have the same complaint:

WHERE IS THE DOCUMENTATION???!!!

All of my searches for information only bring up marketing- pretty pictures with promises of how great the product is, but after I bought it, I have to read half the internet trying to figure out what to do with it.

Makeblock has been around for a long time, and yet the ‘help’ option on many of the blocks still says:

“Help documentation is on its way. Stay tuned!”

Ridiculous. Grrrrr.

So I’ll ask again, where is the documentation on using the Bluetooth functionality- the module and programming with it.

#2

Not sure what you’re looking for but this is about all I know of:

#3

Thanks MurrayElliot- we have the Bluetooth module installed and some functions work, but only by trial and error.

Again, a good manufacturer documents how their products work. All I can find is advertising.

#4

Doumentation for makeblock hardware is pretty patchy. I tried to find Arduino coding information for my sons mbot Ranger - I ended up writing my own from a range of different online resources and posts by other enthusiasts.

#5

Hi Gerp124,

Do you use the Ultimate 2.0 robot? If yes, the bluetooth module on it is the single mode bluetooth,here is the introduction for the single mode Bluetooth.

#6

Hi MurrayElliot,

I am sorry that the documentation for some hardware is patchy currently. Recently we have built a project team to optimaze the product documetation. The first stage is to integrate the documentations of all product into a unified path. The second stage is to optimaze the documentations for all the productst. We will try our best to make it easier for our user to get usefull instruction.

Regarding to the arduino coding information of ranger, do you mean the source code of the firmware for mBot Ranger. Actually, you can find it here.

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#7

Hi @tech_support, no - that is source code - I meant documentation - actual written words which describe the functions of the libraries/functions. Your sourcecode functions well, but it has NO documentation to help the user understand what the functions are or how and why they are used.

Here’s an example of my documentation. It’s not amazing, but it’s far better than anything I could find from Makeblock: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EpMWJo9pP2J_pstzXA-XHK8t00Z70SCZYwZ_Kl7VLuw/edit

#8

Hi MurrayElliot,

I find this, please check if it helps.

#9

Thanks MurrayElliot.

I guess you’ve got a better attitude than I do. These things are expensive, and they are definitely NOT for children if you have to create your own modules with procedural code just to make them work at all.

#10

Thanks tech_support, but that page has very little information on it- most of it is marketing that says nice things about the product.

Most of my frustration comes from my expectations- I expected a more guided experience suitable for a child. There’s no way a child could do much of this on their own. The assembly instructions are very good, but programming is not. I’d like to see a very explicit guided tutorial for each project where, after building, you go to a link that guides you step-by-step through a functioning program.

I have two problems right now:

  1. I’m not getting email notifications of updates to this conversation- it says ‘Watching’ and there’s nothing in my spam filter

  2. How do I make connect the interface in the iPhone app communicate with the program that I loaded into the MegaPi?

Specifically, I wrote a program in mBlock (browser) on my Windows laptop, connected to the MegaPi via USB, and loaded the program onto the MegaPi. Now I want to control that program from the iPhone app, but I do not see any modules in mBlcok that ‘connect’ to buttons available in the iPhone app, so how do I do this?

#11

And maybe a better way to describe it:

I see that I can add the Bluetooth controller to the Ultimate 2.0 through the ‘Extensions’ link.

I would also like to be able to add the iPhone app in the same way. But if that’s not possible, how do I connect the iPhone app to a program already loaded into the the MegaPi?

Does that make sense?

#12

Hi gerp124,

Now,I understand what you request. Unfortunately, I am afraid this is not possible. The Ultimate 2.0 robot can only communicate with the mobile APP via Bluetooth when you upload the factory firmware which integrate the complex Bluetooth communication in the underlying program for the Ultimate 2.0 robot. When you upload your own program to the Ultimate2.0 robot, the firmware will be covered. If you want to integrate the Bluetooth communication in the underling program to your program, I am afraid it is very difficult as we don’t have such instruction. Besides, the engineer has never shared this part.
The mobile APP do you mean the Makeblock APP? If you want to program to redefine function of the control button in the Makeblock APP, actually, you can program in the Makeblock APP directly refer to the videoin this link.

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#13

Hi @gerp124

The only way you’d be able to create software which responds to the iPhone app in ‘upload’ mode would be to write your code in C++ using Arduino tools and the parse the bluetooth commands directly (the protocol by which the app talks to the mbot is documented here: https://www.makeblock.com/project/makeblock-orion-protocol - unsure if this is the same for all devices or not). Basically, you’d have to replicate the operation of the standard firmware.

#14

Perfect- thanks so much @MurrayElliot. That’s a clear explanation that I can understand.

Thanks very much for all your responses, too.

#15

Thanks @tech_support, that makes sense.

#16

still not getting email notification, tho…

#17

Hi Gerp124, I will feedback this issue and see if it can be fixed. I found that it looks like I can’t receive the email notification either.

#18

Thanks!

#19

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