Problem with Getting NXT connected through Bluetooth

[Ender'sShadow]

I did some searching through the posts and didn't find anything that seemed to help.  Perhaps someone can take a look at this problem I'm having or direct me to a good discussion thread that might help me solve it.  I've got

a Toshiba Qosmio Laptop with Win 7 and LabView 2009 and NXT/FTC toolkit installed.  Everything is working great through the USB connection but the bluetooth connection doesn't seem to be working at all.  Whenever I hit the scan button the window that says scanning pops up and goes away so quickly you almost can't see it.  The NXT doesn't show up in the list.  I'm not sure what's wrong.  When I attempt to discover the NXT brick and connect to it through bluetooth using the Toshiba bluetooth connection utilities everything connects but it still won't scan and show up in the list.

Does anyone know what might be causing the problem and an approach to solving?

[Ender'sShadow]

Up until 2am last night but everything appears to be working.  This may not be news to most but it was to me so...

Most bluetooth stacks are not compatible with the NXT or so my research has indicated.  Of course on the USFIRST.org site they recommed you use the ABE22 dongle that comes with the kit but I don't have one of those so I was attempting to utlize the built in bluetooth adapter in my laptop with the Toshiba Win 7 bluetooth driver.  This driver does not work at all for the NXT or so my experiences and research last night would lead me to believe.  Instead I uninstalled this driver and allowed the generic Windows bluetooth driver to take its place and this has proven very effective.

Thanks.

[Atomic Penguin]

Hello Everyone -

I am having a terrible time getting Bluetooth to work with Vista.  Have tried both built-in BT on a Dell XPS-420, and a Thinkpad X200.  I can establish connection and pairing using the Windows BT software, but get a "failed to connect to specified NXT" error when I try to connect via LabVIEW or NXT-G.  Can someone give me a step-by-step procedure to connect via LabVIEW on a Vista machine?

I have tried TWO ABE 22 BT dongles, and get a "device failed to start" message from Windows.  Can someone tell me if what appear to be LEDs on the ABE 22 dongle are supposed to light up - perhaps indicating that the device is actually working??

Thanks

[MarkBlack]

The Abe dongle on my system has a red LED that slowly blinks,  ~1-2 Hz.

Are these Abe dongles you are using the same as those that came in your kit?

Bluetooth can definitely be frustrating, and I would recommend removing any instances of your NXT in the Bluetooth control panel for Vista.  I appologize I can't recall the exact name for this application or where you can find it.  Generally I think it can be opened from the Bluetooth icon in the system tray.  Once all instances of your NXT are removed from Vista reboot your computer (for good measure, this may not actually be necessary).  Once your computer is boot, pair your computer and NXT with the operating system.  Once this has been done launch LabVIEW and attempt to make a connection there.

There is also additional troubleshooting help in the FTC Getting Started Manual that came in the same package as your LabVIEW software.

I hope this helps,

Mark