4. Physically connecting BL-521 to your RS232 device..................43 4.1. Configuring the communications parameters.................... 43 4.2. Physically connecting your device to BL-521 via the RS232 connector ............43 5. Connecting to/from BL-521 over Bluetooth..................... 44 5.1. “Cable Replacement” ..........................44 5.2.
The BL-521’s configuration menus are available at any time that there is no Bluetooth radio connection established with another device. As soon as a Bluetooth connection is made, the data sent to BL-521 will be sent over the radio link to the remote device. As soon as the Bluetooth connection is broken, the configuration menu’s become available again.
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“terminal” or “tty” type application (e.g. minicom), which talks directly to a serial port in that operating system. First, connect BL-521, along with the supplied gender changer, to an available serial port on your computer. In this example, we use COM1.
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Select the Port that you have connected the BL-521 to. All other fields will then be “greyed out” Click OK Select the communications parameters that your device is configured to. In this example we have used the factory defaults normally applied. If you have previously reconfigured these values, then you will need to make sure the settings here match those you have configured to device to be.
It is from this menu that all available serial port settings can be changed. The available options are detailed below. 3.2.1. Baud Rate The factory set communications parameters for your BL-521 are as follows… Baud Rate: 115,200 Data Bits:...
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Selecting option (d) from the “Set Baud Menu” allows the user to configure BL-521 to operate at any baud rate the user desires between 244 baud and 1.3M baud. BL-521 will calculate the nearest actual baud rate it is able to achieve and display it next to your selection, as shown in the configuration menu’s below.
Configuration changes are only applied when option 4 ( Apply COMM settings) is selected from the previous “Modify COMM Settings” Menu. Unapplied settings are discarded during a re-boot of BL-521. 3.2.4. Stop Bits After selecting option 3 from the “Modify COMM Settings” menu, the following menu is displayed.
BL-521. The easiest method of performing this in HyperTerminal is to close the application down and re-start it, setting the alternative parameters during the initial application configuration.
Selecting option “2” immediately renders BL-521 “non-discoverable”. No other Bluetooth devices will be able to see BL-521 when they perform a device discovery. However, in this mode, your BL-521 is still “connectable”. This means that any other Bluetooth device that knows about your specific BL-521 (i.e. it knows the Bluetooth address of the individual unit) can still connect to it.
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Selecting option “2” will immediately place your BL-521 into security mode 2. This mode allows remote Bluetooth devices to search for and retrieve the services on your BL-521, but will not allow them to connect unless the 2 devices are paired.
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After selecting option 4 from the “Modify Bluetooth Settings” menu, the following menu is displayed. The PIN can be any combination of printable characters. The PIN is only used when BL-521 is configured to be in security mode 3 (High security) The factory set PIN is “1234”.
PIN selection. If your BL-521 is to be configured into Client mode, this is the PIN that will be used by BL-521 to initiate pairing with the remote device before any connection is made. If your remot e device is another BL-521 in Server mode, you will need to ensure that “both”...
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Once a remote device has successfully partnered with BL-521, no other Bluetooth device will be able to connect until the pairing has been cleared. The pairing can be expired either by interacting with this menu option, or by invoking a “short” reset by pressing the reset button.
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This expiration only deletes the Link Key created during pairing and doesn’t remove the device itself If a remote Bluetooth device has previously paired to the BL-521 then this menu will display the first time the “Set Partner Device” menu is accessed.
The default configuration of your BL-521 is set to “Server” operation. This means that the BL-521 will wait for devices to connect to it. Changing this setting to “Client ” will put the BL-521 into a state where it will attempt to connect to the device contained in its internal database.
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After selecting option 7 from the “Modify Bluetooth Settings” menu, the following menu is displayed. The Factory setting for the local device name is “BL-521 BB RS232 Converter”. Selecting 0 immediately returns you to the previous menu storing any changes; selecting any other option will store the appropriate configuration selection.
Be sure to take a note of these settings as you will need to ensure that the next time you attempt to communicate with your BL-521 that you use these new settings. Remember that the original factory settings may have been updated using the previous menu.
If you are having difficulty connecting to the BL-521 configuration menu, follow these few simple steps… a) Ensure the power adapter is plugged in and switched on – The LED’s will light up on the BL-521 b) Ensure the attached cable AND the gender converter are attached securely to an available RS232 port on your PC.
This configuration is very straightforward and is detailed below. For BL-521’s to connect as a pair, one of the devices needs to be configured as a client device, and one as a server. As the factory settings for BL-521 are “Server” it follows then that only 1 of the BL-521 pair needs any alternate configuration from that supplied.
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For our example here, we will use a BL-521 with a BD_ADDR of 000A -4F-00082D, which we’ll call the Server, and a second, with a BD_ADDR of 000A-4F-0013BB, which we’ll call the Client. We’ll leave all other settings for this example as factory defaults.
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You’ll need to add the Server BL-521 into this menu option. Select option “1” which brings up the following menu. You should enter here the Bluetooth Address (BD_ADDR) of the remote device you wish to pair (in our case this is 000A-4F-00082D) followed by ENTER.
There are many different scenarios whereby a connection can be made to a BL-521 and consequently its attached device. The application scenarios will also depend on what sort of device you have attached to the BL-521. One worked example is shown here for illustrative purposes, but the principle will be the same regardless of the device you are connecting to except perhaps the cabling arrangements your device might require.
“Bond” option. If you have configured your BL-521 from the menu to use a low security mode (and thus not require bonding) then this step can be skipped and you can jump straight to section “5.2.3 Connect to the profile”.
You will then be prompted to enter a PIN number. Enter the Pin number (which is 1234, unless you have used the configuration menu to change it). Click OK The Icon of your BL-521 in the main window should now change to indicate a “bonded” status as shown below. 5.2.3. Connect to the profile In order to actually connect to the appropriate function on the BL-521 you will need to discover it’s services.
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