CPB and BluefruitConnect APP -- no UART

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jamieback
 
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CPB and BluefruitConnect APP -- no UART

Post by jamieback »

Several of my students are using the Circuit Playground Bluefruit with the BluefruitConnect App. When they try to find their CPB on the BluefruitConnect app, their CPB device appears, but does not say "UART capable." They can connect to the CPB via the app, but only the Info and CircuitPython menus appear in the app. The Controller menu (and others) are missing, which I assume is because the device is connecting without UART.

I've looked at a few of the CPB's. They are running either CircuitPython 8.1.0 or 8.0.5 and have the correct libraries installed. My two "teacher" CPB's are running CircuitPython 7.3.3 and connect with UART to the BluefruitConnect app every time.

Should I have my students install CircuitPython v7.x, or is there another way to troubleshoot/fix this issue? The students have turned Bluetooth on their phones off/on, had the phone forget the device, closed/re-opened the app, etc. with no change. They've worked through https://learn.adafruit.com/bluefruit-le ... /ios-setup and https://learn.adafruit.com/bluetooth-tu ... t/overview.

I saw this post (viewtopic.php?p=971695&hilit=cpb+uart#p971695), but it was not clear what resolved the issue with UART connect.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

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jamieback
 
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Re: CPB and BluefruitConnect APP -- no UART

Post by jamieback »

I made some progress troubleshooting. The turtle rover code on this page https://learn.adafruit.com/bluetooth-tu ... t?view=all is running on the CPBs that do not connect with UART. They are giving this error:
Screenshot 2023-05-25 212815.png
Screenshot 2023-05-25 212815.png (39.34 KiB) Viewed 2329 times
On the device, in the lib folder, is the adafruit_seesaw folder which contains a file called neopixel.mpy. But there is also file called neopixel.mpy in the lib folder. And that's what the directions specify. If I comment out all references to neopixel in the code (including the "import neopixel" line), then the device connects with UART. But I don't know what to change in the code (or in lib?) to fix the problem.

Any help would be appreciated! We're nearing the last day of school... thanks!

(As an aside, one of my students reverted to CircuitPython v 7.3.3 and v7 libraries and still had the same problem.)

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jamieback
 
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Re: CPB and BluefruitConnect APP -- no UART

Post by jamieback »

Here was my resolution, in case someone experiences this problem: We copied ALL the necessary v7 directories/files (as listed in the turtle bot project here: https://learn.adafruit.com/bluetooth-tu ... cuitpython) from the lib folder of my working CPB device (running CircuitPython v 7.3.3 with v7 libraries) onto the student CPBs, which were running CircuitPython v8.0.5 or v8.1.

I am not sure why it worked, but it did. My students were able to connect to BluefruitConnect with UART and control their turtle bots with their phones.

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