HC-06 Bluetooth Module on Arduino Nano

Question

I'm working on a project where I need to have Bluetooth capability on my Arduino Nano to send data from a sensor over to the computer. Unfortunately, I'm having a difficult time figuring out how to establish a connection from the HC-06 to the computer.

I've hooked up the HC-06 to my Arduino in a fashion similar to the picture shown below.

I've also been testing it with various code that I've found online that deal with tutorials on the HC-06. The current code I'm working with is below.

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>
SoftwareSerial BT(1, 0); 

void setup()  
{
  // set digital pin to control as an output
  pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
  // set the data rate for the SoftwareSerial port
  BT.begin(9600);
  // Send test message to other device
  BT.println("Hello from Arduino");
}
char a; // stores incoming character from other device
void loop() 
{
  if (BT.available())
  // if text arrived in from BT serial...
  {
    a=(BT.read());
    if (a=='1')
    {
      digitalWrite(13, HIGH);
      BT.println("LED on");
    }
    if (a=='2')
    {
      digitalWrite(13, LOW);
      BT.println("LED off");
    }
    if (a=='?')
    {
      BT.println("Send '1' to turn LED on");
      BT.println("Send '2' to turn LED on");
    }   
    // you can add more "if" statements with other characters to add more commands
  }
}

When I search for a connection on my computer, it finds the HC-06 and I can then attempt to establish a connection. I enter the pairing code of 1234. It then says that a connection has been established so I go into the Bluetooth Services tab where it tells me what COM port to use (either COM7 or COM4 depending on which computer I try it on. I've tried this on two separate computers.)

So, I open a PuTTY session and attempt to connect to the indicated COM port. About 50% of the time, it says that a connection could not be established to the indicated COM port. The other 50% of the time, I am able to open a PuTTY session but then nothing happens. The green LED on the HC-06 continues to blink away no matter what I try to do.

Any help would be VERY appreciated as I feel like I've tried everything I can think of.

Thank you!

Answer 1

I agree with TisteAndii's comment. Your voltage divider is in the wrong place. You are dividing down the 3.3V signal from the HC-06 to be a maximum of 2.269 volts. However the Nano requires at least 3.5V to be considered HIGH.

Plus, you are putting 5V from the Nano into the HC-06 which may damage it.

Answer 2

Try changing the order of the pins on the Software Serial declaration, the correct order is (Rx,Tx), so SoftwareSerial BT(0, 1); Or, just forget Software Serial altogether and remove the first two lines and change "BT" to "Serial" to use the hardware UART on those same pins which works better.