How to use an Android Phone or Tablet as a Terminal for BBB?

I would like to use my Android phone (Samsung GT-I8190) or Android tablet (Nexus 7) as a Bluetooth connected terminal for my BBB, but I’m having trouble figuring out how to do so.

It seems I have got the Bluetooth adapter running OK on the BBB since my Android devices can discover a ‘beaglebone-0’. I can also l2ping them from the BBB
as you can see below from a BBB Putty session log taken on my laptop - although the Nexus 7 apparently returns a ping packet of 0 bytes:

root@beaglebone:~# hcitool scan
Scanning …
50:32:75:30:09:93 GT-I8190
30:85:A9:D7:68:56 Nexus 7
root@beaglebone:~# l2ping 50:32:75:30:09:93
Ping: 50:32:75:30:09:93 from 00:15:83:64:6A:2F (data size 44) …
44 bytes from 50:32:75:30:09:93 id 0 time 11.96ms
44 bytes from 50:32:75:30:09:93 id 1 time 8.22ms
44 bytes from 50:32:75:30:09:93 id 2 time 7.19ms
44 bytes from 50:32:75:30:09:93 id 3 time 57.06ms
44 bytes from 50:32:75:30:09:93 id 4 time 16.04ms
44 bytes from 50:32:75:30:09:93 id 5 time 28.55ms
44 bytes from 50:32:75:30:09:93 id 6 time 19.11ms
44 bytes from 50:32:75:30:09:93 id 7 time 34.66ms
Send failed: Connection reset by peer
root@beaglebone:~# l2ping 30:85:A9:D7:68:56
Ping: 30:85:A9:D7:68:56 from 00:15:83:64:6A:2F (data size 44) …
0 bytes from 30:85:A9:D7:68:56 id 0 time 6.93ms
0 bytes from 30:85:A9:D7:68:56 id 1 time 10.07ms
0 bytes from 30:85:A9:D7:68:56 id 2 time 6.59ms
0 bytes from 30:85:A9:D7:68:56 id 3 time 6.03ms
0 bytes from 30:85:A9:D7:68:56 id 4 time 93.53ms
0 bytes from 30:85:A9:D7:68:56 id 5 time 6.92ms
0 bytes from 30:85:A9:D7:68:56 id 6 time 10.36ms
0 bytes from 30:85:A9:D7:68:56 id 7 time 6.68ms
Send failed: Connection reset by peer
root@beaglebone:~#

When I try to connect to the BBB via the Bluetooth Terminal Emulator Pro app on my Androids, I end up with ‘unable to connect device’
I figure there must be a bunch of settings I have to make in the BBB Linux config files to make things work as I want, but I have Googled far and wide
in the search for answers and can’t seem to find all the peieces of the jigsaw.
.
Suggestions gratefully received.

Did you try pairing the device with the pairing code?

My phone shows that ‘beaglebone-0’ is paired in Bluetooth settiings but when I attempt to connect to beaglebone-0 using Bluetooth Terminal Emulator Pro on the phone, I get ‘Unable to connect device’
I think the fact that there is a linkkeys file with my phone’s BT MAC address in it (see below) shows that the phone and the BBB are paired

root@beaglebone:/var/lib/bluetooth/00:15:83:64:6A:2F# cat linkkeys

50:32:75:30:09:93 4B30B719A7B45F7146FE8FDBFB02C830 4 0

My hunch is that the problem has to do with me not setting up the serial port service correctly on the BBB.

looks like it is paired! could I have more information on the bluetooth module you are using? is it something like the JY-MCU or is it a USB plug in?

It’s a Nikkai USB plug-in which claims to support Bluetooth V2

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/nikkai-mini-bluetooth-20-dongle-a63hy

hey,
I am working on similar kind of problem, please share your solution if you found one.