Enable BLE on PC

[gaminn]

Hi, what should I do in order to enable Bluetooth Low Energy on PC (mainly Windows XP to 8, but Linux or Mac would be nice if they don't support BLE natively)?

My device uses custom (non standard) GATT service. Windows 8.1 can pair with standard BLE device like heart rate monitor, but custom GATT services are not supported.

I guess I have to buy an USB Bluetooth 4.0 dongle (have to be at least FCC and CE certified). But which one will be able to accomplish my task most simply - connect to my custom GATT service and write/read my characteristics? It would be nice if the dongle provides some C/C++/.NET API.

Any idea welcomed.

[Øyvind Karlsen]

Hi,

Have a look at the pc-ble-driver library.

I recommend using the nRF51-Dongle for development, as it offers a lot of additional features(sniffer, MCP), compared to a regular dongle.

Best regards,

Øyvind

[Øyvind Karlsen]

The library I linked to only supports those two devices.

You can have a look at some other libraries, for Linux there is BlueZ, for OSX there's this. I have not found a different library that will support Windows 7 and previous.

As for FCC and CE certification, all dongles on the market should have this, as it is a requirement to be allowed to sell them as a Bluetooth product.