Best way to read Beacon Manufacture Data in iOS - ios

I am trying to Read Beacon(BLE Device) manufacture Data which is in below image
And I am getting response as,
and my code is,
id manufactureData = [advertisementData objectOrNilForKey:#"kCBAdvDataManufacturerData"];
if ([manufactureData isKindOfClass:[NSData class]]) {
int8_t measuredPower = 0;
NSUInteger dataLength = [manufactureData length];
for (int i = 0; i < dataLength; i++) {
NSRange powerRange = NSMakeRange(i, 1);
[manufactureData getBytes:&measuredPower range:powerRange];
NSLog(#"index :%# info :%hhd", [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d", i+1],measuredPower);
}
}
Is this is correct way to read the manufacture data, Here i am trying to read Battery Address value. which i have to show.

This is a correct way of reading through the returned NSData.
Given this, your information is returning 32 for battery value, does that seem correct?
If not, can you find out if your manufacturer device is little endian or big endian? Link to explanation here if you do not know what that means.
The short version of the endianness question is if your info is coming from a big endian processor then your NSData will be backwards. making your battery value 77
One quick note: This does not sound like an iBeacon implementation. iBeacons are NOT the same as BLE enabled devices. This is most likely a BLE enabled device and not an iBeacon.

Related

iOS Bluetooth Performing Write Long

I'm working on a project with an iPhone connecting to an ESP32 using BLE. I'm trying to write a 528 byte long blob to a characteristic. Since the blob is longer than the max 512 allowed per write I'm trying to do a Write Long.
I'ved tried a couple things
1 - If I just try to write the blob I see the first chunk go through with Prepare Write set but there are no subsequent writes.
Why is it stopping after the first chunk?
2 - If I try to chuck it manually based on the size returned from maximumWriteValueLengthForType I see all the data is sent correctly but Prepare Write is not set so they aren't handled correctly.
How do I specify Prepare Write / Execute Write requests?
Here's a code snippet covering the implementation #2
NSData *blob = [request value];
NSUInteger localLength = 0;
NSUInteger totalLength = [blob length];
NSUInteger chunkSize = [peripheral maximumWriteValueLengthForType:type];
uint8_t localBytes[chunkSize];
NSData *localData;
do
{
if(totalLength > chunkSize) {
NSLog(#"BIGGER THAN CHUNK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!");
NSLog(#"%tu", chunkSize);
for ( int i = 0; i < chunkSize; i++) {
localBytes[i] = ((uint8_t *)blob.bytes)[localLength + i];
}
localData = [NSMutableData dataWithBytes:localBytes length:chunkSize];
totalLength -= chunkSize;
localLength += chunkSize;
}
else {
NSLog(#"Smaller than chunk");
uint8_t lastBytes[totalLength];
for (int i = 0 ; i < totalLength; i++) {
lastBytes[i] = ((uint8_t *)blob.bytes)[localLength + i];
}
localData = [NSMutableData dataWithBytes:lastBytes length:totalLength];
totalLength = 0;
}
// Write to characteristic
[peripheral writeValue: localData forCharacteristic:characteristic type:type];
} while( totalLength > 0);
Long writes are affected by the same limit of 512 bytes maximum for the characteristic value. Long writes are only useful when MTU is too short to write the full value in one packet. Maybe you're trying to write out of this allowed range or something.
Newer iOS versions communicating with BLE 5 devices use a large enough MTU to fit a characteristic value of 512 in one packet (if the remote device also supports such a big MTU).
If you want to write bigger values than 512 bytes, you will need to split it up into multiple writes, so that the second write "overwrites" the first value sent, rather than appending to it. You can also use L2CAP CoC instead which eliminates this arbitrary 512 byte limit.
You have the right general approach but you can't just send the chunks sequentially. There is a limited buffer for sending Bluetooth data and your loop will write data into that buffer more quickly than the Bluetooth hardware can send it.
The exact approach you need to take depends on whether your characteristic supports write with response or write without response.
If your characteristic uses write with response, you should send a chunk and then wait until you get a call to the didWriteValueFor delegate method. You can then write the next chunk. The advantage of this approach is essentially guaranteed delivery of the data. The disadvantage is it is relatively slow.
If your characteristic uses write without response then you call write repeatedly until you get a call to didWriteValueFor with an error. At this point you have to wait until you get a call to peripheralIsReady. At this point you can start writing again, beginning with the last failed write.
With this approach there is the potential for lost data, but it is faster.
If you have to move large amounts of data, an L2Cap stream might be better, but you need to handle data framing.

