www.USconverters.com How to setup a serial Bluetooth adapter Master Guide This guide is based on Windows 7 and the UCBT232B/EXA Serial Bluetooth adapter. Pairing the serial Bluetooth adapter with your computer ………………… 2 Pairing with built-in Bluetooth or external USB Bluetooth dongle using Windows default Bluetooth management software (for Windows Vista, 7, 8) .………………………………………. 2 Pairing with built-in Bluetooth or external USB Bluetooth dongle using BlueSoleil (for Windows XP or older) ...............
www.USconverters.com Pairing the serial Bluetooth adapter with your computer. To be able to communicate with the serial Bluetooth adapter you need to first pair it with your computer. Our serial Bluetooth adapters part UCBT232B and UCBT232EXA can be paired using a Bluetooth management software called BlueSoleil (for Windows XP) or by using Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8’s built-in Bluetooth management software. We will first describe how to pair it using Windows Vista, 7 or 8.
www.USconverters.com Getting Started If your computer does not already have built-in Bluetooth, then you can instead use a USB Bluetooth dongle. Plug-in the dongle to your computer’s USB port. Windows should now search for the drivers for the USB Bluetooth dongle, (you may need to be connected to the internet). Windows automatically installing the drivers. USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com After the installation has finished successfully (there might be some failed control items as shown in the image above, you don’t need to worry about this) you will be able to see two COM ports in Windows Device Manager. One is an outgoing port and the other is an incoming port. Both are virtual COM ports created by the Bluetooth drivers and the dongle. USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com Now you need to pair the serial Bluetooth adapter with the computer via the USB Bluetooth dongle. Enter the word “Bluetooth” in the start menu and click the Bluetooth link that shows up. This will start Windows default Bluetooth management software (if this has successfully been installed on your computer). USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com A Bluetooth icon should now appear in the task bar: Click the Bluetooth icon and click “Add a Device” in the menu: Windows should now search for the serial Bluetooth adapter and be able to find it: USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com After windows have found the adapter, click “Enter the device pairing code”: USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com The pairing code is “1234”: Click Next USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com The serial Bluetooth adapter is now successfully installed and paired: USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com If Windows does NOT find the serial Bluetooth adapter it might be because it has already been found earlier and already exists in the system. In that case you may need to first remove the serial Bluetooth adapter from the system. Click the Bluetooth icon in Windows task bar and chose “Show Bluetooth devices” from the menu: The image above shows two serial Bluetooth adapters even only one adapter is connected.
www.USconverters.com Assuming that the serial Bluetooth adapter has been successfully installed, click the Bluetooth icon in the Windows task bar and chose “Open Settings”. In the Bluetooth settings window you can now see the COM ports for the serial Bluetooth adapter. I this case COM port number 63 and 105 have been assigned by Windows. Windows assigns an ingoing and an outgoing port. To simplify things; COM63 is the main port which we will use for our communication.
www.USconverters.com Pairing with built-in Bluetooth or external USB Bluetooth dongle using BlueSoleil (ONLY for Windows XP or older) 1. Download Bluesoleil from www.usconverters.com 2. Install Bluesoleil 3. Start Bluesoleil 4. Insert a USB Bluetooth dongle into your computer’s USB port. If you computer has built-in Bluetooth skip this step. 5. Connect the UCBT232B/EXA to the power supply, either by a USB power cable or a 110/5V power adapter, and turn it ON.
www.USconverters.com 6. To search for devices click on the orange circle in Bluesoleil and the UCBT232B/EXA will be discovered. The lower status line must say “Searching for devices…” when a device search is in progress. If BlueSoleil cannot find or detect the Serial Adapter when you click the orange search button a simple solution can be to use a different USB port for the external USB Bluetooth dongle if you are using this.
