This may not actually belong here but as our team uses RobotC it seems appropriate, if not please direct me elsewhere.

After returning from our first regional we found that we can't connect to the NXT, the one used in the competition, over bluetooth. As before I went into the Windows Bluetooth panel and registered, for lack of a better word, the brick. It goes through the normal process of installing and registering the incomming and outgoing comm ports, etc.

I then start RobotC and attempt to connect to the brick. It shows the brick with one of the comm ports at the end of the usuall unintelligible string of characters, but when I try to connect it says it can't find a brick. A refresh of the lists shows the brick but no registered comm port. The Windows panel shows a "New Device" and under its properties no comm ports are registered even though I know it registered them.

Our fearless leader believed it was the FTCconfig.txt file and so did I at first, but now I'm not so sure, it seems like this is a deeper problem. Did something get altered at the competition that could be causing this? Is this a Windows problem? I'm running XP SP3 and the bluetooth dongle is the one FIRST provided, the one I've been using all along.

Well,

Your first way would be to establish that your robot is making a connection with a computer at all. Try hooking up the brick with a USB and then properly breaking the connection.

If that doesn't work, try going the other way. Set up your dongle and equipment, then on your NXT search for devices or controls via bluetooth. (Although I'm not sure if this is correct...). But it's worth a shot.

I can connect to the computer via USB fine, its as if for whatever reason Windows is forgetting the comm port assignments it just doled out.

Then are you saying that when you insert the dongle and try to connect, the computer drops the dongle entirely? or it just won't recognize the NXT?

No, it sees the NXT and I can set up a connection through the Windows panel, it installs and registers I believe 3 comm ports through which communiction occurs. When you go to connect in RobotC the address, for lack of a better word, of the brick is displayed i.e. B234:92Bc:.....:20. The number at the very end is a comm port, either incomming or outgoing I'm not sure which. When I try to connect, I get an "Unable to locate brick" message. I refresh the lists and the comm port at the end of the address is gone, translation, no connection can be made becuase the computer doesn't know where to route the messages.
In short the NXT is seen but cannot be communicated with.

Try these steps.

1. Delete all bluetooth connection history in the Windows Control Panel
2. Reset the internal bluetooth on the NXT. FIRST has a nice quick guide to show you how to do this: http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Co ... t_BT-1.pdf
3. Move the bluetooth adaptor to a different USB port
4. Open ROBOTC and download a program over the USB link. Once the program is downloaded, close the debugger.
5. Disconnect the USB from the NXT and try downloading your program again... ROBOTC will try to connect via bluetooth.

The other thing you can do is watch the Control Panel Bluetooth menu's connections and make sure that windows is starting the Serial Port Service for the NXT device.

I am having the same problem. I tried your troublshooting but it did nothing. Also some computers can connect but others can't. do you have any idea what could be causing this?

What's your connecting process? I helped another FTC team the other day, and they were using an EXTREMELY long process...

My process, is in my opinion, rather streamlined.
1) Using the Windows bluetooth panel I create a link to the NXT, this registers the com ports and services for the brick. I only do this if I have redownloaded firmware, a process that usually changes the address of the brick, otherwise this is a one time process. We regularly switch between ROBOTC and LoopieView, hem I mean, RobotC and LabView. I prefer the former while fearless leader likes the later.
2) Open RobotC and connect to the brick using the Link Setup dialog.
3) Proceed to program, test, and curse to hearts content when program fails to do what it was told to do.

My problem occurs at step 2. After selecting the brick from the avalible list and clicking Select, it thinks about it and then says thows up an error message saying, "No bricks could be opened" or something to that effect; after hitting Refresh Lists the same brick appears but is missing the com port asignment that was previously tacked on the end of the address displayed in the list. An examination of the Properties for the brick, accessed through the bluetooth panel shows that there are indeed no com ports registered. This is despite the fact that I know they were. Subsequent attempts to create a connection only make the matter worse.

Hm... Well, I generally don't even register the NXT on the bluetooth panel. I just turn it on and go to Link Setup...maybe try that.

Also, are you using the bluetooth dongle?

BlueSoleil is a option but is not free (trial for 30days). http://bluesoleil.com/
Please don't claim me for Pirating but I use BlueSoleil cracked. I'm not using RobotC pirated.

Yes, I am using the dongle provided by FIRST and yes I have tried simply connecting straight from the Link Setup dialog but the same thing happens, no connection can be made.

have you tried to reinstall the drivers for the bluetooth dongle?

better yet, have you even downloaded the NXT firmware through the USB cable?

Yes I've trired removing and reinstalling the bluetooth drivers as well as the NXT drivers. I can connect over the USB however.

Wow, this is still an issue? It had been a while since you posted last so I figured you had worked it out...there's got to be some reason this isn't working right.

Does your bluetooth work with any of these?
1. FMS
2. Lego Mindstorms (NXT-G)
3. LabView
4. RobotC