Bluetooth and Mac OS X Setting up a Mac to Use MyroC and Scribbler 2 Robots

Bluetooth Setup for Macintosh Workstations/Laptops

Macintosh computers communicate with Scribbler 2 robots using Bluetooth. Each robot has a different serial number, and communication is based upon that number.

Setting up Bluetooth connections on Mac OS X relies upon the Bluetooth menus with the machine's System Preferences.

1. Open the Bluetooth menus within System Preferences

   • Some machines are configured, so that a Bluetooth logo appears in the menu bar at the top of a screen. If so, click on the Bluetooth logo to open the Bluetooth System Preferences.
   • If a Bluetooth logo does not appear in the menu bar at the top of the screen, go to the Apple Dock (often at the bottom of the screen, but sometimes on the left or right), and click on "System Preferences".

2. Pick up a Scribbler 2 robot, and look for a sticker on the Fluke or Fluke 2 that indicates a serial number.

   • For a Fluke card, the serial number will be 6 decimal digits.
   • For a Fluke 2 card, the serial number will be 4 hexadecimal digits.

3. Turn on the Scribbler 2. After several seconds (but likely less than a minute), a device will appear in the Bluetooth System Preferences window with a name containing the robot's serial number. Examples might be:

   • IPRE6-365877
   • Fluke2-0958

4. A button containing the word "Pair" will appear to the right of the device. Click on that button.

   • When referencing a Fluke 2 device, the "Pair" process likely will proceed without difficulty.
   • For a Fluke device, the "Pair" process likely will fail. Upon report of failure, click on "Options" and enter the passcode "1234" (omit the quotation marks). Pairing with this password should succeed.

   Note: When this pairing process succeeds, the new device will appear in the computer's listing of Bluetooth devices. For a short time, the device will appear as "Connected", but then the status will change to "Not Connected". This is normal and expected — there is no need to try to maintain this connection at this point!

   • By having the new device listed, a user knows the computer knows how to access the robot when requested.
   • The "Not Connected" label indicates that no communication with the device currently is underway, but a connection can be made when a program seeks to communicate with the robot.

5. Double check that a device file containing the serial number has been created in the /dev directory. As an example, use the following commands in a terminal window to search for the two serial numbers above.

   ls /dev | grep 365877 | grep tty
   ls /dev | grep 0958   | grep tty
   

   This search provides the full device name for MyroC connections, such as

   • tty.IPRE6-365877-DevB
   • tty.Fluke2-0958-Fluke2

6. When using rConnect within MyroC to connect to a robot,

   • Use the full device name (found in the previous step), OR
   • Use a substring of the full device name that includes the full serial number

7. If a more generic device name is desired, create a symbolic link in the /dev directory. For example, a device name /dev/rfcomm0 could be used within rConnect, after issuing the following command in a terminal window

   cd /dev
   sudo ln -s tty.IPRE6-365877-DevB  rfcomm0
   

   Notes:

   • In the above "ln -s" command, note that a common naming convention uses the name "rfcomm0" (with the digit zero 0, not the capital letter O).
   • In practice, most any name can be used for the symbolic link, but rfcomm0 has the advantage that many sample programs in MyroC are distributed with /dev/rfcomm0 within the rConnect procedure call.

created 19 October 2015 last revised 19 October 2015
For more information, please contact Henry M. Walker at walker@cs.grinnell.edu.