MultiWii

I am using the HobbyKing MUltiWii328P board (MultiWii 2.3) and I just got this bluetooth board. I am looking at this post to connect it. I have tried using the regular connection, the alternate connection, with the USB brige, without, powered from USB, powered from BEC, swapping the RX and TX, reconnecting to the bluetooth, two different android apps, watching the raw data... And I get nothing. My phone connects to the module but I receive no data. The app I am using is compatible with 2.3 (MultiWii EZ-GUI).

I am trying to test the BT module with an arduino uno. It works but I have no idea what it is supposed to be doing, it seems kind of odd. I can't get my phone and it to send data back and forth. I can only send data from the phone if I don't set up Serial in the arduino sketch, and just use the window to listen. If I set up Serial so that I can send to the phone, it works, but then I can't send from the phone anymore, even using the serial read example. Then in both situation, reversing RX and TX doesn't seem to change anything. If I try to use serial read and write in the same sketch they seem to interfere with each other. I don't know if I am doing it wrong or if something is wrong with the BT module.

I would really appreciate any help with this... Thanks.

HAve you tried the "BT_NEW-" setting in the advanced options android ex-gui? This is how I got it working on my galaxy s3. Also did you confirm that the correct port is specified as well as correct baud rate?

Yes, I had tried that. It turned out to be a problem with the device. The RX and TX had been soldered together. After I fixed it, it worked perfectly. Sorta, I need to use a real BEC, it seems to be sucking up too much power.

Just wanted to add in for anyone else who finds this thread after having problems with this board (like me). I tried everything I could to get this thing working, even making a custom sketch in arduino to program it (I don't have an FTDI/USB interface). I made the sketch to blast through the commands and tried it at every baud rate. The serial monitor was supposed to be showing what came back from the chip, like the "OK" acks of the commands I sent. I never did see them, just some slowly scrolling gibberish.

The ray of hope was when I realized that the board wasn't responding to me over serial, nor working when connected to the MultiWii, but it *was* accepting the commands I was giving it. For example, it had changed it's Bluetooth Device ID and the pairing PIN to those that I specified in my Arduino sketch, so I started to wonder if it wasn't just a physical issue with the tx path. After seeing your solution: fixing the bad soldering, I took a very close look at my board and I could see that in a few of those tiny fillets, the solder didn't appear to be bridging down to the pad on the lower board. I ran a 1/64 soldering tip through each of the contacts, and lo and behold, the thing works perfectly now.

So that's two of us with this ebay board and bad soldering. if you are reading this and find yourself with similar issues, check those solder joints.