bluetooth application development

[davis]

Hi, the landscape for developing BT applications on .net cf / pocketpc
seems a bit convoluted given all the different stack implementations,
application libraries (that seem to have specific dependencies on stack
implementations), and microsoft's poor API support / documentation for
development of BT apps using .net cf.

I am new to this, and what I want to do seems relatively simple, but I
wonder if someone might be able to point me in the right direction.

End Goal:

There is a proprietary piece of hardware which will interface with a
pocket pc device over bluetooth. I don't know what the bt stack, etc.
is on that proprietary hardware -- someone else is developing this. I
am developing the pocketpc side. On the pocket pc side, I have windows
mobile 5.0, which appears to have the Broadcom/Widcomm stack.

The messages that are exchanged are a proprietary network protocol. I
built an application that ping/pongs these messages over Wi-Fi using
UDP. Once I get the UDP packet, I strip out the payload, interpret the
proprietary header/data, etc. I want to do the same over Bluetooth,
but I'm not even sure where to start.

I tried looking at Peter Foot's 32feet bluetooth API, but it is not
compatible with my device.

I need to develop a client/server approach with the pocketpc talking to
my laptop and my laptop simulating the hardware device that will
eventually act as the server. So, I need to develop both sides of this
application. My laptop also has integrated Bluetooth with the
Broadcom/Widcomm stack.

Q: Do I need to buy some 3rd party libraries to accomplish this?
http://franson.com/bluetools/index.asp?ref=google
http://www.high-point.com/

Q: If the answer to that is no, can I just develop some way to set up
the serial profile over the COM port? I see this page:

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

I downloaded that code/library -- documentation is nil. I am unsure
exactly how to use it or if it will indeed work both on pocket pc and
on windows xp.

Thanks in advance!

Regards,
Davis

 

[Peter Foot [MVP]]

Unfortunately there is only one solution which works with the two main
Bluetooth stacks and that's the franson product. Even going down the virtual
COM port route involves device specific code since the different stacks have
their own methods of setting up a virtual COM port.

The Microsoft shared-source library has no support for registering virtual
COM ports and it's Windows CE only, the 32feet libraries do support COM
ports and run on XP also but only for devices with the Microsoft stack. High
Point have a wrapper for the Broadcom/Widcomm stack.

Peter

 

[Brian Cross [MS]]

Actually, if you are refering to the shared-source bluetooth libraries here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/usewinemb/ce/sharedsrccode/west/default.aspx

It does work on Windows Mobile 5.0 and above. But yes, it only works on the
Microsoft stack.

--
Brian Cross
Software Design Engineer
Windows Mobile Core and WiMobot Enthusiast

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[minimega]

Hi davis, this is my point of view:

you can build an application that exchange data via serial, exacly as
Hyperterminal. The difference is that Hyperterminal use phisycal com
ports, your application will use virtual (BT) com ports. Every
bluetooth stack (MS, Widcom, Toshiba for PocketPC or WinXP) give the
possibility to make a BT discovery, pairing and VirtualCOM port attach.
Once you have made this association (in PocketPC outbound VCOM usually
goes from COM4 to COM8) your application can open VCOM port like it is
a normal port. By XP side the same, with the BT stack you create a
incoming VCOM port and you can open it like a standard COM port (also
with Hyperterminal). At his point you have a point-to-point serial
connection made via Bluetooth and can exchange data @ 115200 bauds.

It's clear in this way you can't integrate in your own application the
discovery/pairing/VCOM config process, you have to make it manually
using the integrated BT stack tools. But once you have configured the
right parameters everithing will wokrs fine.

In other cases you have to buy the BT Stack SDK for every BT stack you
want to support (for pocketPC: MS -> InTheHand, WidComm/Broadcomd->his
SDK, Toshiba->his SDK).

Regards

davis ha scritto: