Bluetooth serial setup problem

[wa3fae]

I purchased the AIM-4170C at Dayton. A nice unit and it works perfectly with a wired connection (USB-SER). The problems started when I got fancy and tried to "remote" the unit with a Bluetooth serial combo. I'm using the USB dongle BLDONG2 and Serial Bluetooth RS232 Adapter, Industrial UCBT232EXA from USConverters.com.

I got the Bluetooth units to link to each other successfully and jumpered pins 2 and 3 and got a successful loopback response. When I connect to the 4170C with the AIM software, it says port open for about a second and then says the connection failed. I have all of the flow control set properly and set the AIM config file for 57600 baud and a 3000 millisecond delay on setting up the RS232 port. I realize I can do this with Windows RDP and WiFi but I really want this to work. Any suggestions? Thank you.

[wa3fae]

After many frustrating hours of work, I solved this problem. The secret lay in someone's posting about the AIM being sensitive to chatter from the attached device, e.g. verbal responses to commands like the "OK" from modems of olden days. I hooked the Bluetooth DB9 device to a PC with a native DB9 serial port, used a terminal program (putty) and configured the device through it's physical serial port, not the Bluetooth side. You are dealing with 2 different serial settings, the one seen by the Bluetooth software (and the AIM software) on your PC going towards the RF device via a Bluetooth USB device and the one seen by the AIM4170 via the DB9 connector. Setting the baud rate on the Bluetooth software and device driver on the PC does NOT affect the baud setting from the device into the physical DB9 port of the AIM4170.

The working changes I had to set on the Bluetooth device via the DB9 were:
set prompt off (no OK/ERROR after commands)
set echo off (no echoing your typed commands, default is on)
set baud to 57600 (default is 19200)
set physical dip switches to:
S: Slave
N/G: Disable
DCE/DTE to DTE using male/male gender bender

I used a "1" in the AIM4170 config file to set the baud to 57600 instead of the default "0" for 115200 baud.

Nothing succeeds like success.

[ae4cw]

Thanks to WA3FAE (see post above) I now have Bluetooth working perfectly with my AIM4170 (original version). I'm use the same Serial Bluetooth RS232 Adapter, Industrial UCBT232EXA from USConverters.com as described in the previous post. The only difference in the physical connection is I'm using the built in Bluetooth function in a recently purchased WinBook TW801 8" tablet running Windows 8.1 vs. an external Bluetooth dongle.

Here's the scoop on what works with this configuration:
AIM version 865A software - No changes to the standard configuration file, i.e. no need to change the 200msec hardware delay for external hardware. When the program starts the "Com port x Open" message comes up followed by "Could not Open Com" followed by "Com port x Open". So, there seems to some negotiation going on. However, it have never failed to establish a reliable Bluetooth link.

The UCBT232EXA Serial-Bluetooth adapter - I made two changes to this device. These need to be made with the device attached to a Windows computer serial port or via a reliable (FTDI chipset) USB to serial converter attached to the computer. USConverters.com has toolkit link on the page for the UCBT232EXA adapter which includes their recommended program for adjusting the configuration of the adapter; the program is called AccessPort. The DEC/DTE hardware switch must be set to DCE during these changes. The User Manual that comes with the adapter describes a long list of configuration parameters but I changed ONLY TWO of the parameters:
Set BAUD=57600 (default is 19200)
Set PROMPT=N (the default is Y)
Optional Set NAME=AIM4170 Bluetooth Adapter (or something else you like)
The hardware Master/Slave switch should be set to S for Slave though this is the configuration default.
The hardware Group/No Group switch seems to work in either position, but N/G seems the safe option.
After these changes are made be sure to set the DEC/DTE switch to DTE for use with the Bluetooth connection to your computer.
This documents has a lot of instruction and illustrations on how to set up the Bluetooth adapter - highly recommended: www.usconverters.com/downloads/ucbt232b_exa/How-to-setup-a-serial-bluetooth-adapter.pdf
Last, you will need a DB9 gender changer to connect to the 4170 as the adapter has a female connector.
The range between the WinBook TW8001 and the 4170 using this adapter seems quite good...at least 60 feet.

Having a self-contained AIM4170 (complete with power and Bluetooth) and a tablet with Bluetooth makes for a very handy, easy-to-use system. Couldn't be happier!
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Chuck, AE4CW

[ae4cw]

U.S. Converters has just announced a serial to Bluetooth adapter that is battery powered. This means that no modification is required to the AIM4170 to get 5V to pin 9 on the serial connector. Plus, this version is considerably easier to set up and displays more operational information via LEDs. The availability says "Coming Soon". Based on the capability of other U.S. Converters devices, this one should be a winner.
www.usconverters.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=70&products_id=455
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73 de Chuck, AE4CW