Bluetooth NXT - PC connection setup.

What follows is a stepwise description of how to setup your Bluetooth connection with a NXT. Do not be frightened by the number of steps, it is a very detailed breakdown of the entire procedure. If this will be a routine in the future the number of steps will reduce and easy to reproduce by hart. Good luck.

(“Click” is short for “Left Click”)

Step 1. Stick the Bluetooth-stick in the PC’s USB port.

Step 2. Go to your NXT. If there is more than one NXT, the steps 3 until 7 should be completed for each NXT.

Step 3. Switch on the NXT by pushing the orange button on the NXT.

Step 4. Scroll to the Bluetooth icon on the NXT with one of the grey triangle buttons.

Step 5. Push the orange button.

Step 6. Scroll to “Visibility” and select “Visible” by pushing the orange button.

Step 7. Scroll to “On/Off” and select “On” by pushing the orange button.

Step 8. Return to the PC.

Step 9. Open “Bluetooth Devices” located in the “Control Panel”.

Step 10. The “Devices” tab should be in front.

Step 11. This step is just for your convenience. If you want to see a shortcut to the “Bluetooth Devices” in the “Taskbar’s notification area” you must click the Options tab and check “Show the Bluetooth icon in the notification area”.
Go back to “Devices” for the following steps.

Step 12. Click “Add…”. The “Add Bluetooth Device Wizard” window opens.

Step 13. In the “Add Bluetooth Device Wizard” window check the “My device is set up and ready to be found” box. The “Next >” button highlights now.

Step 14. Click the “Next >” button and a scan for devices starts. and should find one or more devices (if you are lucky the NXT(s) you are looking for is(are) among them).
● However, if a message shows the following text: “Windows cannot find any Bluetooth devices. Make sure …“ maybe the NXT was left alone too long and switched off. Push the orange button on the NXT to switch it on again. Click the “Search again” button.
● If there is still no NXT found then remove the Bluetooth-stick and put it back and click the “Search again” button.
● Still no sign of life and the PC is running an upgrade from “Service Pack 1” to “Service Pack 2” than maybe a “database integrity is corrupted” problem is the culprit. To check if this is at hand and to crack this one you should consult the following webpage: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892891/.

Step 15. Glad you are here. It means that in the “Add Bluetooth Device Wizard” window you are presented with one or more devices. One of them is your NXT (represented as a Bluetooth icon) with the NXT its name and telling you it is a “New device”. Click on this icon to check it and click the “Next >” button.

Step 16. Now questions are asked concerning the “passkey”. The standard procedure is to opt for the radio button “Let me choose my own passkey” and type the default value passkey “1234”. Click the “Next >” button.

Step 17. If the sound on the selected NXT is turned on an acknowledgment is audible. On the NXT display the numbers “1234” will show up. Hit the orange button within 30 seconds. If you do not succeed to do this within that time limit then click “< back” and push the orange button on the NXT. Try again.

Step 18. For a short moment the message “Installing Bluetooth device” is shown. Then you will be presented with allocated (Incoming and Outgoing) COM ports. Click “Finish”.

Step 19. The “Add Bluetooth Device Wizard” window closes. In the “Bluetooth devices” window the status of the device changes from “New device” (see step 14) into “Passkey enabled” Click OK.
From this point the PC and the NXT should be paired.

Step 20. Start MindStorms and click on one of the two “Go >>” buttons. In the main window click on the “NXT Window” button. A window will open. Default the “communications” tab is in front. If you are not sure about the devices showing up in the list is the device you are looking for click the “Scan” button.

Step 21. Choose the NXT in the list and click the “Connect” button. Sometimes an error message pops up proposing 3 possible solutions. Most of the time the first one helps you out: “Turn the NXT device off and back on”. Retry step 21 again.

Step 22. The “Enter Passkey” window opens. The default key “1234” is shown. Click the “OK” button.

Step 23. The NXT bleeps and on the NXT’s display the passkey is shown. You should puss the orange button to confirm the connection.

Step 24. The status “Unavailable” changes into “Connected”. The name of the selected NXT is displayed in the NXT data area.

Step 25. Close the window.

This was the final step. You are now able to upload programs wireless.