Windows 10 Bluetooth Serial Port
Bluetooth on Windows 10 allows you to quickly connect a large array of wireless devices to your computer (e.g. Speakers, mice, and keyboards). However, while devices should automatically reconnect when they’re in range, Bluetooth isn’t perfect and sometimes you’ll come across connectivity problems. To install serial ports and COM ports using these system-supplied components, do the following: Provide an INF file that specifies the Ports device setup class and the Serial function driver as the service for the port. To configure a serial port as COM port, comply with the requirements that are defined in Configuration of COM Ports. To change the COM port number of a serial device in Device Manager, complete the following: Open the Device Manager by pressing the Windows Key + R. Type “devmgmt.msc” and press Enter. Expand the Ports (COM & LPT) section. Right-click the COM port and select Properties. Click the Port Settings tab and click Advanced.
When you have an old Windows 10 machine, you can reuse it as an IOT gateway.
Bluetooth Serial Terminal for Windows 10 Free You can use this App to communicate with Serial Bluetooth devices like the RN-42 that are used for arduino projects and other custom projects. Most new computers do not have physical serial ports so connecting hardware, like GPS devices, needs to be done using another approach. One approach is Bluetooth. When connecting my GPS device to a computer, it uses Bluetooth. Then, through software, the GPS device is exposed as a series of four virtual COM ports (two sending, two receiving). Download this app from Microsoft Store for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone 8.1. See screenshots, read the latest customer reviews, and compare ratings for Bluetooth Serial Terminal.
Given that your Windows 10 machine has working Bluetooth, you can connect it to an ESP32 development board.
In case you need a reference to connect to an ESP32 development board via Bluetooth on Windows 10, here are the steps to do so.
Setting up your ESP32 development board to accept Bluetooth connections
Before your Windows machine can discover ESP32 Bluetooth, you need to get ESP32 to turn on Bluetooth. In order to do so, upload the following Arduino Sketch to your ESP32 development board:
As I had mentioned in the guide on how to get your ESP32 development board to communicate with another device over Bluetooth Serial, this Arduino Sketch will echo back whatever message that it receives from the Bluetooth connection.
After you had uploaded the Arduino Sketch onto your ESP development board, place it near to your Windows machine.
Connecting your Windows 10 machine to your ESP32 development board via Bluetooth
First, find the Bluetooth and other devices settings from the taskbar:
When you click on Bluetooth and other devices settings, the Bluetooth and other devices settings window will appear:
Given that, click on Add Bluetooth and other device. When you had done so, the Add a device window will appear:
Given that, click on Bluetooth. Once you do so, you should be able to find ESP32test as one of the Bluetooth device to connect to:
When you click on ESP32test, Windows 10 will pair itself with your ESP32 development board via Bluetooth:
Once you had paired Windows 10 with your ESP32 development board, click on Done to go back to Bluetooth and other devices settings.
Bluetooth Virtual Serial Port Windows 10
Finding the COM port to communicate with your ESP32 development board via Bluetooth Serial
Since the ESP32 development board is running a program with Bluetooth Serial, Windows 10 should define a COM port for applications to communicate with your board.
In order to find the COM port to communicate with your ESP32 development board, scroll down to find the More Bluetooth options link under the Related settings section.
When you click on the More Bluetooth options link, the Bluetooth Settings window will appear. Given that, click on the COM port tab to find the COM port to communicate with your ESP32 development board:
As shown above, Windows had defined two COM ports to the ESP32 development board that I had paired with.
In order to communicate with this ESP32 development board via Bluetooth, our application running on Windows 10 will need to use the one labelled as Outgoing under the Direction column.
About Clivant
Clivant a.k.a Chai Heng enjoys composing software and building systems to serve people. He owns techcoil.com and hopes that whatever he had written and built so far had benefited people. All views expressed belongs to him and are not representative of the company that he works/worked for.