This post follows on from Turning a LED on and off with an Arduino, Bluetooth and Android. Part II
Now that we have two way communication working let’s add a couple more LEDs and two more switches.
Bluetooth
Turning a LED on and off with an Arduino, Bluetooth and Android. Part II: 2 way control
In the first part I showed how to control a single LED from an app created in App Inventor. This worked OK but was very limited. You could control only 1 LED and the control was one way; from the app to the Arduino. What if you want to have 2 way control of the LED and to be able to also control the LED from the Arduino side? What if you want to control more than 1 LED?
In this guide we look at adding two-way communication. Here we control an LED but you could have it doing anything.
In first example you could only control the LED from the Android app, here we extend the example so that we can also control the LED at the Arduino side. When the LED is turned on or off by the Arduino we want the button in the app to update to show the correct LED status.
The first example used methods only suitable for controlling one LED, this time we will try to make it so the Arduino sketch and also the AI2 app can be easily scaled and so once you have the basic app in place adding extra buttons and controls should be fairly straight forward.
Turning a LED on and off with an Arduino, a HC-06 and Android
Although I use a HC-06 in the below examples the HC-05 in slave mode can also be used.
Using MITs app inventor it is fairly easy to create an app that can turn a LED on and off from an Android device.
This is a fairly simply example of sending commands to the Arduino to turn a LED either on or off. The Android app sends ascii codes to the Arduino via the HC-06 BT module; “ON” for on and “OF” for off.
Load the app, connect to the HC-06 and then use the LED button to turn the LED on and off.
You can also open the serial monitor to see the commands as they are received
Arduino and HC-06 (ZS-040)
The HC-06 is a slave only BT module that is fairly easy to use with the Arduino using serial communication. Once it is connected it simply relays what it receives by bluetooth to the Arduino and whatever it receives from the Arduino it sends to the connected device. There are several slightly different versions of the HC-06, however, all seem to use the same firmware and have the same AT commands. The ones I have are labelled as zs-040. I also have some HC-05s which share the same PCB and are also labelled as zs-040.
The HC-06 defaults to AT mode at power on. This is indicated by a rapidly flashing LED. After the HC-06 is connected to another device the LED stops flashing and is constant on.
HC-05 and HC-06 zs-040 Bluetooth modules. First Look
Update: If you have modules that have a blue LED in the top left hand corner then you have a newer model with a slightly different firmware although they should operate the same.
I recently bought some HC05s and HC-06 Bluetooth modules. These are pretty standard, especially when using with the Arduino and I was surprised at how easy it was to get basic serial communication working. There are several slightly different modules available. The ones I have are marked zs-040. The zs-040 boards differ from some of the other modules in that they have a EN pin rather than a KEY pin.
