Bluetooth - Getting Started

[Guest]

I'm hoping someone out there with some Bluetooth experience could provide me
with some information/resources to get started using Bluetooth with Serial
Comm. I am just getting started and am finding it quite confusing thus far.
A few questions....

1.) Is what I'm trying to do even possible? I'm trying to use a scientific
device, that has a RS232 9 pin serial cable output attached to a female RS232
BrainBox Bluetooth Adapter, to send a reading to a textbox in my application.
So far, it at least appears to send out a signal (although when I actually
try to connect to the device it says "The device does not offer any usable
services")

2.) If the above is possible, I was hoping to use a serial communications
control (like the OpenNET Serial Comm) to capture the DataReceived event just
as I would if my device were connected to the serial port. Does bluetooth
work the same way?

3.) Will I have to use some sort of Bluetooth SDK to get this to work? Or,
can I get away with just configuring my serial control and bluetooth settings
properly?

4.) If I have to use a Bluetooth SDK, and am using using the widcomm stack,
am I correct in saying that I can NOT use the OPENNET or MS SDK to work with
Bluetooth? Am I commited to using a third party SDK like High Point ?

5.) Lastly, if anyone knows of a good VB.NET Bluetooth Serial Comm sample
using the widcomm stack it would be super helpful!!!


Thanks in advance!!!!

Mike

 

[Peter Foot [MVP]]

1. Is the device one of these:-
http://www.brainboxes.com/products/bluetooth/product.asp?id=BL-521

You can't hook up a serial device to a serial bluetooth radio designed to
connect to a PC, if it is the above type unit it is self contained and will
expose the Serial Port Profile (SPP) and allow connection to whatever is
connected to it's serial cable. If your device is not exposing this profile
then it's possible you have the wrong kind of adapter.

2. You can use the OpenNETCF serial code with a bluetooth serial connection.
You'll have to make sure you have a virtual serial port mapped to the
connection first, and this process varies between bluetooth stacks. If you
are using Widcomm you can search for a serial device and setup a virtual COM
port using the Bluetooth Browser. Once you have mapped the port this will
behave as if you are connected to the target device over a regular serial
link.

3. You don't need any specific SDK to achieve this, you can just use the
Bluetooth Browser to bond with the bluetooth device and setup the COM port,
you'll only need to do this once (unless you hard reset the device).

4. See answer to 3, but if you want to programmatically do more of this
setup, you'll need to use a third-party SDK - The OpenNETCF and Microsoft
libraries work only with the Microsoft stack.

5. There is some sample code for working with the OpenNETCF serial code
here:-
http://www.opennetcf.org/PermaLink.aspx?guid=0e593c58-7305-46d1-b8f8-9559152d5e1e
It's not Bluetooth but then as already explained this makes no difference to
the behaviour

Peter

 

[Guest]

Great info Peter. Thank-you.

FYI, that is close to the bluetooth device I am using but is it actually
this one
(http://www.tekgear.com/index.cfm?pageID=90&section=73&prodID=461&function=viewdetails)

So it sounds like I need to do some configurating. Using the Bluetooth
Services and Manager I attempt to map a virtual serial port through this
process on my Dell Axim...
1.) Start Bluetooth Setings and ensure that the Serial Port is enabled
2.) I then start the Bluetooth Connection Wizard
3.) I choose the 'Explore a Bluetooth device' option
4.) It finds my 'Brainboxes RS232 Adapter'
5.) It then tries to 'retrieves services' and brings up a Bluetooth
Authentication window that asks for a passkey?? I enter a number that I make
up.
6.) I then get a message that says 'The device does not offer any usable
services'.

So, that is the long way of asking if you think this means that I cannot use
the RS232 Bluetooth adapter to accomplish what I am looking to do or that I
have the wrong type of adapter?

Mike

 

[Peter Foot [MVP]]

If it asks for a passkey then you'll need the one configured with the remote
device, this might be 0000 or some other preset value. Does the adapter have
any status leds or similar to show whether it is active, etc

Peter

--
Peter Foot
Windows Embedded MVP
http://www.inthehand.com | http://www.peterfoot.net |
http://www.opennetcf.org

 

[Guest]

Peter, found the passkey in the small print in the documentation. It is in
fact 0000. However, this does not change anything. There is a LED that
indicates that the Bluetooth Adapter is on. But nothing that shows it's
active. So if for instance I do a reading on the scientific device, the
light doesnt flicker or anything. On that note, this is a pretty archaic
scientific device I'm using and it does not have any sort of bluetooth
settings on it. I was hoping that I could just send the signal through the
bluetooth adapter and that the Pocket PC would pick up the reading. The
scientific device will send a signal when I push a button on it so it's not
sending a continous signal. I wonder if that is why I am getting the "device
does not offer any usable service message". Perhaps it is looking for data
but not finding it?

Mike

 

[Thore Berntsen]

Just found this link:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/usewinemb/ce/sharedsrccode/west/default.aspx