[Interest] Bluetooth Low Energy on Windows: Options and feasabilty of implementing own backend

[Axel Jäger]

Hello Alex,

thank you for your answer. So if there is someone working on a port of
windows, time might be my friend and I might start on my mac using 5.5.
However, in the meantime I found out that the implementation of Bluetooth LE
on Windows behaves differently regarding the need to bond and pair devices. 

 

So far, I was not able to communicate with a custom BLE peripheral using
either Windows Phone 8.1 or Windows 8.1 on a desktop.

 

I guess an implementation of the Qt Bluetooth LE API will inherit this
behaviour. If this is case and currently I guess it is the case, I better go
with the bluegiga SDK directly.

 

Best regards,

 

Axel

 

Von: interest-bounces+axeljaeger=googlemail.com at qt-project.org
[mailto:interest-bounces+axeljaeger=googlemail.com at qt-project.org] Im
Auftrag von Blasche Alexander
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 7. Januar 2015 09:28
An: interest at qt-project.org
Betreff: Re: [Interest] Bluetooth Low Energy on Windows: Options and
feasabilty of implementing own backend

 

Hi Axel,

 

Your assumption about 5.5 is correct. Android gets LE support and ios/OSX
get classic and LE support.

 

Windows is currently work in progress. There is a wip/win branch on
codereview. The windows port is mostly community driven at this stage which
makes prediction somewhat hard. Ccurrently, you can find devices and I
believe the initial connect to a BTLE device is somewhat done. This is done
for classic desktop windows (which would cover win 8.1). There is no WinRT
code at this stage.

 

to your questions:

 

1.) I am confident Windows should have no unfixable problems. In many cases
it is better than ios/OSX/Android when it comes to LE. I cannot say much
about WinRT.

 

2.) I am not the WinRT expert but I was told in some cases it works in
other's it doesn't. QtPositioning apparantly couldn't use RT on desktop. Qt
doesn't mix desktop and RT and I got the feeling that the responsiple devs
would like to keep it that way.

 

3.) The QtBluetooth library doesn't use a backend plugin. It is hardcoded
into the library.

 

--

Alex

  _____  

From: interest-bounces+alexander.blasche=theqtcompany.com at qt-project.org
<mailto:interest-bounces+alexander.blasche=theqtcompany.com at qt-project.org>
<interest-bounces+alexander.blasche=theqtcompany.com at qt-project.org
<mailto:interest-bounces+alexander.blasche=theqtcompany.com at qt-project.org>
> on behalf of Axel Jäger <axeljaeger at googlemail.com
<mailto:axeljaeger at googlemail.com> >
Sent: Tuesday, January 6, 2015 23:51
To: interest at qt-project.org <mailto:interest at qt-project.org> 
Subject: [Interest] Bluetooth Low Energy on Windows: Options and feasabilty
of implementing own backend 

 

Hello,

I have created a Bluetooth Low Energy Peripheral and need to develop a
companion application on a windows desktop for it. I see that windows is
currently not in the list of supported plattforms of Qt’s Low Energy Module
and it looks like it will not be in Qt 5.5 according to this commit:

https://qt.gitorious.org/qt/qtconnectivity/commit/ffbb91da8e8f14d7d5ffa8bbea
ce3e6c42eb525b

 

I am using bluetooth modules from bluegiga and they also offer a bluetooth
stick with an own C API.

 

I see three options getting my task done and I am asking you which one you
think is most sensible one:

1) Implement my application using bluegiga’s API 

2) Implement a backend for Qt to use bluegiga’s hardware 

3) Implement a backend for Qt to use the Windows Bluetooth API from
WinRT/Windows 8.1

 

The options are ordered by estimated amount of work from least to most.
Surprisingly I get the same order when sorting by sustainability.

 

This means that actually option 3) is to be prefered. This brings me to a
couple of questions:

1)      Has anyone already looked into the Windows API and wants to make a
statement whether mapping Qt’s API to the Windows API is feasable?

2)      Is it actually possible to use WinRT on the Desktop as backend for
Qt?

3)      Is there an API or a plugin interface for Bluetooth LE backends in
Qt?

 

Can you comment on any of my points?

 

Best regards,

 

Axel

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