As far as I read about the dev boards, every SoC is capable to use Bluetooth.
I didn't tested it yet, but can I use Android Things with a Bluetooth connection? My question is, how can I enable Bluetooth without an input device? If I want to enable Bluetooth on my phone (with code), I had to confirm it, but this can't be possible on Android Things.
Update: Since the release of Android Things developer preview 3, Bluetooth and BLE are now available.
Old Answer
No. You can not use Bluetooth with the current version of AndroidThings (developer preview 1).
It is said in the known issues part of the release notes that Bluetooth is currently disabled (and so is USB).
It is supposed to be included at some point, but at the moment if you try to get a BluetoothAdapter it does return null.
Android Things will use the latest version of Bluetooth called Bluetooth Low Energy and the only similarity between the two is that they have Bluetooth in the name!
Can I use Android Things with a Bluetooth connection?
Yes, well a Bluetooth Low Energy connection
https://www.link-labs.com/bluetooth-vs-bluetooth-low-energy/
In summary, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) are used for very different purposes. Bluetooth can handle a lot of data, but consumes battery life quickly and costs a lot more. BLE is used for applications that do not need to exchange large amounts of data, and can therefore run on battery power for years at a cheaper cost. It all depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.
Everything you need to know about BLE is written here:
https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/connectivity/bluetooth-le.html
how can I enable Bluetooth without an input device?
You do not pair BLE devices like you used to with the older Bluetooth (but you can use Bonding). Check this out:
Android Bluetooth Low Energy Pairing
https://stackoverflow.com/a/20093695/413127
But as stated by #shalafi Android Things doesn't currently support Bluetooth
Related
I am developing an app that controls a product's operation. The communication is via BLE. My configuration is
App - Peripheral (iOS, Android)
Product - Central (uses Laird BT900 module)
iOS as a peripheral works fine (pairing and bonding) ; Android PIN pairing works fine, but subsequent bonding (or reconnect when in range) there are a lot of issues and termination of connection. I am using the supported list of devices for Android BLE and I also understand that there are many known issues that come with different manufacturers/chipset vendors
The issue I am getting is, as seen by nrfConnect, is with descriptors. Android app doesnt show descriptors when seen in nrfConnect whereas iOS shows. I do not know what is the difference
Is it a common practice to use a phone as a peripheral ? Or is it a risk - because this is a medical device.
Are there any best practices for Android as a peripheral ?
I have following back up plans in case Android issue is not resolved. I think following would work on any BLE supported phones without having any issues with the variability.
Plan A : PIN pairing on every connection with the product. This is the most secure and most annoying
Plan B : Implement just works pairing with a app layer password before taking control of the product.
Question : Is just works safe and encrypted ? Is it snoop-safe or MITM-safe ?
Thanks in advance!
A few thoughts from your questions:
1a. (From my Android experience) I think its uncommon to have the phone be the peripheral. To my knowledge all iOS devices support peripheral mode but only a very small subset of Android devices are able to support it. I say this because I've been experimenting with BTLE beacons using the AltBeacon library. From this work I have discovered that only certain Android phones can broadcast BTLE advertise packets. Given that BTLE advertising is the first step in initiating a BTLE session I imagine that this prevents many Android phones from being compatible with peripheral mode.
If all of your users can use an iOS device, then you're set, otherwise this may be a problem.
1b) I can't speak to the specific risk of using a mobile device with your medical device, that depends on what the medical device is doing and how you're using the mobile app.
2) See 1a
3) The specific encryption scheme you used is also based on your product's risk profile. I would say that Just Works is not an ideal solution. The just works pairing process is not snoop-safe and can be re-initiated via a MITM. Other than that I can't speak to the strength of BTLE encryption.
I am trying to identify which android phones support Bluetooth Low Energy and I am a bit confused on whether or not a device with BTv4.0+ is BLE compatible.
