Adding Bluetooth to Vex

[mechanicalbrain]

Im not that familliar with VEX but maybe a gumstix (www.gumstix.com). They have built in bluetooth and I know they work fine with the IFI controller.

[CyberTroniX]

i sent a message to the manufacturers of the bluetooth module and they told me it can only be connected to any UART .

so i don't know if the Rx1 on Vex is UART or not ?

[foobert]

Originally Posted by CyberTroniX

i sent a message to the manufacturers of the bluetooth module and they told me it can only be connected to any UART .

so i don't know if the Rx1 on Vex is UART or not ?

yes, rx1 and tx1 are connected to rg1 and rg2 on the user processor. these are the receive and transmit pins respectively of usart2.

[CyberTroniX]

thanks for the info
do u know the pinout of Rx1 ?
i am also trying to get the schematic of the circuit that has the micrcontroller on in , because i want to know how is the microcontroller is connected to Rx1 or Serial .
Anyone knows how these are connected ??

[foobert]

Originally Posted by CyberTroniX

thanks for the info
do u know the pinout of Rx1 ?
i am also trying to get the schematic of the circuit that has the micrcontroller on in , because i want to know how is the microcontroller is connected to Rx1 or Serial .
Anyone knows how these are connected ??

i made a little chart. i was planning to add more info, but got sidetracked. the functions of the various pins on the 18f8520 can be determined from the datasheet. as i mentioned rx1 and tx1 are connected to rg1 and rg2 which are also known as rx2 and tx2. the transmit and receive lines on the serial port are connected to rx1 and tx1. very confusing, eh?

anyway, i got the information from the example code at vexlabs.

[CyberTroniX]

i'm a bit confused ..
if i can connect the bluetooth module ( which has 4 pins : TX , RX , PWR , GND ) to Rx1 , do i connect it to Rx1 which was used for the RF Module that came with the robot ? or do i connect it to RX & TX that are on the Analod/Digital section of the microcontroller ?

if it's the 1st option then i need to know the pinouts of the Rx1 input ,
if it's the 2nd option then i need to know where to connect the PWR & GND pins of the bluetooth module ?


Something else i'm thinking of doing it ... which is replacing the RF Module on the Remote Control Unit with a bluetooth module . Is it possible ??

[jgannon]

Originally Posted by mechanicalbrain

Im not that familliar with VEX but maybe a gumstix (www.gumstix.com). They have built in bluetooth and I know they work fine with the IFI controller.

Let me re-emphasize this. You'll probably have a lot less trouble if you just buy the 400MHz Gumstix with Bluetooth, which will run you about $169. Connect one of the serial ports on the Gumstix to the Vex, and write a couple of lines of code on the Gumstix to redirect I/O from the wired serial port to the Bluetooth UART. Then you have your Bluetooth Vex, and you have a nifty off-board co-processor should you ever need it.