Does a normal Windows (8.1) PC have the ability to act as a Bluetooth LE beacon? If so, is there any software to enable that?
Update
More current answers here:
Beacons in Windows 10
Pre-Windows 10, Windows 8.1 in your case, doesn't support scanning or acting as iBeacon(s) nativly. However, you have some options:
Use the WinBeacon managed library (yes, I'm the owner). Replace the driver of the Bluetooth 4.0 dongle with a libusb/WinUSB driver and you're all set
Use a VM that runs linux with BlueZ stack
Use a RaspberryPI as 'detector' that hosts a WebAPI interface to your Windows machine
Switch to Windows 10
Bluetooth low energy or Bluetooth LE, marketed as Bluetooth Smart, is a wireless personal area network technology designed and marketed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group aimed at novel applications in the healthcare, fitness, security, and home entertainment industries.
Mobile operating systems including iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry, as well as OS X, Linux, and Windows 8, natively support Bluetooth Smart.
I found software for Bluetooth 4.0 for windows 8 (64 bits) here http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds037617
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I’m working on a project that uses BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) protocols for transferring data and am currently limited to my MacBook due to some Admin permission constraints on my work machine (running Windows).
I need to find a USB adapter that supports Bluetooth 4.0 Tx/Rx, however I am ONLY finding these dongles that solely support Windows distros. So my question:
1) Why is this? Is Bluetooth SIG or at least BLE somehow a propriety protocol patented or somehow bound to Microsoft? I mean, there exist iOS libraries for high-level BLE management, so...
2) Am I just missing the product I’m looking for and there are such accessories compatible with a Unix based OS?
Who said USB dongles only support Windows? On the contrary, I haven't heard about a single USB dongle that doesn't support Linux. Bluetooth SIG has defined and specified HCI over USB and every device uses that protocol (however some device specific code is often needed to initialize the device). See a list of some tested devices at https://github.com/50ButtonsEach/fliclib-linux-hci/blob/master/README.md#bluetooth-controllers. Those should work with Mac OS X as well, but if the computer already has a built in Bluetooth chip you might need to adjust the currently used device.
I have an Asus USB-BT400 Bluetooth Dongle, it works with BLE devices. I also have an TI Sensortag, i installed the drivers and software and I can connect my PC to the sensortag (using windows 7 or windows 8.1 in VM, both works).
Windows doesn't find drivers for the sensors (I think 8 in total) so I would like to know how I can communicate to them. I already exposed a COM port for the bluetooth device (that's possible via Bluetooth settings). I tried the BLE device monitor, where the COM port shows up, but it gives an error (no response from BLE host at port COM3). I also tried the windows Desktop app (win8), which doesn't work either.
I would be glad for any solutions, resources and hints which do not require me to buy the Dongle from TI website for ~50$.
Thank you!
I don't believe it works under anything less than Win 8.1 as the OS must have the BLE Profile drivers.
Running VM is not going to help, as you need those drivers at the base OS level.
I've configured iPhone 4s as a iBeacon Transmitter and I've received data from my Android application. Now I want to configure my bluetooth 4.0 device in windows. Is that possible? I've googled it but I couldn't find anything.
Does your computer support Bluetooth smart ? Mobile operating systems including iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry, as well as OS X, Linux, and Windows 8, natively support Bluetooth Smart.
EDIT
Unfortunately it's not currently supported under Windows 8.1.
check this link Beacon Windows
The managed C# library WinBeacon can be used for this purpose. It implements a simple HCI layer that talks directly to the BT4.0 dongle through a WinUSB driver (instead of the default Bluetooth driver).
I have a PDA device running Windows Embedded CE 6.0, which I need to sync using WMDC (Windows Mobile Device Center) as my system operates on Windows 7 professional. However the WMDC does not detect the device as an active connection in spite of the device being available as a usb mass storage device on the Win 7 system. My query is whether i need to do any specific configuration settings on the PDA to enable detection by the WMDC specifically ?
Windows CE provides support for different class profiles for USB client and when you configure your OS Design you may choose which of those profiles you want to support. If the manufacturer of your device did not include ActiveSync/serial (old name for WMDC) support in the image you can't sync your device.
If they did you may be able to change the device behaviour by changing the registry, as described here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms895481.aspx
Here is my problem, I want to develop a .NET application to communicate with a BLE CSR dongle (i.e. uses non-MS stack driver). In windows 8.1, you have to pair the BLE device in the computer's bluetooth settings before the application can use it. It's straight forward, you goto pc settings bluetooth and search for devices. From what I can tell, if you have a dongle that cannot support the ms stack, this bluetooth option disappears in pc settings, and you cannot pair your device using the standard way. I tested this on a machine with both a MS-stack capable dongle and a CSR (non-MS-stack) dongle. If I disabled the MS-stack dongle (in device manager), and noticed the option for bluetooth under pc settings->devices disappears immediately. Once re-enabled, it returns.
So my question is how does one pair a device using a non-ms stack dongle to have the same effect as done under pc settings when using an dongle with the MS-stack?
Many thanks