Bluetooth serial port

[BobB 58]

I purchased the bluetooth kit from Omron and it is absolutely brilliant. I notice that the Mitsumi USB device can have 2 bluetooth serial ports per device. I wonder how many Mitsumi devices one can have with Promi bluetooth serial ports attached? I have a job on at the moment with 6 CJ1 PLCs and only 2 of them are networked, Controller Link of course. I would love to be able to have a USB hub with 2 Mitsumi devices and 4 Promi bluetooth serial ports or 3 and 6 but do not know if I can. Anyone have any experience here?

[PdL 71]

I am planning to get the BT kit too so no experience but the I think device works just like an ordinary virtual COM port, and in theory you should be able to have as much as CXP can handle and I can't recall there's a maximum, at least not mentioned in any documentation. But I agree to order a new kit based on my assumption isn't very wise. Hopefully someone who knows for sure can confirm. For anyone that is interested, here's a PDF on how to setup the Omron Bluetooth kit.

[BobB 58]

I think it should be OK as the devices pair lock. However, the instructions with the Mitsumi unit say to make sure you plug the device into the same USB port as it was originally installed. Don't know how they would go on a hub. Will have to try. The other thing that bothers me a bit is that you would have to be very careful with the Promi ports as they have been pair locked to a port number and the Mitsumi device. i think you would have to number them or something to make sure you plug in to the right PLC. Could be embarassing. Will try with a hub next week and report back. Will also have to try with the Bluetooth device built into the laptop and see if it works.

[Eric Apperley 0]

I do not have the OMRON "kit" as you described it (I received just the box with th Intium Promi-SD device from the local OMRON office), however I have done a lot of work with the PromiSD device (PDA serial via bluetooth to PLC). My PromiSD box contained the programming software for the device and both adapter and power supply cables. If you connect it to a serial port on a PC using the supplied DE-9 to DE-9 adapter cable (note that the Promi-SD device has a pin-out which matches the non-standard pin-out on the CS/CJ serial port) and install the Intium programming software on the PC then you can program the device and create device pairings as required. You can even pair it up to a bluetooth cellphone if you're crazy enough.... Note that you don't have to do pairing unless you really need higher-level security. The PLC has security anyway so you're best to use that security and set the PromiSD up as simply as possible, certainly in the initial stages of familiarisation. Here's the plan: (NB "PC" used in the discussion below is a "Personal Computer") 1. Attach the PromiSD device to a PC serial port using the supplied adapter cable . 2. Attach the supplied power cable to a USB port on the PC and to the PromiSD device and turn on the power switch on the PromiSD device. 3. Depress the reset button on the PromiSD, located right next to the "ON" position of the PromiSD's power slide switch (you'll need the end of a paperclip or similar to reach inside the enclosure to the button). This will reset the PromiSD device to its default parameters: - Serial Port = COM1 - Baud Rate = 9600 - Parity = None - Stop Bits = 1 The "Status" LED will colour will change to orange. 4. Install the PromiSD software on the PC. Start the PromiWIN program. 5. Promi-SD should automatically detect the device and display the Information screen showing data such as: - Device Name - Device Hardware Address - Current Mode = MODE0 - current Status = Standby - Security = Don't Use - Encryption - Don't Use - UART Settings - as above in (3) 6. Click on the "Device Setting" icon in the LHS panel. 7. Make changes as required - suggest the following: - Operation Mode = Mode 3 => Allow Bluetooth devices to discover and connect to the device - Change the "Device Name" to something meaningful. For example, use the PLC hostlink unit number preceded by the letters "PLC" (e.g. "PLC02") - Leave the "Authentication" and "Encryption" checkboxes unchecked. - Do not enter a password at this stage. Click on the "Apply" button. Wait until the confirmation message "Configuration Applied" is displayed. The "Status" LED should now be green and flashing. 8. You can now browse for other devices (and connect to them) by clicking on the "Connection(Out)" icon in the LHS panel. Other Bluetooth devices will only appear in the browser window if those devices have been set to "discoverable" mode and "all devices" (as opposed to "Paired Devices only"). Note that you can still discover other devices irrespective or whether their Serial Port service is enabled. I don't have a Mitsumi device but it probably works very similar to other USB devices in that there should be a menu option to discover other devices. You should be able to "see" the PLC dongle (the PromiSD) at the PC end using the Mitsumi software. I've got no idea why they would tie the USB dongle to the originally installed port. That doesn't make any sense to me at the moment... Hope that helps. Eric

