IR Trouble and 4-Pin Bluetooth LE Serial for iOS

[Faris]

Hello,

I just got this kit and it's awesome! One issue that I'm seeing though is that the IR receiver fails to recognize the command transmitted from the remote almost ALL the time. I've read on this forum that this could be due to the sun and bright lights, but I'm sitting in a dark room at the moment and that's not making a difference. I understand that this is really what's happening because the robot just keeps repeating the previous command over and over again. What can I do to improve this? I'd really love for the IR receiver to work properly.

Another possible option is a bluetooth serial adapter. I was considering the HC-06 at first since that has been mentioned on this forum, but I read somewhere that this module would not connect to an iOS powered Apple device. Is this true? If so, what are my options? I've seen some Bluetooth low energy adapters online but they have more than 4-pins. Is there any sort of shield/adapter that I can purchase and plug directly to the mePed board v1.4.1?

thanks for your help!

[spierce]

Hi Faris,

I'm sorry for your troubles with the IR Remote. Please contact us at sales@spiercetech.com and we can work out getting you a new IR Remote. They are typically quite a bit more stable than what you're describing so you might have received a faulty one.

As for the HC-06 Bluetooth module, I haven't heard of any problems connecting to them with an iOS device. The HC-06 is a standard, generic Bluetooth device and should be able to connect to anything that supports Bluetooth. I don't have an iPhone or iPad so unfortunately, I cannot confirm this. The mePed will also work with an HC-05 Bluetooth adapter which has 6 pin but only the middle 4 pins are used by the mePed PCB.

If you find another Bluetooth device, you'll need to make sure that the Power, Ground, RX, and TX pins are connected to their corresponding pins on the PCB.

Thanks,
Scott Pierce

[Faris]

Scott,

Thank you for sending out the replacement IR kit, it works MUCH better now. With the IR taken care of, I'm looking forward to trying out my new HM-10 Bluetooth Low Energy and ESP8266 Wi-Fi transceivers! This has proven to be an extremely fun kit to play with, thank you so much for creating it.

[spierce]

Hi Faris,

You're very welcome, I'm happy to help! I'm glad the new IR Remote worked much better than the original one. I appreciate your patience while working through the issue! Please keep us posted on your progress with your Bluetooth and WiFi modules!

Take care,
Scott Pierce