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Enabling Bluetooth on Devices With STN Chips

In this guide we will take a look at how you can enable Bluetooth for AutoPi devices that use the STN chip. By default the STN chip and Bluetooth don't work well together, so we will need to disable the STN chip entirely in order to get the Bluetooth functionality to work properly and the device to be kept running despite the STN chip's absence.

Enabling Bluetooth#

  1. Disable uart_sleep
    First, we will need to disable the STN chip's uart sleep functionality. When disabling the obd_manager (next step), we also disable a key heartbeat worker that keeps the device up and running by communicating to the STN chip. If the STN chip hasn't seen any communication in 15 minutes (by default), then it will put itself and the Raspberry Pi to hibernation - we want to avoid that. Run the following command to disable that functionality:

    $ stn.uart_sleep enable=False
    caution

    If there are any power related pending syncs on the Cloud to the device you're working with the settings we just changed might be reverted back to the default. We recommend that you synchronize all changes to your device prior to following this guide. Once the obd_manager is disabled though, no settings related to the STN can be changed by the Cloud.

    You can confirm if this setting was applied correctly by running the following command and looking for the uart_sleep value. It should say OFF, 900 s.

    $ stn.power_config
# example response_stamp: '2022-02-08T10:09:04.694796'_type: stslcsctrl_mode: NATIVEext_input: LOW = SLEEPext_sleep: ON,  LOW FOR 3000 msext_wake: ON,  HIGH FOR 500 mspwr_ctrl: LOW PWR = LOWuart_sleep: OFF, 900 suart_wake: OFF, 0-30000 usvchg_wake: ON,  +2.00V IN 1000 msvl_sleep: ON,  <12.20V FOR 240 svl_wake: ON,  >15.50V FOR 3 s

  2. Disable obd_manager
    Next, the obd_manager needs to be disabled. You can do that by going over to Advanced > Services and selecting the obd_manager entry. The page that opens up should include a tab called "Settings" - click on it. On the panel that opens up, there should be a checkbox that's called Enable Service - uncheck that box. You don't need to synchronize the changes yet, as we will be making another change in the next step.

  3. Enable Bluetooth
    Finally, you need to enable Bluetooth on the device. You can do that by going over to Advanced > Settings > Bluetooth and changing the Mode field from disable to miniuart. After synchronizing the changes, the Cloud will ask you to reboot the device. After the reboot you should be able to start using the Bluetooth on the AutoPi. Use the bluetoothctl command to work with Bluetooth on the device.

Direct Communication With the STN Chip#

In case you still need to communicate with the STN chip after disabling the obd_manager, you can. You need to have socat installed in order to successfully establish a communication. You can do that by typing in:

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y socat

You can connect to the STN chip with the following command. Feel free to tweak the device parameters to your own liking:

$ sudo socat /dev/serial0,echo=0 -

Let's take a look at some example commands:

STSLU off, off     # disables the uart_sleep functionalityATZ                # needed in order to apply the above command's settingsSTSLCS             # use this command to double check if the UART SLEEP value is off

If you need to execute other commands, you will need to consult the STN chip specification.