Question

how to send data via bluetooth in linux

Asked by: syavik_tr

Hi!
Can anybody help me please with some simple C++ example of using bluetooth in linux. I need to establish serial connection over bluetooth with my robot/microcontroller and send simple commands. I do it by opening a serial port and writing to it in Windows. How can I write something and to where in Linux?

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Asked On
2009-03-03 at 09:41:39ID24194332
Tags

bluetooth

,

linux

,

bluez

,

rfcomm

Topics

Bluetooth

,

Linux Programming

,

Linux Networking

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
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Answers

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-03-04 at 00:48:38ID: 23792801

Data transfer comes in several ways (serial might be the only one you have, but there might be better methods...?)
Many devices implement OBEX (object exchange) over Irda & Bluetooth
OBEX is for transfering known chucks of data, with handling after transfer (think vcards, ringtones etc.) in stead of just file transfers.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/openobex/                           # LIB
http://dev.zuckschwerdt.org/openobex/wiki/ObexFtp          # Client
http://www.mulliner.org/bluetooth/sobexsrv.php                # Server

And there is the Personal Area Network (PAN) and off course the serial (RFCOMM)
transfers part of the BT stack. PAN behaves like an ethernet, rfcomm like a serial line.
http://bluez.sourceforge.net/

RFCOMm is your choice in this case(until now), so you need to configure an rfcomm device (config method is dependant on your version of Bluez).
man rfcomm
After the device is created you can use it like any other device.
You might need to set permisions/ownership right for the user that accesses the device so you don't need root to open it.

 

by: syavik_trPosted on 2009-03-04 at 05:00:24ID: 23794239

$ sudo hidd --search
$ sudo rfcomm connect 0 00:0B:CE:01:67:CD

do the trick of establishing the connection between my device (robot) and PC. Even if I try $ cat rfcomm0 I get correct messages from my robot. The question is how can I write to rfcomm0. If I try the standard procedure like with tty, I get input/output error message even after $ sudo chmod 777 rfcomm0. Can anybody provide a simple C++ example on writing to rfcomm? The example i found and tried is attached bellow, it works with tty...

#include <stdio.h> /* Standard input/output definitions */
#include <string.h> /* String function definitions */
#include <unistd.h> /* UNIX standard function definitions */
#include <fcntl.h> /* File control definitions */
#include <errno.h> /* Error number definitions */
#include <termios.h> /* POSIX terminal control definitions */
 
main()
{
int fd;
struct termios options;
 
int i ;
unsigned char data[20] = { 0x40, 0x28, 0x6b, 0xfe,
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00,
0x00, 0x23, 0x04, 0x00,
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00,
0xd9, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff} ;
 
// linux
fd = open("/dev/rfcomm0", O_RDWR | O_NOCTTY | O_NONBLOCK);
 
// cygwin
//fd = open("/dev/com1", O_RDWR | O_NOCTTY | O_NONBLOCK);
//fcntl(fd, F_SETFL, 0);
 
/* get the current options */
tcgetattr(fd, &options);
 
cfsetispeed(&options, B57600);
cfsetospeed(&options, B57600);
 
/* set raw input, 1 second timeout */
options.c_cflag |= (CLOCAL | CREAD);
options.c_oflag &= ~OPOST;
options.c_cc[VMIN] = 0;
options.c_cc[VTIME] = 10;
 
 
options.c_cflag &= ~PARENB; /* Clear parity enable */
options.c_iflag &= ~INPCK; /* Enable parity checking */
options.c_cflag &= ~CSTOPB;
options.c_cflag &= ~CSIZE;
options.c_cflag |= CS8;
 
options.c_cflag &= ~CRTSCTS;
 
// options.c_iflag &= ~(IXON | IXOFF | IXANY); /* no flow control */
 
options.c_oflag &= ~(IXON | IXOFF | IXANY); /* no flow control */
 
options.c_lflag &= ~(ICANON | ECHO | ECHOE | ISIG);
options.c_oflag &= ~OPOST; /* No output processing */
options.c_oflag &= ~ONLCR; /* Don't convert linefeeds */
 
