Category: Bluetooth

I was asked how to replace the default Toshiba stack installed on the M200 with the Windows stack (to allow for .NET programmability). Luckily it’s easy to do and Toshiba include the necessary bits on the hard disk.

First you need to uninstall the Toshiba stack – Go to Add/Remove programs and select “Bluetooth Stack for Windows by Toshiba”

Next run the C:TOSHIBAMS_BluetoothBtMon2Inst.exe installer to install the BT monitor.

Finally reboot the machine, the system will detect the radio and install the necessary drivers.

From Jason Langridge: “It’s using the Microsoft Bluetooth stack”.

Excellent, another device added to the growing list.

The Bluetooth.NET library has now reached it’s v1.5 milestone and is now part of the 32feet.NET suite. It joins an updated version of my IrDA library for the desktop which now adds some features (borrowed from the Bluetooth developments) so provides a superset of IrDA functionality on either full or compact frameworks. On top of both these libraries sits Object Exchange, this new library makes it easy to programmatically send and receive files and objects over the Object Exchange (OBEX) protocol. This is designed to provide a similar experience to functionality available for .NET for conducting HTTP requests – ObexWebRequest and ObexListener.

The concept of 32feet.NET is to look at personal area networking for the .NET developer whether your platform of choice is .NETCF on Windows CE or full framework on XP, Tablet PC, XP Embedded or Vista (32 Feet is the range of a standard Bluetooth device, that’s 10 metres if you prefer metric). The website has been setup with discussion forums for the current libraries and associated technologies, you’ll also find all the class library documentation, and of course the download itself which contains assemblies, source, help documentation and samples.

Greg Scott from the Windows CE Networking team has posted an interesting article on how Bluetooth Virtual COM ports are implemented on Windows CE.

Alongside the native code to setup a port, there are some details on the improvements in Windows Mobile 5.0 which now includes UI options to set both incoming and outgoing ports and is integrated into the bonding/pairing process. This means that OEMs no longer need to produce their own individual applets to expose this functionality.

For managed code the Bluetooth.NET library wraps this functionality with the BluetoothSerialPort class.

Today I gave a session at Slide5 on the latest version of the Bluetooth library – v1.4. Key changes for this release were some bug fixes to the samples, increased functionality for the desktop side (ability to bond devices) and service discovery (as yet XP only). I’ve also tidied up some of the code, in order to have just a single place to determine the platform at runtime. I’ll post a version of the OBEX demo I did shortly, but I’ll build it as a VS2003 project (the app used for the session demo was built with VS2005 Beta 2)

Downloads

One of our forum members posted about an open source social networking project which uses the Bluetooth.NET library. The project is created by Software Greenhouse which is a joint venture between Microsoft India and Cynapse.

Their initial prototype release and source code can be downloaded by registering at the Software Greenhouse site. The software will allow users of Windows Mobile devices to compare user profiles to look for shared interests and chat with other users. This is an interesting use of the technology and it will be interesting to see how the project evolves. Have you used the Bluetooth library in any projects? if so please leave a comment.

Today I’ve completed the v1.3 release of Bluetooth. This pulls together the latest binaries, source code, samples and help documentation into a single package. There are few differences in the public interface from previous releases, notably the BluetoothSerialPort class has been fixed and re-introduced, also the BondedDevices property for retrieving previously bonded devices from the registry.

I’ve also prepared a class-library diagram to accompany this release:-

OpenNETCF.Net.Bluetooth.1.3.50525.png (136.1 KB)

You can download the installation package from here.

With the Microsoft Bluetooth stack a single outbound virtual COM port is supported, to set this up you have to bond with the device. If you want to switch between several devices at different times this is awkward. You can however alter the registry settings between connections to switch devices.

1. Setup an Outbound COM port for the first device

2. Bond with the other device(s) you wish to use

3. Make a note of the bluetooth IDs of these bonded devices – see the subkeys of [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftBluetoothDevice] for details

4. Before switching devices ensure you do not have the outbound virtual COM port opened (often COM 5 but check on your device).

5. Replace the value of “OBBDaddr” in the key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftBluetoothSerialPort] with the bluetooth address of your required device.

6. Open the COM port – now connects to the device specified in the above registry key.

Now that the dust has settled on MEDC, I’m thinking about how to move forward with the Bluetooth library. I had essentially put development on hold when I first heard that Microsoft were preparing their own source package prior to MEDC. When it was released, I was a little disappointed in their functionality (and compatibility) so I’ve decided to press on improving the Bluetooth.NET library. It’s going to take a few weeks to put together the next version, one key aim is to synchronise the source, samples, documentation and binaries with this next release, some of the previous releases have been binary only.

In the meantime here is a comparison of the functionality available today in the widely available Bluetooth libraries/SDKs:-

Obviously your feedback will help shape the library, so what are the key features you’d like to see added or improved?