I am a PLTW Lead Teacher at my school and I have a 5th-grade teacher who has run into an issue with her VEX Modkit app. When attempting to connect her app to the brain, through the Modkit link on a computer, she is receiving this message: “Your robot must be connected through Bluetooth before you can download a program.” She is still using the 900 mHz radio, so I’m not sure why she’s getting a Bluetooth error message. She has the Remote Link checked off on the Modkit link as well. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. (She also doesn’t get this message on every iPad, every time; it is sporadic) Thanks!
The Modkit app for iPad can only communicate with a VEX IQ Brain if a Smart Radio is installed and firmware is updated to use the Smart Radio. To download programs from the app, please enable Bluetooth on the iPad, install a Smart Radio, ensure the firmware in the VEX IQ Brain is up to date and supports the Smart Radio, and press the download button in the app. Programs can also be downloaded from a desktop computer using a micro USB cable.
Jessi is right that the best way to program through the iPad App is directly through the smart radio but I think she was unaware of the interim solution we built for PLTW before the smart radios were introduced which is called “Remote link connection.” This is where you can use the tablet for building a program but must plug the robot into a computer running Modkit Link to actually download the program to the brain. PLTW provides support for this solution directly so I would be sure to reach out to them for any PLTW related issues.
With that said, when no Link connection is set you will see the error message you posted because Bluetooth is now the default. If you have not properly set up the Link connection including choosing the connection from the drop down list (again please refer to the PLTW setup docs) it cannot connect through remote link.
Please see the screenshot with where you would choose the link connection if properly set up on your computer and network. Once a link connection is chosen you will not see bluetooth messages when not connected.