/* Miscellaneous stuff */
options.c_cflag |= (CLOCAL | CREAD); /* Enable receiver, set local */
/* Linux seems to have problem with the following ??!! */
options.c_cflag |= (IXON | IXOFF); /* Software flow control */
options.c_lflag = 0; /* no local flags */
options.c_cflag |= HUPCL; /* Drop DTR on close */
 
/* Setup non blocking, return on 1 character */
options.c_cc[VMIN] = 0;
options.c_cc[VTIME] = 1;
 
/* Clear the line */
tcflush(fd,TCIFLUSH);
 
/* Update the options and do it NOW */
if (tcsetattr(fd,TCSANOW,&options) != 0) {
perror("SetupSerial 3");
return(0);
}
 
write(fd, data, 20 ) ;
close(fd);
return 0 ;
}

                                              
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by: syavik_trPosted on 2009-03-04 at 05:10:04ID: 23794310

Sorry for confusion but just discovered that just binding the device $ sudo rfcomm bind 0 00:0B:CE:01:67:CD and using the code above does not produce the input/output error. Although I'm not sure if it really sends the data. Need to modify the example to check if it works. I'll appreciate if somebody can correct me if I'm in a wrong direction.

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-03-06 at 13:09:58ID: 23821067

Sorry for the delay, but now you are on the right track.
You should be able to create a /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf

rfcomm1 {
#       # Automatically bind the device at startup
        bind no;
#       # Bluetooth address of the device
        device 00:0B:CE:01:67:CD;
#       # RFCOMM channel for the connection
        channel 0;
#       # Description of the connection
        comment "Robot";
}

Then you can either create the /dev/rfcomm1 device when the bluetooth service starts or
by issuing: "rfcomm bind rfcomm1"

 

by: syavik_trPosted on 2009-03-12 at 03:07:29ID: 23866357

Thank you noci for your response. I have just one question left: does rfcomm work exactly like tty, or there is a slight difference?

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-03-12 at 08:57:30ID: 23869938

There are clear differences. So it stays an emulation.
You can get radio interference ==> extra latency, etc.
For most things it looks like an serial line, clearly BAUDrate has no effect as BAUD rate,
start/stop bits ? bluetooth is a different concept. It migh have some influence on the other side.

Then again. The carrier is bluetooth ==> network ==> you may have timing issues, lost packets etc. so you have to deal with that. A connection can easily get disconnected through distance, stronger signl from other transmitters, wifi might interfere etc.
You can control some things using stty() and the like, it behaves like a serial line in many ways w.r.t. sending & receiving data.
The interface is mostly used for connecting systems to f.e. a mobilephone used as modem.

If your mobile phone has a serial line profile (Bluetooth SPP) you can connect to your phone and try things like AT&V (Hayes modem command to retrieve settings) etc.

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-03-12 at 09:04:57ID: 23870032

 

by: syavik_trPosted on 2009-03-23 at 09:15:38ID: 23959324

finally I implemented the code (the source exmple is in my second comment) and discovered some new issues:
1st - when I bind rfcomm I am able to send data (no errors I mean) but nothing is received by the microcontroller (or maybe some garbage). Although  sudo rfcomm connect 0 00:0B:CE:01:67:CD 1 does the job! OK, I can live with it ;)
2nd - the connection is sort of unstable. I'm pretty much happy sending and receiving data for the first 20 seconds, then no errors while sending but nothing is received (or something incorrect).

What can cause such strange behavior and how to solve this problem?

 

by: syavik_trPosted on 2009-03-23 at 09:32:07ID: 23959518

a remark: with binding works sometimes also, but the same problem with connection (stable for 20 sec.)

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-03-23 at 15:25:39ID: 23962891

I am not aware of such problems.
My phone is reachable through this interface for prolonged times. (at least longer than 20 sec.)
Any potential Interference? WiFi uses almost the same freqencies.

Maybe you can use a third system to sniff the packets flying through the air?
And go from there.

 

by: syavik_trPosted on 2009-04-06 at 05:20:05ID: 24076517

noci, thanks for support, the code is perfectly working. I just need to send any data twice per minute after opening the port.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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