Bluetooth APIs in Windows/.Net?

c# .net windows windows-xp bluetooth
cjkarr picture cjkarr · Sep 28, 2008 · Viewed 61.3k times · Source

I am in the process of writing a Bluetooth scanner that locates and identifies mobile devices in the local vicinity. Is this something that I can accomplish using C#, or do I need to drop down into the C/C++ APIs? My application is targeting Windows XP and Vista. Pointers are appreciated.

Thanks!

Answer

Andrew Queisser picture Andrew Queisser · Sep 28, 2008

One problem with Bluetooth on the PC is that there are several BT stacks in use and you can never quite know which one is available on a given machine. The most common ones are Widcomm (now Broadcom) and Microsoft (appeared in XP, maybe one of the service packs). However, some BT hardware vendors package BlueSoleil and some use Toshiba. Most dongles will work with the MS stack so the .NET libs I've seen tend to use that.

Each of the stacks has a totally different way of doing the discovery part where you browse for nearby devices and inquire their services.

If I had to pick one approach today I'd probably do the discovery in C++ and add an interface for .NET.

The 32feet.net stuff worked pretty well when I tried it but didn't support the Widcomm stack.

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