Is it possible to have two iAP Blueetooth connections open from a single iOS device (iPhone)? I know that you can be connected to more than one bluetooth device on the OS level. But will I be able to send/receive data on two parallel bluetooth connection (to two different devices) from my iPhone.
Can I talk to a device that only offers RFCOMM/SPP via the ExternalAccessory framework? These answers do not seem to give a definitive answer to that question.
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Our guys in the field use equipment that have wifi and Bluetooth connectivity. One of our users has been using a non-iPhone (I guess Android) to transfer files between his phone and the equipment through Bluetooth. However, in switching our users to iPhones to use other enterprise apps we have discovered what some of you already know: iOS's Bluetooth connectivity is severely limited (i.e. no SPP protocol).
The equipment also communicates via wifi, so I was wondering if it's possible to create an app using iOS Multipeer connectivity to solve the Bluetooth problem. All I am finding about this, though, doesn't show anything but phone-to-phone multipeer connections, and not phone-to-machine multipeer connections.
At this point I know nothing about how the field equipment works; that's something I'll have to learn if we decide to pursue this. But assuming that it is capable of discovering wifi networks, would it be able to see the iPhone's network without needing any special software?
Or would I be wasting my time trying to figure this out?
Thanks!
If the equipment is using Bluetooth SPP then unless it is MFi certified you can pretty much forget about connecting to it from iOS. Multipeer connectivity won't do it, that's for sure.
WiFi may be a possibility - you need to get the iPhone and the equipment on the same WiFi network - you can't do this via an app though - you would need to use the WiFi settings in iOS - You will need to learn more about the equipment to see if that is possible.
Short answer: no. Only iOS 7.0+ or MacOS Yosemite+
MultipeerConnectivity is a framework for iOS and Mac OS. To send data using it, you need both devices to have iOS or MacOS with MultipeerConnectivity. You don't have any network-related parameters like "I prefer using bluetooth or wi-fi", it was designed to "just work out of box with simple goal - discover and connect other devices with MultipeerConnectivity.
It means that you can't send data from iPhone with MC to Android or Symbian or old iPhone with iOS <7 etc.
Before iOS7 you could use GameKit, but the logic is the same: both peers need to use GameKit.
If your custom equipment does not have iOS - you need to use lower-level API, and your options include generic Bonjour (NSNetService on iOS device and something Bonjour-compatible on custom device) or CoreBluetooth (obviously bluetooth-only, no wi-fi peer-to-peer) on the lowest level, using sockets and so on.
I have a specific requirement to communicate an iOS device with a wifi/bluetooth enabled device. At this moment, I'm confused with some points and requires an expert advice.
Can I use adhoc wifi method for communicating? but in this case, can I connect to another network? On my research, I found no so I'm opting for Bluetooth.
If I go in bluetooth communication,
Do the device need MFI licensing or can we use classic bluetooth?
From few blogs I found out that Bluetooth low enrgy devices with 4.0 can be used to communicate with ios without licensing. Will this work?
PS: My requirement is to send strings of data to and fro from the ios and other wifi/bluettoth enabled devices.
An iOS device can only be connected to a single Wi Fi network at a time, so an Ad-hoc network connection probably won't work for you.
If you join the MFi program you can use the Wireless Accessory Configuration (WAC) feature to simply the process of connecting your device to the user's existing network.
If you use Bluetooth Low Energy/Bluetooth Smart/Bluetooth 4.0 then you don't need to go through the MFi program, but you are limited to iPhone 4S and later and iPad 3 and later. If you use "classic Bluetooth" (Say Bluetooth 2.1 Serial Port Protocol) then it will work with all devices but you need to go through MFi.
Bluetooth Low Energy isn't great for high data volumes (say video streaming) but is fine for smaller amounts of data (you talk about "strings" so it will probably be suitable for you).
The other advantage of BLE is that it is independent of the iOS device's Internet connection so the user can cary the BLE device around and maintain communication regardless of their WiFi connection.
I just started coding Multipeer connectivity with objective c in xcode. I have a few questions about the basics.
What is the range with Multipeer Connectivity? So if I make a chat program, will the two devices only be able to communicate if they are on the wifi network, or will they still be able to communicate if they are across the globe?
