Control Your Arduino Project From Your Mobile Phone Using MIT App Inventor and Bluetooth

Controlling and monitoring your Arduino project from your mobile phone adds an extra dimension to your project work. But the thought of having to write a mobile app, work out the bluetooth connection details and getting it all working can seem daunting. But using the MIT App Inventor system and a simple bluetooth module makes the whole process very straight forward.

In this video I’ll show you how to design your own serial protocol to frame your data and build robust error handling into your message. We’ll then use the MIT App Inventor software to build a native mobile app using a simple drag and drop interface along with their block programming system.

This video is over a hour long as we cover lots of topics and deal with a number of errors you’ll come across when developing serial communication apps. I’ve listed a number of bookmarks below to help you get straight to various sections.

03:42​ – Overview of the finished project

05:48​ – Creating a data protocol for sending data

08:25​ – Coding the Arduino and adding error checking

20:34​ – Testing using the serial monitor

25:04​ – MIT App Inventor starts

27:00​ – Starting to code the App

33:37​ – Downloading initial app to your phone and testing

36:08​ – Connecting to the Arduino Bluetooth module

41:32​ – Sending a colour data message to the Arduino

45:44​ – Adding sliders for RGB control

52:29​ – Dealing with data collisions and transmission errors

55:09​ – Polling the data send function

59:31​ – Sending data from the Arduino to the App