www.USconverters.com If you are getting a “USB Device Not Recognized” error from Windows when you turn on the UCBT232B/EXA you can simply just ignore this error. The adapter only gets its power from the USB port, no data is transmitted. 7. Right-click on the Serial Adapter icon in Bluesoleil and click ‘Pair Device’ USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com 8. Enter the default Pin code which is ‘1234’ 9. Right-click on the Serial Adapter icon and click “Refresh” USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com 10. Right-click again on the Serial Adapter icon and this time point the cursor on “Connect” and click “Bluetooth Serial Port Service” to connect the UCBT232B/EXA with your computer. 11. If you want Windows to automatically connect to the UCBT232B/EXA click Yes otherwise click No. USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com 12. The UCBT232B/EXA is now paired and connected to your computer. When its successfully connected the blue LED light on the UCBT232B/EXA should be steady blue; and in BlueSoleil a green dotted line with a red arrow going from the serial adapter icon towards the orange circle should be visible. USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com 13. To see the COM port number, status and signal strength, right-click on the Serial Adapter icon and click ‘Status’ USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com 14. Status screen USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com Pairing with another Serial Bluetooth Adapter If you do not have a built-in or external Bluetooth dongle you can instead use two serial Bluetooth adapters to setup a link as illustrated in below illustration. This is a more direct form of cable replacement since you do not need Bluesoleil or any other software to establish a communication link. First you will need to configure the two units as a slave and a master. To do this you can use Tera Term or HyperTerminal. 1.
www.USconverters.com In this example the COM port created by the USB serial adapter is COM2 and the computer’s built-in COM port is COM 1. USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com Now you need to configure one adapter as Master and one as Slave so that they can be paired and communicate with each other. We use Tera Term for configuring the adapter’s parameters. 2. Download Tera Term from www.usconverters.com. 3. Install and start Tera Term. At the startup screen choose the virtual COM port number which the USB adapter has created. 4. Click OK.
www.USconverters.com This will put the adapter in Master mode, (for a list of all commands please refer to the serial Bluetooth adapters user’s manual). When the Serial Bluetooth Adapter is in Master mode the blue LED light will flash at a rate of approximately 0.9 sec. This means that the adapter is inquiring and searching for other serial Bluetooth adapters in the area.
www.USconverters.com Enabling the DIP switches If you want to use the DIP switches on top of the adapter then you need to first enable these. You do that by sending the command DIP=Y in Tera Term; this will enable the two DIP switches. The DIP switches can be a convenient way of switching between Master and Slave mode. USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com Changing the COM port number If you need to change the COM port number the UCBT232B/EXA is using, this can be done as following: Go to Windows Device Manager, right-click on the COM port which Bluesoleil (or your built-in or USB Bluetooth dongle) has created, in this case COM 10 and select “Properties”.
www.USconverters.com Under the ‘Port Settings” tab click the “Advanced” button USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com You will here be able to change the COM port number After you have changed the COM port number click Ok. In Windows Device Manager you may need to click the “Scan for Hardware changes” icon to have the changes show up: USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com Making a loop-back test To verify that the UCBT232B/EXA is properly working, paired and connected you can make a loop-back test.
www.USconverters.com Notice: adapter serial number 14090200 and lower has 19200 baud as default. 4. Loop-back the TX and RX signals. To do this you can simply use a paperclip by connecting it from pin 2 to pin 3 on the UCBT232B/EXA’s DB9 connector: USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com The UCBT232B/EXA obviously cannot and should not be connected to your serial device when you do this test. It only needs to have the loop-back paper clip and power connected and turned ON. 5. In AccessPort open COM 10 by clicking Tools > Port Switch. Make sure the COM port is properly opened.
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www.USconverters.com Configuring the parameters Configuring the UCBT232B/EXA with your own custom settings such a baud rate, data settings, flow control etc. Please refer to the Serial Adapter’s datasheet for all available parameters. The adapter’s parameters can be configured by one of the following ways: 1. Through the serial RS232 interface 2. Over Bluetooth Configuring the parameters through the serial interface Configuring the parameters through the serial interface is the easiest way.
