Bluetooth Mate Silver

The Bluetooth Mate Silver is a bluetooth communication module, which was developed by SparkFun to be used in conjunction with micro-controllers.

In this tutorial I will explain how to establish a Bluetooth communication between your computer and Arduino using Bluetooth Mate Silver. Make sure your computer has an internal bluetooth modem, or that you have a USB bluetooth dongle to allow communication with Bluetooth Mate Silver.

Example of a Bluetooth USB dongle:

- Wiring:

Make the connections between Arduino and Bluetooth Mate Silver according to the table and schematics below:

Now, connect the Arduino to the USB port on the computer and see that the Bluetooth Mate Silver flashes the red LED, which means that it is receiving power and is ready for connection.

Always be aware of the LED of the Bluetooth Mate Silver module, as it can mean several things, such as: Connected, Setup Mode, Quick Connect Mode etc.

- Synchronising with the Bluetooth Mate Silver:

Right-click the Bluetooth icon next to the clock.

Choose Add a Bluetooth Device and look for RN-42-XXXX, where XXXX is the 4 ID numbers of your module.

When you try to synchronise with RN42, it will ask for a password. Enter 1234, which is the default password of RN42.

- Configuring the serial ports:

After synchronising the RN42 with the PC, right-click the Bluetooth icon next to the clock and choose Open Bluetooth Settings.

Most likely, the RN42 will already be configured in 2 COM Ports, in my case ports 13 and 14 have been configured to send and receive Bluetooth messages.

- Configuring the Bluetooth Mate Silver:

Open the Arduino IDE and connect to the serial port where the computer is sending data to the RN42, in my case the port is 13.

Now open the Serial Monitor and change the option from "Newline" to "No line ending" and change baud to 115200bps, which is the RN42 standard.

Let's test if everything is correct by typing D and clicking "Send". The RN42 must respond with all settings of the bluetooth module, such as: Name, baud rate etc

To change the name of the bluetooth device, we will send a SET command, as follows:

SN,<nome>

And now, most importantly, we have to change the baud rate of the bluetooth module, for a more stable economic and safe communication, sending the following SET command:

SU,<baud-rate>

Now switch the Serial Monitor baud back to 9600 baud.

Done! The bluetooth module is configured!

- References:

Manual of the modem bluetooth RN-42, Which is the modem used in the Bluetooth Mate Silver.

Bluetooth? SparkFun Electronics

Bluetooth Mate Silver Retail SparkFun Electronics