I am trying to establish a bluetooth connection between a Windows CE handheld device(A bank card reader) and iPhone. I want to make data transfer betweeen the two. I have read that prior to IOS 6.0 this was not possible. But with IOS 6.0 I can use core bluetooth to establish a connection.
I would like to know whether the handheld devices bluetooth should be of certain spec to make it work with IOS devices? Or are there any restriction fro any bluetooth device to communicate with an IOS device?
I have read here that the device should be Bluetooth LE. How can I detect whether my handheld device is bluetooth LE?
Thanks
It would be nice if you would provide more information about this Windows CE device.
Just search for the specs of it. If it supports Bluetooth 4.0 LE you have to look if it specifies any of the known profiles. If not the manufacturer may have implemented an own profile to provide certain services and characteristics.
If this is not the case, there is no possibility to establish a connection over CoreBluetooth.
But if its a bank card reader I can't imagine, that it supports BLE.
If the device just supports Bluetooth 2.x you can only connect via the External Accessories Framework. But this only works if the manufacturer bought the MFi (Made for iPod) license and implemented the required specs into the hardware (only then the device is "MFi approved").
Related
I have a requirement - I need to connect the my iPhone application with external Bluetooth Devices like (Thermometer, Oximeter) without External Accessory and I need to transfer the data with my application to Bluetooth Device. Is it possible? Can I connect my iPhone to any other devices (not a Apple device)? Is anyone aware of this?
if you are asking for connect bluetooth with any other bluetooth than its possible from now.
in ios apple introduce core bluetooth for connect with external bluetooth devices. The CoreBluetooth framework provides access to Bluetooth 4.0 low energy devices. but its support after ios 5.0 .
you can get more information and demo source code for it from below url.
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/CoreBluetooth/Reference/CoreBluetooth_Framework/_index.html
hope this will help you.
if you are asking for connect bluetooth with any other bluetooth than its possible from now.
you have aslo get more information from given below url.
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#samplecode/TemperatureSensor/Introduction/Intro.html
Can iPhone Bluetooth be connected to non iOS Bluetooth receivers? Or which Bluetooth receiver I can use to communicate my iPhone to external device?
If you want to build one non-iOS bluetooth receiver that can communicate with iPhone/iPad on Classic Bluetooth (not Bluetooth 4.0 aka. Bluetooth Low Energy), you must get a MFi license for that (see Apple MFi FAQs) and use the iOS accessory framework to carry out the connection. However, with Bluetooth Low Energy, Apple provides a very easy and open framework 'CoreBluetooth' to establish communications between iOS devices and BLE devices, no license is needed. This may probably because Apple doesn't have to worry about the energy consumption of BLE devices.
I really searched on this topic for a while now. Especially when iOS 3 was the latest software version on the iPhone.
I wonder if there is a possibility to connect the iPhone to an external device via Bluetooth using the SDK and retrieve measured data?
Thanks for your help!
Greeting!
mary
If the Bluetooth device can masquerade as a Bluetooth keyboard, then it can send data to an iOS device encoded as keystrokes.
If the Bluetooth device is or can masquerade as a headset, then it might be able to send data encoded by an audio modulation scheme, such as FSK. A matching modem/codec will need to be running in the iOS app.
For the newest iOS devices (4S) you can use the new Bluetooth LE protocol to send data (older Bluetooth data communication protocols are not available to apps unless you are in Apple's NDA MFi program).
You have to look into the MFi Program by apple since you want your devices communicating. It provides support on using an external accessory with your iPhone, though you have to register/pay for it.
What are the limitations of the Bluetooth on iOS? Can I program a Bluetooth in a way it makes the discovery procedure to find neighbor devices, selects a device from list, pair with it and starts over sockets exchanging some data (e.g. for peer2peer game? Is that possible?
All hardware that can communicate with iOS devices using Bluetooh must comply with the MFI (made for iPhone) program. It requires the vendor to use certain kinds of hardware and require a device certification. The program is under a strict NDA.
It basically means that you can only make a connection between iOS devices or devices with the MFI label and not just connect to a another cellphone -unless your iOS device is Jailbroken of course.
yes it is possible. BTW only iOS devices are supported.
Take a look at GameKit framework in the documentation.
I'm trying to figure out if an iPhone can connect to another non-iPhone device over wireless or Bluetooth and have seen conflicting information. Much of what I've found was before version 3.0 of the SDK came out, when it certainly wasn't possible. Looking at Stack Overflow questions, like Can the iPhone 3.0 SDK provide full access to Bluetooth devices (headsets)? mention you can't connect to an arbitrary device unless if it's part of the "Works for iPhone" device. Do I need hardware that is part of this program?
Looking through the Apple documentation, Peer-to-Peer Connectivity, it mentions connecting two iPhones, not an iPhone to another Bluetooth device. Then there are articles like iPhone SDK focus: Bluetooth enhancements that includes this quote
...and with the newly-announced "standard support" should allow file transfer between the iPhone and a computer, as well as between nearby iPhones
Another Stack Overflow question, GameKit in iPhone SDK 3.0, mentions Bonjour, and the Apple documentation for Bonjour talks about connecting to Bonjour devices, but can an iPhone connect to any Bonjour device? Does it have to have a Wi-Fi connection, or can it use Bluetooth?
Even if I could use Bluetooth to connect to another device, it won't be available on first generation iPhones and iTouches, I believe. Is that correct? I'm thinking of an iPhone application that would need to communicate with other non-iPhone devices in the area, probably using Bluetooth, but possibly a direct wireless connection. What are the possibilities and limitations of this approach? Is it not possible to have an iPhone connect to an arbitrary Bluetooth device? Does the other device have to be on a wireless Bonjour network that? I'm trying to figure out if it's even possible for this to work or if it's not worth the effort.
The only way to communicate with other Bluetooth devices via the External Accessory framework in iPhone OS 3.0 is if they are in the Made for iPod accessory program. Even though they communicate through standard Bluetooth connections, accessories need special hardware in order to process the data stream coming from the iPhone / iPod touch. Unfortunately, this means that your idea of communicating with generic Bluetooth devices won't work on iPhone OS 3.0.
If the devices you want to talk to are Bonjour-discoverable via Wi-Fi, they don't need to be part of the Made for iPod program. However, that doesn't sound like your case.
Third-party developers in the near future may produce dongles that connect through the 30-pin dock port and give access to existing Bluetooth devices. If these developers opened up their communication protocol, that might enable your goal of communicating with these devices.
You can use NSStream for opening IPv4/IPv6 sockets on the iPhone. The devices to which you're connecting do not have to be iPhones or use Wi-Fi necessarily. Because of how network communication protocols are laid out, you simply don't have to care what kind of device your iPhone is communicating with.
Bonjour, on the other hand, uses NSStream internally. It's basically a nifty little wrapper which allows for auto-discovery. You need the Bonjour protocol installed on all devices which you want to participate in the auto-discovery process. There is even an implementation for Windows.
As part of the iPhone OS 3.0 SDK, Apple announced the ability to control hardware accessories through either Bluetooth or the dock connector. The dock connector supports standard protocols (that is, play, pause, etc.) as well as any custom protocols the developer wants to implement.
As far as connecting via Bluetooth, you can talk to other iPhones or other devices. For example, you can use stereo Bluetooth to connect compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones, car kits, or other accessories.
As far as what devices support Bluetooth communication, everything except the first generation iPod Touch should be okay.
See also Apple's page on iPhone OS accessories.