www.USconverters.com RESTART YOUR COMPUTER WITH THE USB TO SERIAL ADAPTER CONNECTED TO YOUR COMPUTER AFTER INSTALLING THE DRIVERS. Otherwise you might experience problems with Tera Term communication. 5. Download Tera Term from www.usconverters.com, we do not recommend using HyperTerminal. 6. Install and start Tera Term. At the startup screen choose the virtual COM port number which the USB adapter has created. USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com Notice: if your adapter has serial number 14090200 or lower the default baud rate is 19200 baud. 7. Click OK. If there is a Flow switch on your Serial Bluetooth adapter it should be in position DCE (towards the DB9 connector on the UCBT232B/EXA). You are now ready to send commands to the UCBT232B/EXA. If you enter the command AT you should get an ‘OK’ back from the UCBT232B/EXA. Example: Entering the command VERSION=? gives you the UCBT232B/EXA’s version number. USconverters.
www.USconverters.com Keep in mind: that if you change the baud rate of the UCBT232B/EXA to for example 1200 baud then you will no longer be able to communicate with the UCBT232B/EXA through Tera Term until you also change the baud rate in Tera Term to 1200. USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com Configuring the parameters over Bluetooth Setting the Data Mode and Command Mode using <<< and >>> First pair and connect two adapters referring to the procedure described earlier in this guide, or connect the adapter via built-in Bluetooth or an external USB Bluetooth dongle. You can use Windows 7’s built-in Bluetooth management software for pairing the adapter with your computer.
www.USconverters.com Before the connection is made the blue LED light on the adapter should flash which means that the adapter is NOT connected. Open Tera Term and open the COM port with the settings shown below, however change the COM port number to the COM port number your system has created. NOTICE: IF YOU ARE USING A BUILT-IN OR USB BLUETOOTH DONGLE THEN THIS COM PORT NUMBER IS THE COM PORT CREATED BY THE BLUETOOTH DRIVERS, IT IS NOT THE ADAPTER’S COM PORT.
www.USconverters.com You can now enter any AT command which will be sent to the serial adapter over Bluetooth. For example enter baud=? And you will get the current baud rate back from the adapter. USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
www.USconverters.com To get the adapter back to Data Mode you can enter the command: connect=y Resetting the serial Bluetooth adapter To reset the adapter to factory settings simply press and hold the reset button located on the top of the adapter. Use a paper clip and carefully press AND HOLD the micro button through the hole in the housing for approx 2 – 5 seconds. The adapter will then reset and restart.
www.USconverters.com Questions & Answers Q: I cannot communicate with my UCBT232B/EXA, why? A: Here are several things you can try: 1. Try and swap the TX and RX wires between the UCBT232B/EXA and the remote device it is connected to by using a null modem adapter. This is required if the serial device you are connecting to is configured as a DTE device. 2.
www.USconverters.com Q: When entering the command ATF? it returns an error when trying to search for Bluetooth devices in range. A: In order to have the UCBT232B/EXA display Bluetooth devices in range it must be in Master mode, and must not be in auto-connect mode.
www.USconverters.com Example settings when using AccessPort terminal software with 7 bit communication at the computer side: Q: How is DTR/DSR signals (pins 4 & 6) handled by the UCBT232B/EXA? A: The DTR signal is rarely used in most serial devices and even if it is used it is often not actually required by the application. This is why the UCBT232B/EXA has looped back the DTR / DSR signal, pin 4 looped to pin 6. By doing this, if the device asserts DTR indicating it will read an asserting DSR.
www.USconverters.com Q: How can I keep the COM port open at all times? I have created a link using a USB Bluetooth dongle and a UCBT232B and it appears as the COM port does not open until my application software tries to connect to my serial device. A: When creating a link with a USB Bluetooth dongle or built-in Bluetooth the UCBT232B/EXA will be the Slave and the USB Bluetooth dongle (or built-in Bluetooth) in the PC will be the Master. The Master or the application at the Master will control the Slave.
www.USconverters.com Known issues When using the UCBT232B/EXA with SkySafari telescope software the “Echo” and system status messages must be disabled for proper communication. These can be disabled with the commands: ECHO=N PROMPT=N USconverters.com Copyright © U.S.
