Goal
I am developping a simple device running Linux. It is BLE capable, and I am currently using bluez 5.8.
I want to trigger an action on this device using an iPhone.
What already works:
- I can make the iPhone "see" the device.
- The iPhone also connects to the device.
I setup the bluetooth device like this on linux (thanks to this question):
# activate bluetooth hciconfig hci0 up # set advertise data: "hello world" hcitool -i hci0 cmd 0x08 0x0008 48 45 4c 4c 4f 57 4f 52 4c 44 # start advertising as connectable hciconfig hci0 leadv 0
The iOS code is straightforward:
- (int) scanForPeripherals { if (self->centralManager.state != CBCentralManagerStatePoweredOn) { return -1; } NSDictionary *options = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:[NSNumber numberWithBool:NO], CBCentralManagerScanOptionAllowDuplicatesKey, nil]; [self.centralManager scanForPeripheralsWithServices:nil options:options]; return 0; } - (void)centralManagerDidUpdateState:(CBCentralManager *)central { if (central.state == CBCentralManagerStatePoweredOn) { NSLog(@"Starting scan"); [self scanForPeripherals]; } } - (void) centralManager:(CBCentralManager *)central didDiscoverPeripheral:(CBPeripheral *)peripheral advertisementData:(NSDictionary *)advertisementData RSSI:(NSNumber *)RSSI { NSLog(@"didDiscoverPeripheral"); /* * Retain the peripheral to avoid the error: * CoreBluetooth[WARNING]: state = connecting> is being dealloc'ed while connecting */ self.activePeripheral = peripheral; [centralManager connectPeripheral:peripheral options:nil]; } - (void)centralManager:(CBCentralManager *)central didConnectPeripheral:(CBPeripheral *)peripheral { NSLog(@"Connected to peripheral"); /* discover all services */ [peripheral discoverServices:nil]; } - (void)peripheral:(CBPeripheral *)peripheral didDiscoverServices:(NSError *)error { NSLog(@"Discovered services"); for (CBService *service in peripheral.services) { NSLog(@"Discovered service %@", service); } }
When running this code on the iPhone, I get this log:
2013-12-19 12:53:22.609 Test2[18518:60b] Starting scan 2013-12-19 12:53:29.945 Test2[18518:60b] didDiscoverPeripheral 2013-12-19 12:53:31.230 Test2[18518:60b] Connected to peripheral
So it seems that the iPhone connects fine, but does not see any service.
What I am missing
- I need to advertise a simple BLE service, but I can't find any documentation on how to do this in bluez .
- I think I need something like a gatt-server to receive read/write characteristics for the service I would advertise. I saw the plugins/gatt-example.c file in bluez, but I have absolutely no idea how to use it: there is no documentation.
I should probably mention that I saw this question: Creating a gatt server, but the answers raise too much questions (for example, where is the GATT api for bluez? how to set the GATT database? How to register for read/write events?)
EDIT: The commands I use only set-up the BLE device to advertise some data, but iOS reports that the connection is accepted. What part of bluez is accepting incoming connections?