Tag Archives: bluetooth

Review: Logitech MX Anywhere 2 Mouse

Nowadays many of us are using tablets in their free time, but we still use our computers for work or gaming. And for this reason, we need the good old mouse.

I personally don’t like any cables around me and my laptop; it just looks clean and is easier to work without them. Few years ago I used one very good looking wireless mouse, the Roccat Pyra Wireless, but one day the mouse suddenly stopped working. After using one old fashion Logitech wired mouse for a while, I decided to go for the new Logitech MX Anywhere 2 wireless mouse. I will make a small review of it and share my impressions here.

First things first: the mouse is very well packaged, but still easy to take out of the box (if you ever took an GoPro camera out of its box, you know that fact is not self-evident).

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Personally I don’t buy myself stuff, that I don’t like how it looks. As well my old Roccat Pyra Wireless mouse, this one looks great. Furthermore it is quality made, not heavy weight (106g) and fits good in my hand (regular European size).

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Connecting the mouse took me about 15 seconds. Just plug the small Unifying-Pico-Receiver and you are ready to go. You can also connect the wireless mouse without the receiver, just over Bluetooth. I need to mention, that on my 6 years old HP2230s laptop with Bluetooth 2.1 it didn’t worked. On one newer Lenovo it worked just fine. Change the channel trough the small button on the bottom of the mouse and pair with the PC, that’s it. By pressing that button, you can easily change the device you want to control in a second.

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Using the mouse without the receiver was one of the main reasons to go for it. I am considering to replace my old laptop with the upcoming Microsoft Surface Pro 4. I suppose the new Microsoft tablet will come again only with one USB port. So it would be good to have it not constantly used for the mouse receiver.


The mouse use the “Darkfield Technology”, which allows using the mouse on almost every surface, so I don’t need my mousepad any more. I played StarCraft II a bit without having any problems (I am not a pro-gamer, so I don’t need the 2400dpi). It is precise and fast enough for normal gaming.

Functionality: I didn’t install the Logitech Software, but I still can use the side buttons for navigating in my browser. I also change photos forwards and backwards using the scroll wheel horizontal. Really cool feature of the scroll wheel: by pressing it, you can change the way it rotates – normal or super fast. On my old Logitech wired mouse I have used the scroll wheel for middle clicks. On the MX Anywhere 2 mouse this is done by the small button in the middle. At first it was uncomfortably, but after few hours of working, it is not a problem any more.

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Charging the battery of the mouse is easy with the supplied or any standard Micro-USB cable. Using the mouse while charging is not a problem too. I’m concerned if everyone would have the ability to change it by himself. It is described how to do that on the last page of the manual, but you need to open the entire mouse to take the battery out. Hopefully it will last more than 2 years. I can not tell much about the battery time for now, but I will play some more StarCraft II and then update this review.

Summary: the new Logitech MX Anywhere 2 mouse is here to stay. My personal reasons for keeping the Logitech MX Anywhere 2 as my mouse are the great design, the build quality and the usage just over Bluetooth.

Безжични слушалки Jabra Revo Wireless

Преди почти 4 години писах как благодарение на адаптера на Logitech за безжична музика вече не бях ограничен от така “обичаните” ми кабели. Bluetooth адаптера все още си работи без проблем, а Logitech дори са пуснали по-нова версия.

Но темата за този пост са безжичните ми слушалки Jabra Revo Wireless, благодарение на които “скъсах” и последния кабел свързващ ме с музиката ми. И дори сега когато пиша тези редове слушам музика безжично от тях.

Слушалките получих като подарък от любимия ми човек за миналата Коледа и от тогава са неизменно с мен, независимо в или извън дома. В следващите редове ще направя кратко ревю и ще споделя личните си впечетления от тях.

Слушалките пристигат в здрава пластмасова кутия, захванати с велкро, за да стабилни и в кутията. Аксесоарите бяха в малка картонена кутия.

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Слушалките правят много добро впечатление с добрата изработка във всяко едно отношение. Изтървал съм ги два или три пъти от около метър височина върху паркет без абсолютно никакви последствия. За изработката на корпуса е използван и метал, който прави външния вид още по грабващ. Комбинацията от черно и оранжево като цветове беше фаворитът за мен, въпреки че и моделът със зелено и бяло също изглежда много добре. Точно дизайна и качествената изработка бяха една от главните причина да се спра на Jabra, а не на прехвалените Beats на Dr. Dre.

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Първоначално не предполагах, че възможността за сгъване на слушалките е от значение, но в последствие осъзнах колко полезно е, особено когато помоля дамата до мен да ги прибере в малката си дамска чанта. Към аксесоарите има малка чантичка, за по-добрата им защите при пренасяне.