Sending few values at the same time over bluetooth

I am working on a Bluetooth based application and I am having problems when I try to send data from the iPhone to the other device.
I have no problem when I have to send just one value, using something like this:
- (void)sendData:(NSInteger)mel {
NSData *myData = [NSData dataWithBytes:&mel length:sizeof(mel)];
[self.myDevice writeValue:myData forCharacteristic:self.myCharacteristic type:CBCharacteristicWriteWithoutResponse];
}
But, for some characteristics I need send 2 or more values at the same time (for example in this case, variable mel and another one) but I haven’t been able yet to do it.
Does somebody know how to do this? Thanks in advance.
UPDATE 1
What I tried to send two values is
unsigned char bytes[] = {mel, interval};
NSMutableData *myData = [NSMutableData new];
[myData appendBytes:&bytes length:sizeof(bytes)];
[self.myDevice writeValue:myData forCharacteristic:self.myCharacteristic type:CBCharacteristicWriteWithoutResponse];
But this works like if the second value didn't exist
You can't use sizeof(bytes) to get the number of bytes in the array. It's simply going to return 4 since that is the size of a char *.
One options would be to use sizeof(mel) + sizeof(interval) instead of sizeof(bytes).

-[NSString dataUsingEncoding:] gives garbage at end of string in iOS 9, not iOS 8

The following code runs fine on iOS 8 but when run on iOS 9.0.2 I get some odd results:
NSString * input = #"Hi there";
NSData * data = [input dataUsingEncoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
Byte *byteData = (Byte*)malloc(data.length);
memcpy(byteData, [data bytes], data.length);
NSString * result = [NSString stringWithCString:(const char*)byteData encoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
NSLog(#"Result: %#", result);
iOS 8.4 (iPhone 6 Plus) byteData is Hi there
iOS 9.0.2 (iPhone 6S) byteData is Hi there\xb6<M\x13
On iOS 9 I end up with a load of garbage at the end of the string.
This feels like a 32 bit vs 64 bit issue as it looks like on iOS 9 the byteData length is twice as long?
Apple have their table of 32 to 64 bit changes here:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/General/Conceptual/CocoaTouch64BitGuide/Major64-BitChanges/Major64-BitChanges.html
data.length is an unsigned long long. Could this be returning different lengths when malloc is called? The code above returns 8 for data.length when run on each version of iOS.
This just feels quite odd and I've run out of angles to attack it from. Hopefully someone out there might be able to shed some light on this one.
Thanks!
Update
I can fix it using
NSString * result = [[NSString alloc] initWithBytes:byteData length:data.length encoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
but I'd still like to know why I get a different result on the two iOS versions with
NSString * result = [NSString stringWithCString:(const char*)byteData encoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
A “C string” ends with a NUL byte. Since you created data using dataUsingEncoding:, data does not contain a C string.
Since stringWithCString:encoding: is reading outside of valid memory (looking for the NUL terminator), the behavior is undefined and thus allowed to changed at any time.
Use cStringUsingEncoding: to create data and you'll get the NUL terminator you need.

Arabic characters (effective power bug) crash my swift iOS app. how do I properly sanitize inputs to avoid this and related problems?

