MacBook Pro (Win7) - NXT bluetooth connection

[katamapah]

Hi,

Here i am with my NeXT problem - a bluetooth connection between my Intel based MacBook Pro (iCore2Duo) running Win7 and NXT.
I searched the net and found a lot of ambiguous information as for should or should not an NXT work with BroadCom bluetooth adapter found on my
MacBook Pro. The official Lego information said there is a known issue with BroadCom adapter and one should opt for the bluetooth dongle.
Some other people reported their MacBook Pros were able to connect (were they using an older, non Intel PowerBooks instead of MacBooks ?).

As for myself, i was able to find the NXT in add devices Win7 wizard and pair it with my PC, then there were 2 COM ports added (seems to be fine till now),
but once i ran a program on NXT that trying to check for the available connections on all the available channels (though master connection should always be on channel 0) using BTConnect(), it always reported an error.
I also tried to establish connection from NXT-G and still wasn't successful.
Same goes for Snow Leopard.
I managed to get a connected green light in the MAC OS wizard, but while running same application to check the connections on NXT i always got the error.

So what is your MacBookPro - NXT bluetooth experience ?
Is there any workaround or should i buy a separate dongle ?
What dongles (beside the expensive Lego's) are proved to be working with NXT ? (at some place i saw the DT's 2$ dongle is just fine) ?

Thanks a lot,
CTAC

[tcwan]

I'm using a MacBook Air with the Broadcom WiFi module, but I don't use Win7.
I think the Bluetooth issues has to do with the Mac OSX drivers rather than the Broadcom module per se.

I can use my MBA to connect with the NXT using the Mac OSX Fantom drivers over Bluetooth.
I'm on Snow Leopard (10.6.7). Presumably that is not an issue anymore?

[katamapah]

May be it is not an issue anymore (specially if you're doing OK with your MacBook Air),
but still in my particular case something is going wrong and i am unable to connect.
So may be i am doing something wrong...
That's what i am trying to find out before opting for another dongle.

Do i need to do something special on the NXT side beside to check the connection by calling to
char BluetoothStatus ( const byte conn ) [inline] assuming i established it from PC to NXT and got 2 COM ports ?
Should BluetoothStatus see a PC-NXT master connection on channel 0 right away, or there is something i have to do in code before trying to check the connection?

[tcwan]

Do i need to do something special on the NXT side beside to check the connection by calling to
char BluetoothStatus ( const byte conn ) [inline] assuming i established it from PC to NXT and got 2 COM ports ?
Should BluetoothStatus see a PC-NXT master connection on channel 0 right away, or there is something i have to do in code before trying to check the connection?

Hmm. Have you tried using John Hansen's graphical NextTool to connect with the NXT over Bluetooth? This would help troubleshoot pairing and connection issues.
If the NXT has been paired properly with the PC, it should respond to a connection request from the PC (via NextTool) without further prompting.

I'm not so familiar with the programming aspect of bluetooth pairing/connection, there's the issue of setting the PIN for the connection, etc. which perhaps someone else would be in a better position to explain.