[Eric Apperley 0]

Bob, Sorry I don't think I answered the real question - apologies for that. Several points which may help. 1. Some USB Bluetooth devices do support two virtual serial ports, not all. In that case you can "talk" to two serial devices concurrently/independently via their different (virtual) COM port labels (e.g. COM14). Two "COM port" assignments will be made to the Mitsumi device at installation of the software. These assignments are stored in the registry. 2. The Bluetooth stack software will determine which remote Bluetooth device you are going to to connect to. Often it is the LAST remote bluetooth device it connected to, but some applications will present a Bluetooth browser screen in which you can manually select the remote device (e.g. the HP iPAQ, which uses the Widcomm Bluetooth stack, always presents a browser window whenever you "open" a virtual serial port via the software application). 3. The stack will have provisions for the remote device to be selected programmatically, but the problem is that most software applications (e.g. CX-ONE) don't provide that facility so pairing a remote device to the virtual serial port is the only way or relying on the "last device connected" facility. 4. If the PLC's are networked on a single network then you'd only need one Bluetooth "connection" to communicate with any PLC on that network. That would only require one dongle at the PC end and one PROMI-SD fitted to a PLC connected to the network. The correct routing would obviously need to be set up on the PLCs for that to work. 5. I haven't tried it but you could no doubt use the manual "browse" function supplied in the software supplied with the dongle to connect to a particular remote device and thus set a remote device as the "last" device connected to. IN SUMMARY It can be a bit confusing but remember that there are two addresses to be selected if you use virtual serial ports over Bluetooth: a) the COM port (e.g. COM14) at the PC end - you will normally select the COM port in the PC application software as though you were connected by a serial cable. b) the device address of the remote Bluetooth device - this is where the problem lies. Most PC applications don't have any facility for setting this, e.g. CX-One software. The only answer is pairing or the "last device connected" Edited 2 Dec 2006 by Eric Apperley

[BobB 58]

Thanks Eric. The Promi ports do have serial numbers and I have pair locked the Promi I have to the Mitsumi on comm port six. The Mitsumi also reports comm port 5 and can support 2 serial ports. By pair locking them the way I have done, the serial port number is always the same for the Promi with that serial number from what I have seen so far. There is also a search for devices in range with the Mitsumi and I pick all the phones around that have bluetooth enabled. Send rude messages too sometimes. The owner of the phone never knows where the message comes from, but that is another story. From the way the Mitsumi pair locks to the Promi and keeps the same comm port number for the serial number on the Promi, I believe I will be able to have 2 or more Mitsumis and 4-6 Promis attached as long as they will work through the hub. I plan to buy a hub tomorrow (probably Belkin - there stuff is usually pretty good) and hopefully try the connection next week. If the PLCs had Controller Link cards I would not bother as I would be able to get to all PLCs with Toolbus. Have been there before several times. On another note, I recently did a job for another company (software only). They had Controller Link cards between PLCs. The guy had set up the network for auto generation he told me. He was also too lousy to upgrade from CX-Programmer to CX-One. He was having problems with the network. I put my laptop over my arm and walked out of the plant room with my bluetooth attached. Set up about 60 metres from the PLC and opened CX-Integrator. Searched the network and found he had actually set the network up for manual generation and had put in no CIO or DM for the network. Fixed it up without him knowing. Went back inside, re-booted the PLCs, and viola, the network was suddenly working. He wondered why the network had suddenly started working for the rest of the day. I finally grabbed him and took him outside to where I had altered things and showed him what I had done. He ordered CX-One and bluetooth that afternoon.