the text that caused the crash is the following:
the error occurred at the following line:
let size = CGSize(width: 250, height: DBL_MAX)
let font = UIFont.systemFontOfSize(16.0)
let attributes = [
NSFontAttributeName:font ,
NSParagraphStyleAttributeName: paraStyle
]
var rect = text.boundingRectWithSize(size, options:.UsesLineFragmentOrigin, attributes: attributes, context: nil)
where text variable contains the inputted string
parastyle is declared as follows:
let paraStyle = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
paraStyle.lineBreakMode = NSLineBreakMode.ByWordWrapping
My initial idea is that the system font can't handle these characters and I need to do an NSCharacterSet, but I'm not sure how to either just ban characters that'll crash my app or make it so i can handle this input (ideal). I don't want to ban emojis/emoticons either.
Thanks!
Not an answer but some information and that possibly provids a way code way to avoid it.
Updated to information from The Register:
The problem isn’t with the Arabic characters themselves, but in how the unicode representing them is processed by CoreText, which is a library of software routines to help apps display text on screens.
The bug causes CoreText to access memory that is invalid, which forces the operating system to kill off the currently running program: which could be your text message app, your terminal, or in the case of the notification screen, a core part of the OS.
From Reddit but this may not be completely correct:
It only works when the message has to be abbreviated with ‘…’. This is usually on the lock screen and main menu of Messages.app.
The words effective and power can be anything as long as they’re on two different lines, which forces the Arabic text farther down the message where some of the letters will be replaced with ‘…’
The crash happens when the first dot replaces part of one of the Arabic characters (they require more than one byte to store) Normally there are safety checks to make sure half characters aren’t stored, but this replacement bypasses those checks for whatever reason.
My solution is the next category:
static NSString *const CRASH_STRING = #"\u0963h \u0963 \u0963";
#implementation NSString (CONEffectivePower)
- (BOOL)isDangerousStringForCurrentOS
{
if (IS_IOS_7_OR_LESS || IS_IOS_8_4_OR_HIGHER) {
return NO;
}
return [self containsEffectivePowerText];
}
- (BOOL)containsEffectivePowerText
{
return [self containsString:CRASH_STRING];
}
#end
Filter all characters to have same directionality. Unfortunately, I'm only aware of such API in Java.
Don't even try. This is a bug in the operating system that will be fixed. It's not your problem. If you try to fix it, you are just wasting your time. And you are very likely to introduce bugs - when you say you "sanitise" input that means you cannot handle some perfectly fine input.
The company I work at develops a multiplatform group video chat.
In Crashlytics report we started noticing that some users are "effectively" trolling iOS users using this famous unicode sequence.
We can't just sit and wait for Apple to fix this bug.
So, I've worked on this problem, this is the shortest crashing sequence I got:
// unichar representation
unichar crashChars[8] = {1585, 1611, 32, 2403, 32, 2403, 32, 2403};
// string representation
NSString *crashString = #"\u0631\u064b \u0963 \u0963 \u0963"
So, I decided to filter out all text messages that contains two U+0963 'ॣ' symbols with one symbol between them (hope you are able to decipher this phrase)
My code from NSString+Extensions category.
static const unichar kDangerousSymbol = 2403;
- (BOOL)isDangerousUnicode {
NSUInteger distance = 0;
NSUInteger charactersFound = 0;
for (NSUInteger i = 0; i < self.length; i++) {
unichar character = [self characterAtIndex:i];
if (charactersFound) {
distance++;
}
if (distance > 2) {
charactersFound = 0;
}
if (kDangerousSymbol == character) {
charactersFound++;
}
if (charactersFound > 1 && distance > 0) {
return YES;
}
}
return NO;
}
Lousy Specta test:
SpecBegin(NSStringExtensions)
describe(#"NSString+Extensions", ^{
//....
it(#"should detect dangerous Unicode sequences", ^{
expect([#"\u0963 \u0963" isDangerousUnicode]).to.beTruthy();
expect([#"\u0631\u064b \u0963 \u0963 \u0963" isDangerousUnicode]).to.beTruthy();
expect([#"\u0631\u064b \u0963 \u0963 \u0963" isDangerousUnicode]).to.beFalsy();
});
//....
});
SpecEnd
I'm not sure if it's OK to "discriminate" messages with too many "devanagari vowel sign vocalic ll".
I'm open to corrections, suggestions, criticism :).
I would love to see a better solution to this problem.

Extract and Convert NSData from BLE to Float in Swift

I'm developing an IOS App that handles a BlueTooth SensorTag.
That SensorTag is based on the TI BLE SensorTag, but we had some of the Sensors removed.
In the sourcecode of the original IOS App from TI the XYZ-Values are calculated like follows
with KXTJ9_RANGE defined as 1.0 in my implementation and KXTJ9 is the Accelerometer built on the SensorTag
+(float) calcXValue:(NSData *)data {
char scratchVal[data.length];
[data getBytes:&scratchVal length:3];
return ((scratchVal[0] * 1.0) / (64 / KXTJ9_RANGE));
}
The data comes as hexadecimal like "fe850d" and by the method will be cut in 3 parts.
Now i'm trying to convert this method to swift, but i get the wrong numbers back
e.g. fe should return something around 0.02 what the objective C Code does
My Swift Code so far
class Sensor: NSObject {
let Range: Float = 1.0
var data: NSData
var bytes: [Byte] = [0x00, 0x00, 0x00]
init(data: NSData) {
self.data = data
data.getBytes(&bytes, length: data.length)
}
func calcXValue()->Float {
return ((Float(bytes[0]) * 1.0) / (64.0 / Range))
}
...
}
I believe problem must lie around my Float(bytes[0]) because that makes 254 out of fe whereas scratchVal[0] in ObjectiveC is around 64
But my main problem is, i was all new with IOS programming when i had to begin with this project, so i chose to use Swift to learn and code the app with it.
Right now i use the original Objective C Code from TI to use with our SensorTag, but i would prefer using Swift for every part in the App.
On all current iOS and OS X platforms, char is a signed quantity,
so that the input fe is treated as a negative number.
Byte on the other hand is an alias for UInt8 which is unsigned.
Use [Int8] array instead to get the same behaviour as in your Objective-C code.
it depends on the BLE device Endianness, in relation to your device Endianness.
wiki on Endianness
To keep it simple you need to check which does two method
NSData *data4 = [completeData subdataWithRange:NSMakeRange(0, 4)];
int value = CFSwapInt32BigToHost(*(int*)([data4 bytes]));
or
NSData *data4 = [completeData subdataWithRange:NSMakeRange(0, 4)];
int value = CFSwapInt32LittleToHost(*(int*)([data4 bytes]));
And check which one make more sense when you parse the data.

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