So you want your NXT device to talk back to your Linux machine? Perhaps you want to control your robot through your computer. As a first step, you have to set up the Linux - NXT bluetooth connection. My setup is explained below.
Now, once all the packages are installed, make sure that your bluetooth hardware is supported and is running fine. One way to do this is to check for the bluetooth icon in the taskbar of Gnome.
You should be able to click on that icon and get a list of preferences. In case you are not sure if you device is getting recognized and used, check for lines similar to the ones below in the output of dmesg
Now that you have a working bluetooth setup, you need to pair it with the NXT brick. First, you need to ensure that the serial service is started by selecting it in the preferences dialog from the bluetooth icon.
Now turn on your NXT Brick, and enter bluetooth settings, and turn bluetooth on. You can verify that bluetooth is turned on by looking in the top left of the NXT display. It should have a bluetooth icon. Now run the command sudo hcitool scan from a console. The output should contain a line for your NXT device. My device is called Snow, and I get the following output.
Great!. This is definite proof that your bluetooth device works, and that it can see your NXT. Time to set them up for pairing. Edit the file /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf to contain the following block:
Now, you need to pair your device. This is done with the following command
If you have a multi-seat (or multi-terminal) setup, this notification might be going to another seat, so check all notification areas on every terminal. If you don't know what multi-seat or multi-terminal setup is, ignore the previous statement. If all went well, your ping command should be able to send packets back and forth to the NXT. A happy sample output is shown below.
(This is the stable home of the page that was earlier at vikram.eggwall.com)
- Ubuntu Gutsy (7.10) Linux, though these instructions are not version dependant. The only instructions that depend on the distribution are the ones related to package installation (apt-get). If you know your distribution's package manager, you should have no trouble.
- An x86 computer. Typically, you'll want a laptop with bluetooth support, so you can walk around with your NXT construction. A desktop will do just fine too. You need an x86 because the nbc binary only works on an x86.
- A Lego Mindstorm NXT.
- Bluetooth hardware on your linux machine.
- The Linux packages: bluez-utils, python-bluez, bluez-hcidump, bluez-gnome, bluetooth
sudo apt-get install bluez-utils \
python-bluez bluez-hcidump bluez-gnome bluetooth
Now, once all the packages are installed, make sure that your bluetooth hardware is supported and is running fine. One way to do this is to check for the bluetooth icon in the taskbar of Gnome.
You should be able to click on that icon and get a list of preferences. In case you are not sure if you device is getting recognized and used, check for lines similar to the ones below in the output of dmesg
[243203.060226] Bluetooth: HCI USB driver ver 2.9 [243203.063512] usbcore: registered new interface driver hci_usb
Now that you have a working bluetooth setup, you need to pair it with the NXT brick. First, you need to ensure that the serial service is started by selecting it in the preferences dialog from the bluetooth icon.
Now turn on your NXT Brick, and enter bluetooth settings, and turn bluetooth on. You can verify that bluetooth is turned on by looking in the top left of the NXT display. It should have a bluetooth icon. Now run the command sudo hcitool scan from a console. The output should contain a line for your NXT device. My device is called Snow, and I get the following output.
Scanning ... 11:22:33:44:55:66 Snow
Great!. This is definite proof that your bluetooth device works, and that it can see your NXT. Time to set them up for pairing. Edit the file /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf to contain the following block:
rfcomm0 {
# Automatically bind the device at startup
bind yes;
# Bluetooth address of the device
device 11:22:33:44:55:66;
# RFCOMM channel for the connection
channel 1;
# Description of the connection
comment "Snow Mindstorm";
}Change the address 11:22:33:44:55:66 to match the output of your hcitool scan command that you made in the previous step. Now run the command sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart, and then rfcomm. The output should contain your device's address. A sample session is shown here:$ sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart * Restarting bluetooth [ OK ] $ rfcomm rfcomm0: 11:22:33:44:55:66 channel 1 clean
Now, you need to pair your device. This is done with the following command
$ sudo l2ping 11:22:33:44:55:66This will prompt the NXT to beep happily, asking for a passphrase. The number "1234" is already entered, so just accept it by pressing the orange button. Now your computer will want to know this passphrase. Click on the button in the notification that pops up (example shown below), and enter the same number as shown. This is a one-time procedure for each computer-NXT combination.
If you have a multi-seat (or multi-terminal) setup, this notification might be going to another seat, so check all notification areas on every terminal. If you don't know what multi-seat or multi-terminal setup is, ignore the previous statement. If all went well, your ping command should be able to send packets back and forth to the NXT. A happy sample output is shown below.
Ping: 11:22:33:44:55:66 from 00:09:DD:50:67:CE (data size 44) ... 4 bytes from 11:22:33:44:55:66 id 0 time 49.95ms 4 bytes from 11:22:33:44:55:66 id 1 time 85.71ms 4 bytes from 11:22:33:44:55:66 id 2 time 27.80ms 4 bytes from 11:22:33:44:55:66 id 3 time 54.80ms 4 bytes from 11:22:33:44:55:66 id 4 time 65.81ms 4 bytes from 11:22:33:44:55:66 id 5 time 47.80ms 4 bytes from 11:22:33:44:55:66 id 6 time 84.79ms 4 bytes from 11:22:33:44:55:66 id 7 time 45.81ms
Great! So now your NXT is paired with the computer. In order to communicate with the desktop, you need to download the NXT Python library. Once you have downloaded and installed it, enter the sample program, and you should be able to get the NXT's name and ID. If you have any problems at this stage, try rebooting the NXT brick, it sometimes helps. After running the sample program, you should see your hostname in the "My Contacts" in the NXT's bluetooth menu. This verifies that you can connect with the NXT, and have the NXT talk back to the desktop computer.
(This is the stable home of the page that was earlier at vikram.eggwall.com)