How to embed an URL in the bluetooth packet?

RE: How to embed an URL in the bluetooth packet?

Per Thomas jahr — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 12:25:14 GMT

I had some trouble after uploading the firmware from github.com/.../nRF51 to the smart beacon kit.

There was no advertisement and it wasn't possible to configure it. It seemed to be stuck. I resolved this by pulling out the battery and re-inserting it while holding down SW1 button. Then the green LED went on and I could use DFU to do a new firmware upload. Everything worked fine after that.

Also note that there seems to be two protocol versions (V1 and V2) for configuring a URIBeancon. The github version for nRF51 seems to only support V1 now.

RE: How to embed an URL in the bluetooth packet?

Vebjørn — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 13:33:31 GMT

Do you have a link or some more information about this dongle? It is possible that certain android versions or other devices offer a service that lets a bluetooth-device open play store, but it is not something I have heard about.

RE: How to embed an URL in the bluetooth packet?

Gautham — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 05:21:54 GMT

Yes it is strange and I was puzzled to how this is done so I posted this question. I found a bluetooth dongle called Lubao that does this. I wonder how. I researched the same. I am not familiar with Android so I am not sure to what extent Android offers such service: allowing external devices to generate a pop up redirecting to play store.

RE: How to embed an URL in the bluetooth packet?

Vebjørn — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 14:54:46 GMT

May I ask what devices you have found that does this? It sounds a little strange to me. As far as I know, you can not force a device to do anything, unless you have an app or service installed that does it for you.

RE: How to embed an URL in the bluetooth packet?

Gautham — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 11:22:37 GMT

Thanks for the pointer! I will have a detailed look into this and post the results soon.

RE: How to embed an URL in the bluetooth packet?

Gautham — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 11:21:31 GMT

Thanks for your quick response! regarding 1. I shall try the method suggested by you and post again. Regarding point 2, I agree with you that it would be dangerous to do these things directly from the bluetooth packet. At the same time I would like to know if you know how to invoke/ request OS to generate a pop up on pairing that can then take me to play store. I checked a couple of BLE devices that are already doing this (with no additional apps installed in the mobile). But I am not sure how this is done. again any idea how this can be done (using some service provided by Android OS)? Thanks again!

RE: How to embed an URL in the bluetooth packet?

Cory Mast — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 15:15:57 GMT

Have you looked into creating a URIBeacon? This is similar to what you are trying to accomplish although I'm not sure about having it launch the play store app. It transmits a URI in its advertisement data and your app can translate that and launch the URI. The Nordic Master Control Panel app for android devices, available on the play store, supports the URIBeacon spec and might help you accomplish this task. There is example code on Google's github page for the that should get you started.

github.com/.../nRF51

Hope this helps!

RE: How to embed an URL in the bluetooth packet?

Vebjørn — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 13:54:43 GMT

If I understand it correctly, you want to create an android/iOS app that launches Google Play/App-store when the phone bonds with your nrf51822-device?

You can modify the ble_app_uart example to achieve this. Simply have the nrf51822 send a notification to the phone with the link, and have the app open the link. There are several ways you can do this. Sending a long URL in a single packet is not possible, since only 20 bytes can be sent at a time. You can either divide the URL into several packets and send them individually (more discussion about this here: link ).

Another way could be to shorten the URL you want to send, using for example goo.gl. This way, you only have to send 6 bytes across the BLE link to transmit a URL (the 6 last characters of the goo.gl link)

The android and iOS source code for the UART app can be downloaded from nordicsemi.com, and should be pretty easy to modify to create what you want.

You can not simply send packets to a phone to make it do things. It would be very dangerous if you could. Instead, you need an app or a service in the operating system that can communicate with your device, and that will open app store for you.