E38 Bluetooth Telemetry Bridge Manual

The Bluetooth Telemetry Bridge is a portable device that allows you to use your tablet or smartphone as a ground station for your ArduPilot Mega powered vehicles.  This guide will show you how to setup and use your Bluetooth Telemetry Bridge

Buy Bluetooth Telemetry Bridge

Using the Bluetooth Telemetry Bridge

• To use this Bluetooth bridge, you simply need to turn it on, pair it with your android device and connect to your autopilot via one of the android apps.
• You will need to install one of the android ground station apps on your android device.  Either Andropilot or Droidplanner
• Please also make sure that you have already configured your 3DR radio modules to have the correct baud rate and netID.   If not read below on how to do that.

• To pair the device with your android phone you will first need to turn the bluetooth bridge on. 
• Scan for new devices and select to pair the device titled 'Event38'. 

If it does not pair first time, simply turn your Bluetooth on and off on your android device and also turn the bridge on and off.

• Once you have paired the device, you should turn on your APM-powered vehicle.
• When your APM vehicle has started up you should notice that the telemetry module LED on the vehicle is solid green, indicating the telemetry module is communicating with the Bluetooth bridge.  This should occur within 30 seconds.
• Now simply open your Ground Station App and try to connect to your vehicle.  Assuming everything has been setup correctly it will work and you are ready to fly!

Charging

To charge, turn the Bluetooth Bridge off and plug in the USB cable. The battery is very large so give it plenty of time, as much as 10 hours. The charger will automatically stop charging when the battery is full, though the blue LED may not turn off. With a full charge, you should be able to use the Bridge continuously for over 10 hours.

LED Status

Click on the table above for a full view. 

Changing Radio Module Settings

Radio Settings screen in the mission planner

• Fore more details please read the 3DR Radio Quickstart Guide

• The easiest way to change your radio's settings is to connect to the bridge using bluetooth on a laptop or PC with Mission Planner loaded. 
• In Mission Planner, select the COM port associated with your Bluetooth Connection and select 9600 as the baud rate. 
• Now go to the Initial Setup tab and open the 3DR Radio menu. 
• Now click Load Settings, the settings from the Bluetooth Bridge's radio should populate after a few seconds. 
• If you power on the other radio, you can make changes to the remote radio simultaneously as long as they can currently make a connection.

Troubleshooting

Bluetooth won't pair
Make sure you're using an Android device and that it meets the requirements of the ground station software you're using. Try turning off and on both the Bluetooth Bridge and your device's Bluetooth option. Make sure your device supports Bluetooth 2.0 or later.

I accidentally left the Bluetooth Bridge on all night!
The Bridge will automatically go into deep sleep mode when the battery voltage reaches a critical level. Just turn the device off and plug it in to start recharging the battery.

The green LED on my telemetry module doesn't turn solid green
First, check that the radio module is the same frequency band as the Bluetooth Bridge you ordered. If it is, did you make any changes to the radio's settings like changing the net ID? Our radios ship with the latest version of SiK Firmware and the default settings and will work with factory default 3DR Radios and RFD900 radios. If you've changed any settings in your radio, the easiest thing to do is to change those settings back to default, then update the Bluetooth Bridge radio and your vehicle telemetry radio at the same time once they can connect on the default settings.

When I walk around with my Android device, I lose connection with my vehicle.
If you walk outside of the Bluetooth radio's range, the connection will terminate. Bluetooth range is up to 50 feet but can be less depending on the device and background noise. By installing a Bluetooth management app called Bluetooth Auto Connect, we've found that the connection can be immediately re-established once you walk back into range.