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Освен дизайна, хората от Jabra не са забравили и функционалността. Регулирането силата на звука става лесно чрез докосване на дясната част на слушалките. От същото място с бързо двукратно докосване става и сменянето на песните. При натискане на бутона в центъра пък може да се паузира и стартира музиката, както и да се приемат обаждания, когато слушалките са свързани с телефона. Тук ще отбележа и вградения микрофон, който имат и възможността им за ползване за разговори. Свързването с телефона от своя страна става мигновенно ако той притежава NFC. Само с допирането на телефона до лявата част на слушалките и вече Bluetooth връзката е направена.

Безжичната връзка работи абсолютно безпроблемнно както с компютъра, така и с телефона ми. Още по хубавото е, че двете устройства могат да бъдат едновременно свързвани към слушалките. До седем метра разстояние от компютра ми нямам абсолютно никакви проблеми и накъсване.

Качеството на звука според мен като нормален потребител е идеално да си слушам mp3/ките и да гледам филми. Тук стигам и до пункта с батерията: Jabra дават до 12 часа постоянно слушане на музика. Бях леко притеснен дали това е достатъчно, но след толкова месеци ползване мога съвсем спокойна да кажа, че притесненията ми са били напразни. Зареждам ги един път седмично, ако не и по-рядко. И хубавато е, че може да се свържат с USB кабел към компютъра без да пречи на ползването им през това време. Освен това има втори порт за 3.5мм кабел, с който също могат да бъдат ползвани ако батерията падне а сте извън дома и слушате музика от телефона.

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Слушалките седят стабилно на главата и леко притискат ушите, но в никакъв случай не чувствам дискомфорт. При рязко навеждане имам чувството, че ще паднат, но явно e само субективно усещане, защото не ми се е случвало нито веднъж. Кожата на самите слушалките е мека, не е мръднала през месеците и няма напуквания по нея. В горната си част рамката, която седи върху главата, е направена мека, за да са удобни слушалките  при продължително носене.

Заключението ми: от Jabra са помислили за всеки един детайл и са направили страхотен продукт.  Мен тези безжични слушалки ме спечелиха със страхотния си дизайн, качествената изработка, добрия звук и голямата функционалност. Ако и на вас слушалките са ви харесали, споделете ги с приятелите си. Може и на вас да ви направят подарък 😉

DIY Bluetooth Telemetry Bridge for Pixhawk or APM

I am using my HK Pilot32 (Pixhawk) since last year with my phone and DroidPlanner 2(now Tower). I have tested it as well with one HC-05 Bluetooth module as with 433Mhz Telemetry module. Using it with the Bluetooth module I don’t need to attach anything to my smartphone. But with the 433Mhz I have much better range. How can I get the great range without attaching something to the phone? Idea: using the 433Mhz telemetry module to transmit the data from the Pixhawk to the Bluetooth module and this one to my phone. Well I was not the first one with this idea, and I find a Bluetooth telemetry bridge from Event38. Looks good but the 150$ price is just too much in my opinion. So I decided to stick with my idea and made it by myself.

Parts needed:

Both the HC-05 Bluetooth module and the HM-TRP 433Mhz module work on 3.3V. But to use these with simple small 3.7V LiPo Battery, we need not the bare HC-05 Module. Take the one with integrated voltage regulator and pins already soldered (like the second or third one on the picture below).

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If you already have a 433Mhz Kit from 3DRobotics or HobbyKing you need to unsolder the HM-TRP module from the receiver module (the one with the USB Plug). Or as said you can buy only the bare HM-TRP module from Aliexpress. Download the datasheet for the module to check how it looks like and the pins descriptions.

What we need to do:

First both modules should use the same baud rate for communication. The standard for the 3DR Robotics module is 57600. So we need to change the baud rate for the Bluetooth module to be the same. You can check how to do this here.

Then take the 4 tiny cables and solder the pins from the HM-TRP module to the pins of the Bluetooth module as described:

  • 5V HM-TRP Module – 5V Bluetooth Module (before last Pin on the left side)
  • GND HM-TRP Module – GND Bluetooth Module (last Pin on the left side)
  • TX HM-TRP Module – RX Bluetooth Module (2 Pin on the left side)
  • RX HM-TRP Module – TX Bluetooth Module (1 Pin on the left side)

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A bit tricky was to solder the antenna to the tiny module. First you need to remove the plastic black cover. Cut the coax cable and remove the PVC shield. Then take the metal shielding and without cutting it, form it as a cable and solder it to the GND Pin of the HM-TRP module. The tiny cable under the shielding layer is the cable for the Antenna. Solder this one to the ANT Pin of the HM-TRP module.

That is all!