To be more precise, I am looking at the device Samsung Galaxy J5. According to http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_j5-7184.php, the bluetooth version is 4.1 but it doesn't mention anything about BLE.
According to the bluetooth specification:
"Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) (also called Bluetooth Smart or Version 4.0+ of the Bluetooth specification) is the power- and application-friendly version of Bluetooth that was built for the Internet of Things (IoT).". According to this I would presume that 4.0+ is BLE.
However if you see the specs of Samsung Galaxy S6 (http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s6-6849.php) it mentions that it supports both BTv4.1 and BLE. It therefore distinguishes the two BT specifications.
Any information would be very helpful
Edit
Additional reference information for interested parties:
from bluetooth.org: Two flavors of Bluetooth The two most prevalent implementations of the specification are Bluetooth Basic Rate/Enhanced Data Rate (BR/EDR), which was adopted as version 2.0/2.1, and Bluetooth with low energy (LE), which was adopted as version 4.0/4.1/4.2. Each implementation has different use cases and each implementation uses a different chipset to meet essential hardware requirements. Dual-mode chipsets are also available for applications that include both use cases. - See more at: https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/bluetooth-core-specification#sthash.7X7IrtWy.dpuf
Instead of relying on gsmarena with unreliable information, you can refer to Bluetooth SIG's official information.
Based on this Bluetooth SIG's announcement and this one, BLE is a core specification of Bluetooth 4.0. Bluetooth 4.1 and 4.2 also adopt this core specification.
However, all this still depends on whether the manufacturers implement the firmware. To keep track of all this, Bluetooth SIG maintains a list of devices currently supporting any profile (for example GATT).
This crossed my mind myself as I saw it as a pointless advancement until I saw the low energy bLE (bluetooth low energy) side of it. In my pastime I tinker with various electronics and with various BLE 4.x modules and their pro's and cons are HUGE.
All in all, BLE is better as Bluetooth pretty much is battery drain on the most robust of phones.
I found a nice little writeup (pretty simple yet comprehensive) here: http://www.argenox.com/bluetooth-low-energy-ble-v4-0-development/library/a-guide-to-selecting-a-bluetooth-chipset/
Do cut my answer short, as the bag you linked shows it as being "NFC" compatible, then yet, it's BLE 4.x. (That's Near Field Communication i.e. similar to your your contactless bank card). The v4.1, A2DP which you mention is how one "audio device talks to another" via bluetooth. (dvanced Audio Distribution Profile).
If you're really bored, there's a long list of other profiles (other than A2D):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bluetooth_profiles
Hope this helps!
Happy bluetoothing!
I wonder whether it is possible to emulate a specific bluetooth device like a Remote Controller for a TV or another device with my PC. I'd be okay with installing an additional hardware device for my computer (e. g. a BlueTooth PCIe card).
I imagined something like "recording" all single commands of my original remote controller using my Bluetooth card and afterwards use these recorded commands to turn on my TV for example.
Is something like this possible (with additional hardware maybe)?
Of course this is possible. Bluetooth is just a protocol and you can impliment it in your custom software to emulate all kinds of devices. If you need to emulate simple devices like keyboard or mouse, there are many ready solutions like this.
But if you have non standard device, there won't be any ready solutions and you will have to implement it yourself. What can help you:
If you have some kind of controller for PC and you want to emulate device with unknown protocol, you can use WireShark or other sniffer to understand what's going on.
There is an emulator called BT-Sim, but it is so poorly documented that I can't even guess what it does.
You can can take as example different android software like described in answers to this question.
You can check different program samples for PC like this.
For hardware you need only simple Bluetooth dongle. However, if you want to spy on some BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) devices, you can buy hardware sniffer like this.
(At least in Windows 10) Microsoft Store has an application called "Bluetooth LE Explorer" which is able to simulate different kind of Bluetooth GATT profiles as a peripheral.