Will the program work with an ios device and a non ios device, so they can send each other messages? If yes, are there any extra methods or code that I need to add?
Thanks
As far as I understand MPC works over bluetooth and wifi- so if you are on a home wifi network, or a University campus network, your peers should be able to see one another. MPCis not for using across the globe that I know of...
This is an iOS technology only, iBeacon works across multiple platforms (iOS, android).
But, depending on what you want, you could make your app use internet to go across the globe, and you might be able to use straight bluetooth to connecto to a non-iOS device, then hook into MPC.
I would like to add to Keith's answer above that MPC supports peer-to-peer Wifi as well. This means that the devices involved don't need to be connected to an access point to talk to each other.
Also, the framework protects the developer (and end user) from the underlying technology (bluetooth, WIFI, P2P WIFI) used. In a given "session" between any number of devices (currently only up to 8 supported), each device could be using a different technology to talk to the others.
I have a general question about using bluetooth in apps. I'm doing a college program that involves communicating with a serial bluetooth device from a phone. I originally found that Iphone apps are easier to create (I have C/C++ but no java, hence the lean away from android) but Ive came across several posts about having to register with MFI in order to use bluetooth serial. Can college students do this as a once off basis for one app? Is it worthwhile or expensive?
Any help'd be great!
You have to choose the bluetooth device first and know about its category i.e BLE or Classic. For BLE you can use Corebluetooth and for Classic one you have to use MFI. Yes MFI will be paid and expensive too. Refer to developer site for this and also this question.
iPhone bluetooth and "Made for iPod"
https://mfi.apple.com/MFiWeb/enroll.action.
Hope this helps.
I am working on a major product release for my company. We are designing a new device that we would like to integrate into an iOS app. (FYI, we have recently been accepted into the Apple MFi program so we are past that step.)
What we desire is to create a hardware/software eco-system where our users can start our iPad app (yes, it is specific to the iPad and the not iPhone or iPod Touch devices) and the application will automatically discover and link up with any close-proximity hardware that we've developed.
This means that I will need to implement some form of device connection process on both the iPad and within the hardware.
Is there any way to code automatic connectivity to a Bluetooth device from within an iOS application?
I am aware of the Core Bluetooth Framework which has this capability, however, it only works with the new iPhone 4S. That's not an option.
I've also researched about the External Accessory Framework, which can be used to connect to external devices whether they are connected via the iPod port or Bluetooth. This is an option but, if my understanding is correct, our hardware must already be paired with iPad before the iOS software can connect to it. This is less than preferable because although many of our devices may not be in immediate vicinity at one point in time, our customers could potentially own 100's devices that they may desire to connect to with our software.
What are my reasonable options or alternatives? The end goal is to provide a very easy means for our users to be able to connect to our devices, from within our software, on an iPad.
NOTE: I MUST NOT jailbreak the iPad or break any Apple TOS agreements.
UPDATE (3-7-2012) I saw today that the 'New iPad' (as it is being officially called) will be Bluetooth 4.0 capable. I assume this means that this iPad device will be able to use the Core Bluetooth Framework. This doesn't immediately solve my problem because we do want remain compatible with at least the "last generation" iPad device, but this is worth pointing out for others who may be looking for such an answer.
You cannot connect an iOS device to a bluetooth device without pairing first. It is purposely built that way by Apple to reduce the likelihood that someone could connect a bluetooth device without the user knowing about it. If pairing each device is unacceptable (and it sounds like it is), and you don't want to develop a dongle, the only remaining path I can see is to make your devices capable of relaying data between them like a mesh network. That way the user would only have to pair with a single device, and that paired unit would relay communications between the other devices and the iPad.
One of your alternatives would be going WiFi (AdHoc or Infrastructure) with Bonjour. For example you would be able to detect the device nearby (if it is maintaining it's own AdHoc then by SSID; if it's in infrastructure network then by service being announced). One big drawback would be that you couldn't connect directly (from app) to the device's network - user would have to do it manually.
As for BT: big drawback is lack of a serial protocol (not implemented in iPhone/iPod/iPad).