I used hot glue to place the HM-TRP 433Mhz module on the backside of the Bluetooth module, so it looks better and its more compact. Now you can connect the pins of the Bluetooth module to the battery and have your own Bluetooth Telemetry Bridge.

Change the baud rate of HC-05 Bluetooth module

If you want to change some of the settings of your HC-05 Bluetooth module, like baud rate, password or the name of the Bluetooth module, you can do it easy and fast with your Arduino. I have done this to connect my Pixhawk to DroidPlanner over Bluetooth.

There are different HC-05 modules on the market, but it should work with all of them. On the picture below you can see a bare HC-05 module, 5V tolerant HC-05 module and 6V tolerant HC-05 module with a button. I prefer the last one, as the button makes the changing of the settings even easier.

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To change any settings of the module, it should be in the so called “AT Mode”. How to put the Bluetooth module in AT Mode: The “Key Pin” of the module should be set to “High”. This means we should apply voltage to this pin at the same time we power the module. On the last module, the button does this job. It should be pressed when powering the module with 5V. On the module without button, we need to supply 3.3V to the “Key Pin” when powering on.

Here is an example how to connect the module to the Arduino Nano v3. Note that there should be an jumper on GND and RST pin. By doing this, the Arduino will only act as a simple FTDI adapter.

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First connect the Arduino to the PC over USB. Then connect the cables in the following way:

  • TX Bluetooth –> TX Arduino
  • RX Bluetooth –> RX Arduino
  • GND Bluetooth –> GND Arduino

… and at last the 5V Bluetooth to 5V Arduino by keeping the button of the Bluetooth pressed. Or on the module without button, connect the Key Pin Bluetooth to 3.3V on Arduino.

If the HC-05 is in AT Mode, the red LED will blink at every 2 seconds.

Then start the PuTTY program (download link), configure the right COM Port (Check it in the Device Manger) and set the Baud Rate to 38400. This is the baud rate for AT Mode. Then click “Open”.

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In the newly opened black window type “AT”, press Enter and you should get “OK” as a result. Note that you want see what you type in the windows… Here some of the commands to change the settings you wish:

Change baud rate to 57600, 1 stop bit, 0 parity AT+UART=57600,1,0
Change module name AT+NAME=YOURNAME
Change pairing code AT+PSWD=0000

ArduCopter connecting with DroidPlanner 2 (Android)

In in one of my previous posts I described how to connect my MultiWii And Megapirate AIO board with Mission Planner over Bluetooth. As I don’t want always to have my laptop when flying, but always having my HTC One X (running Android 4.2.2) with me I tried to connect the ArduCopter (the MegaPirate version of it) with my HTC over Bluetooth. I searched the Google Play Store for Droid Planner and installed it. But I always got an error “DroidPlanner has unfortunately  stopped” as I tried to connect over Bluetooth. So I searched again and happily find the new version of DroidPlanner. It is totally new and very good looking. Great job and my admits to the developers. And with this new version I don’t need to do the trick as in Mission Planner first clicking on “Connect” and then connecting the power supply to my Bluetooth-module.

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Connecting Mission Planner over Bluetooth

I am using the MultiWii and MegaPirate AIO board (Crius clone) on my quadcopter since a few weeks. I had also a Bluetooth Module HC-05, which I bought for some Arduino projects. I wanted to connect the Mission Planner with my QuadCopter over Bluetooth using this module. I tried and followed the guides on Internet, but without success. Even the tip with first clicking the “Connect” button in Mission Planner and then powering on the HC-05 Bluetooth module didn’t helped me.

I did all the things right: Changed the default baud rate of my HC-05 with AT-Commands to 115200. In my APM_Config.h defined the baud rate of Serial0 to 115200. Connected and paired it with my PC. In Mission Planner chose the right COM port and the right baud rate of 115200. Without success… every time I tried to connect, I became “Getting Params” and then a “Connect failed” in Mission Planner.

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Today I became another tip on a Bulgarian Hobby Forum: Not to use the Serial0 port, but the Serial3 port of my flight board. I defined the Serial3 port baud rate in my APM_Config.h, flashed it and connected the Bluetooth module with the Serial3 pins and for the GND and 5V with the Pins for the Camera Shutter.

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Then I used the tip with first clicking the “Connect” button and connecting the power to the module, when the Mavlink Window appear on the screen. Few seconds and it WORKED. Problem solved. I still don’t know, why it don’t work over Serial0, but I am happy, that I can use my HC-05 Bluetooth with Mission Planner. So thanks again to the guy, that gave me this tip!

Update 21.04.2014: Here you can read on how to connect with the App DroidPlanner 2 over Bluetooth.

Update 01.05.2014: Mission Planner was updated to version 1.3.1. Since then you don’t need the trick with first clicking “connect” and then actually connecting the Bluetooth module anymore.