BUILD 2013

For developers at Microsoft BUILD this week in San Francisco...

Please come say hello; I'd love to meet you!

 

We're in Moscone North on the bottom floor, on the opposite side of the room from the Hackathon.

 

We built an app for Windows 8.1 (and Windows RT 8.1) using the new Bluetooth Smart (Low Energy) WinRT proximity APIs.  Of course it's using a Netduino Plus 2. 

 

Chris

Chris, for me (Netherlands) it is too far swimming.   else I'd love to be there.

We built an app for Windows 8.1 (and Windows RT 8.1) using the new Bluetooth Smart (Low Energy) WinRT proximity APIs.

Chris, I'm very interested in BLE and have a few questions about your setup:

 

1. What shield/module/device have you hooked up to your NP2?

2. Is your Win8 machine equipped with built-in BLE or are you using a dongle, if so what dongle is that?

3. Do you know if the BLE APIs are available for other Windows versions than Win8?

 

Thanks!

Hi Hanzibal, I was using a BLE shield built by Seeed Studio. I was actually running the demos from a Surface RT (which has Bluetooth LE--even though it wasn't advertised in its specs). I also tested them on a Windows 8.1 laptop. There are some really inexpensive Bluetooth 4.0 (+ LE) USB dongles that should work great. 3. The Bluetooth Low Energy APIs are brand new in Windows 8.1. You'll also be seeing them on the AGENT Smartwatch Chris

Ah yes, I've seen that shield. As you probably know, TI just released their CC2541 based BLE SensorTag - would it be possible to interface that using the Seed Studio BLE shield, one of those inexpensive dongles and (since you mentioned it) the Agent respectively?

Hi hanzibal, That BLE shield is really designed to interact with an iPhone 4S+ or other BLE-enabled phone/computer. It has fixed-size buffers, custom end-points, etc. and basically emulates a serial port of sorts. On Bluetooth LE tags: yes, you should be able to interact with those types of tags using AGENT. We're exposing the new WinRT Proximity APIs so you just need the GATT characteristic UUIDs, etc. and you'll be off and running. Chris

Yes, almost all BLE stuff I've seen is about talking to an iPhone but that does not really interest me plus I think wifi is better for that. I think the Agent and TI SensorTag combo would be much more interesting. Anyway, do you think one of these cheap BT 4.0 actually supports BLE and that it is able to talk to the Agent and/or the TI SensorTag over BLE? http://www.ebay.com/...=item3f1d09ffab Then of course, there's the API thing on a non-BLE equipped PC, I suppose that would be a show-stopper on Win XP.

Hi hanzibal, Here's the BT 4.0 BR/EDR+LE USB dongle we're currently using: http://www.amazon.co...AT0/ref=sr_1_8? I'd recommend using Windows 8.1 preview (which is currently free) with it, if you have an extra development PC. Chris

Ok, thanks!

Hi Chris,

 

Are you able to share you test app?

 

Cheers

Justin