I want to know if the developer team which made the emulator have some information to make bluetooth work in the Android emulator, indicate some links about it, if they have some date for release or if they'll make it works in the future.
as far as I know there is no support in the emulator for bluetooth. And I will have to teach android and bluetooth in some classes. And the students will need to code stuff and test (guess it) in the android emulator.
So I came up with a bare-bone reimplementation of the android bluetooth API on top of tcp. You can find it on here on github.
Basically, you run a tcp-server on your machine, and the emulators will connect through it.
Instead of using the classes in the package android.bluetooth, you just need to use the classes in the package dk.itu.android.bluetooth (and other 2 little modifies).
As for now it supports:
switch on/off the "radio"
discovery devices (only other android emulators)
creating bluetooth services
connecting to bluetooth services
It's not much, but until we got some more from the android guys, I guess there is nothing else around.
Hope it'll be useful, cheers!
The documented bluetooth limitation appears inconsistent with the qemu -bt option. So, how is bluetooth enabled in the emulator so the -bt options can be used, or at least to know that bluetooth is supported?
The target/board/.../BoardConfig.mk having "BOARD_HAVE_BLUETOOTH := true" doesn't provide a bluetooth icon or enable bluetooth. So, how do we turn on bluetooth on the android qemu emulator?
What does it mean that bluetooth is not supported given the -bt option for emulating USB devices that were provided in 2008? The post and limitations are outdated.
The functional limitations of the emulator include:
No support for placing or receiving actual phone calls. You can simulate phone calls (placed and received) through the emulator console, however.
No support for USB connections
No support for device-attached headphones
No support for determining network connected state
No support for determining battery charge level and AC charging state
No support for determining SD card insert/eject
No support for Bluetooth
http://developer.android.com/tools/devices/emulator.html#limitations
Does anyone know how a bluetooth device could pick up the discoverable devices' device IDs in range?
I am ideally looking for the simplest solution that involves the smallest implimentation of the bluetooth protocols.
A starting point would be good, I just wish to create a device that can store all the device ids of nearby bluetooth devices with minimal power consumption, preferably just using radio frequencies and not SDP and whatever else.
If you can't help me with this, please can you help me find good reading material for low level bluetooth (step by step) communication. The reading online is so high level that I cant work out what is actually sent, when.
Laalto nailed the answer from the Bluetooth spec/stack POV, but your question implies your looking for a stand-alone Bluetooth device - not just a laptop app scanning surrounding devices.
I can only speak for the BT chips that the company I work for manufactures (Cambridge Silicon Radio - CSR) but our chips can do that pretty much out of the box. Our chips have an on-board Virtual Machine sandbox that allows access to the firmware functions and Bluetooth stack of the chip. You can easily write a C code app to run in the virtual machine sandbox, on chip, that periodically scans for discoverable devices around, grab their ids and then download them when connected via USB or Serial, or maybe over BT when a device connects to the listener directly.
www.csr.com and www.csrsupport.com for chips, dev-kits, design references, etc.. etc...
You probably want a module with the extra HW (UARTs, USB etc...) as well as just the chip but you could implement this with something the size of a BlueTooth USB or probably smaller.
It would really help to know more about what your trying to achieve, why you want something that just scans the surrounding bluetooth devices and how big the device needs to be.
Sorry if this sounds like advertising. For balance: Broadcom make BT chips too!
The Bluetooth specs from http://www.bluetooth.org are a good starting place for low-level information. You need an account to access the specs, but you can create one for free.
Basically what you need to do is to go into Inquiry mode periodically and grab the response packets as they arrive. The more time you spend in Inquiry mode, the more likely you will discover devices in range: discoverable devices enter the Inquiry Scan mode only relatively rarely; it takes some time (10.24s at least with older Bluetooth versions) to scan all the possible frequencies in the Inquiry/Inquiry Scan frequency hopping schemes. And even then you can have suboptimal radio conditions.
For implementation I suggest you at least start with existing Bluetooth libraries such as BlueZ and do not attempt to create your own from scratch.