Bluetooth to com port problem

Im using a bluetooth module (as sold on ebay everywhere) and a usb bluetooth adapter (standard little 1/2 moon adapter) i can get the bluetooth module to pair with the adapter and a input (com 8) and output (com 7) com port assigned, both show up in the bluetooth device listing, and under device manager in com ports.

Now my problem is neither com port will show in PE as a available com port or dont show in a VB program as a available com port, but using a "serial Data Logger" program called "Eltima", both ports show and it will receive data from the picaxe via com 8 without problems, but no other software appears to show the com port available.

Anyone have any ideas to why the port dont show in other software, i have spent hours search the forum and the net in general but have found no help to this.

The PC is running Vista, but similar problems with XP, both are up to date on upgrades.

I have no idea why but if it's any consolation I have had the same problem with several bluetooth devices including built in ones.
As far as the PE is concerned, you can simply tell it to use the assigned port even if it does not show in the list.
However, I never managed to do a download over bluetooth. I'm guessing because it probably doesn't support BREAK?

Would it be because bluetooth uses a virtual serial port and not a hardware port?

If ports are listed under COM Ports but Programming Editor and other software cannot identify them it could be some issue within Windows itself that does not allow those to be accessed using the standard Window API's which application programmers might have little control over. The Eltima software could be using additional or alternative API's to those which would normally be used.

If COM ports are input only or output only then the standard ways of accessing them may not work as it is usually expected that a COM port will allow both input and output and code will usually have been written with that expectation in mind. Most Windows applications would not open two separate COM ports to achieve bi-directional communications if that is required. I would have expected the Bluetooth driver to present a single COM port to make the device compatible with the majority of Windows Applications rather than input and output separately which would likely present problems.

It would probably require a lot of investigation to get to the bottom of exactly what is happening.

I think its just the way bluetooth works with creating a input and output port.

Here is some screen shots of the com port listings, ports 7 & 8 are paired and 12 & 16 are paired together (2 seperate bluetooth modules)

I have tried several non microsoft drivers and they all make a in and out port.

"Incoming" and "outgoing" may be different from "input only" and "output only" but I don't have much Bluetooth experience.

Most Windows applications simply try to open a port for input and output and if that's not successful the port is considered unavailable. The Eltima software seems to be able to open the port somehow so it might be worth experimenting by writing PC programs to try and get the port opened or to find out exactly what does and doesn't work. Could be a long haul.

What are you ultimately wanting to do ?

I do kinder feel its all a bit of a lost cause and all to hard, but its been a challenge just to get this far with finding something to talk to the module (or to listen to the module in this case)

Ultimately it was to see if it was a simple enough method to send data over a short range via wireless instead of a hard wire connection, so just a transmitter function is ok (output port) but i need a VB app to receive the data for logging and as VB wont detect the com port its all getting a bit too hard, as i can use other wireless transceivers with far less hassles.
Also just the setup to find the BT module and pair it to the usb dongle is too hard i think for a 3rd party user, where i had expected more plug and play application.

I only asked here because there is some clever folks that might have been down this path prior and could offer some advice rather than me spending days messing with these things and still not finding the answers.

From past threads it looks i may have gotten further than some others with at least being able to retrieve data from them, but its still all a bit useless if a com port can not be linked to any standard software.

I dont fully understand software com ports (Virtual ports) and the ins and outs of their operations compared to a hardware port, and had hoped someone may have worked in this field with some good advice or solutions.

I cant even find out if the modules are masters or slaves, as the version i have are hard fixed to be one or the other, the later version modules can be programmed to be either, one needs to take a course in the new language "Chinglish" to be able to get the basics from what little data there is, and to have gotten this far required about 20 different data sheets of various levels of translation, where what one missed the other might just have a line that made sense.

There is about 5 versions of the "AT" commands and each only suits 1 version of module, its a mine field just to sort out which command set is needed to access changes to the module, like changing the default 9600 baud to 4800 so it can be user friendly with a larger range of picaxe chips.

Due to the fact i can talk to the module through a usb adapter for the AT commands i might try and see if i can pair a set using a usb module as this should then allow a standard com port to be used.

I've presently none of these BT modules on hand to try, but suggest that a Virtual Serial Port Emulator may ease the pain. Back in 2009 I used VSPE to great effect when sound card decoding AIS signals. Stan.

Stan,

Thanks for the VSPE, i tried it but the BT com ports dont show in the listed ports available.

Also tried to use a usb adapter but can not pair the 2 BT devices, think that is because 1 needs to be a slave and 1 needs to be a master, but mine are both of the same sex. ( girls i think as they have a mind of their own and refuse to talk to each other)