Getting started with Bluetooth in Windows Phone 8

published on: 03/01/2020

by Stuart Lodge

A few weeks ago I knew nothing about Bluetooth.

Nothing. Zip. Nada. I never used it - not for headsets, not for messaging, not for file transfer - never even turned it on. Then a little robot ball arrived in my life. His name is Sphero.

He's a ball.

He can roll.

He can turn.

He can glow.

He can stream out data.

And he loves Bluetooth.

Now I still know I don't know much about Bluetooth, but I do know a little..

How to open the Bluetooth settings page?

That's an easy one:

var task = new ConnectionSettingsTask(); task.ConnectionSettingsType = ConnectionSettingsType.Bluetooth; task.Show();

You might need to call this to help the user find new devices - it's easier than supplying a UI yourself.

How to prepare your WP8 app for Bluetooth?

Easy - all you need to do is to open WMAppManfest.xml and to make sure ID_CAP_PROXIMITY and ID_CAP_NETWORKING are both checked.

How to find known (paired) Bluetooth devices?

All you need to do is to call the FindAllPeersAsync static method on the PeerFinder class.

Before you do, set the alternate identities so that it only returns existing known Bluetooth devices - don't ask why. just do it!

PeerFinder.AlternateIdentities["Bluetooth:Paired"] = ""; var peers = await PeerFinder.FindAllPeersAsync();

This asynchronously returns an IEnumerable of PeerInformation objects. You can use this to find the ones you are interested in. For example to filter the IEnumerable down to just the ones with a name which contains 'Sphero' use Linq like:

var spheroPeers = peers .Where(p => p.DisplayName.Contains("Sphero")) .Select();

That was super easy. Now I want to talk to it. How do I do that?

Once you've got the identity of your Bluetooth object - e.g. to Sphero - then the next step is to connect to it. This is easy. create a socket and ask it to connect to the hostname from the peer information object:

var spheroSocket = new StreamSocket(); await spheroSocket.ConnectAsync(PeerInformation.HostName, "1");

One interesting thing here is the argument passed to ConnectAsync. The argument this method takes is "the service name or TCP port number of the remote network destination" - so to work out what to use, you often need to read some documentation or have ties.

If the socket fails to open, then an exception will be thrown. This is normally just a System.Exception - and often it has an HRESULT as the error message - so it's not very user friendly.

However, if the socket connects, you'll then be able to access the Read and Write functions - so you can both receive and send data.

For example, to ask Sphero to change his current colour you could send the integer sequence:

0xff // sync 0xff// sync 0x02// device 0x22 // message 0x00 // sequence hint 0x01 // remaining length 0xda // checksum

You can send this using code like:

byte[] rawData=new byte[] { 0xff, . , 0xda };// from above var dataBuffer = GetBufferFromByteArray(rawData); await spheroSocket.OutputStream.WriteAsync(dataBuffer);

where GetBufferFromByteArray is just this helper:

private IBuffer GetBufferFromByteArray(byte []package) { using(DataWriter dw = new DataWriter()) { dw.WriteBytes(package); return dw.DetachBuffer(); } }

In response to this request you might get:

0xff // sync 0xff // sync 0x00 // sequence hint 0x04 // remaining length 0xa6 // red 0xd2 // green 0xec // blue 0x97 // checksum

Which you can receive using:

var buffer = new Windows.Storage.Streams.Buffer(128); var receivedSize = await spheroSocket.InputStream.ReadAsync(buffer, 128, InputStreamOptions.None);

This returns an IBuffer and you can read the bytes from this using:

using (var dr = DataReader.FromBuffer(buffer)) { varsyncByte0 = dr.ReadByte(); var syncByte1 = dr.ReadByte(); // etc }

Obviously this is quite technical, but it's easy enough to do.

To work out more about the bytes you need to send and receive, obviously you need some technical information.

For Sphero, for example, see the Low Level API spec shared on http://forum.gosphero.com/forumdisplay.php?8-Low-Level-API-amp-Release-Notes

That's super awesome. Where can I find out more about Sphero?

My finished Sphero app is on the marketplace at: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/ball-control/79ffe7ec-0bb2-45e2-804d-8370ccdf68f4

I've also released the full source code to this app on:https://github.com/slodge/BallControl - it's MS-PL so you can use it!

There are heaps of coding projects going on at the moment - games, toys, controllers, and beyond. we're also thinking about doing a Gangnam Style Global Sphero dance early next year - if you want to join in with the coding or the playing, then please do.

Could I run Sphero on Windows 8 too?

Sadly when they wrote the spec for Windows Store apps, they decided not to include much Bluetooth support. I have asked lots of questions about this. And lots of people say my request is important to them.But either no-one really knows or no-one is really saying if or when there will be any better support. Hopefully soon.

Is this just about Sphero? What other Bluetooth devices are out there?

There are hundreds (thousands?) of Bluetooth enabled devices out there. If you want to look at some more toys, try things like the helicopters and cars from http://www.bee-wi.com/en.cfm

If you are looking at more serious applications, then there are things like office tools, and manufacturing and medical monitoring equipment available. Or you can always just use Bluetooth for phone-2-phone, phone-2-tablet, phone-2-PC or maybe even phone-2-TV communications. There are heaps of possibilities!

What about fitness devices like Heart Rate Monitors?

Things like Heart Rate Monitors use a low energy form of Bluetooth. Sadly, someone forgot these when they wrote the spec for Windows Phone 8. which is 'a shame'. The good news is that manufacturers like Nokia have exceeded the WP8 spec - so there is hardware support in the 920 for Heart Rate Monitors.

Hopefully, Nokia will deliver on their promise - and differentiate their devices away from WP8. hopefully soon. and hopefully they'll do it by allowing us to have Bluetooth LE support. This could be done a bit like how WP7 developers got access to the compass and the flash LED even though these things weren't really in the platform at the time.

I wrote to Stephen Elopat Nokia about this. He replied:

So here I sit still hoping. :)

Is there anything else?

There's always more to learn. Try:

MSDN - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/jj207007%28v=vs.105%29.aspx

The excellent Nokia Dev Wiki on WP8 - http://www.developer.nokia.com/Community/Wiki/What%27s_new_in_Windows_Phone_8

My sphero app - http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/ball-control/79ffe7ec-0bb2-45e2-804d-8370ccdf68f4 and https://github.com/slodge/BallControl

Another sphero demo app - https://github.com/TechPreacher/WP8-Sphero-Control/

You can download the Full Source Code here.

You can also follow us on Twitter: @winphonegeek for Windows Phone; @winrtgeek for Windows 8 / WinRT

Comments

awesome posted by: Rob on 01/09/2013 17:29:21 Thank you For the article, clear and complete :) Really windows 8 store apps do not support spp Bt ??? WHAT A GIANT SHAME !!!!!