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HID over GATT in Windows 7 with Bluetooth 4.0 USB adapter should work, or not?

Hi, I'm just starting to learn my ways around the nRF5182 SDK, my goal is to implement a device with HID profile using this device. The device must work with Windows 7 (until 3rd party apps migrate to 8) so I bought BT 4.0 USB adapter from IOGEAR (GB521). This adapter driver installs successfully and creates Bluetooth stack with a Broadcom driver and the Microsoft BT enumerator. So far so good. Then I successfully compiled and loaded the HID mouse sample code into the SDK. I verified with the emulator that all three services run OK, however, when I pair it with the GB521 it installs initially three unknown devices in the Windows device tree. Eventually the battery and device info services are installed by windows, however the HID service remains unknown and Windows claims that it can't find a driver for it. I double checked and even simplified the device descriptor to a bare bones mouse. Everything seems to be right. I also checked in MSDN and found this page about BT support in Windows versions: msdn.microsoft.com/.../dn133849(v=vs.85).aspx HOGP - HID over GATT Profile is listed among the in-box profiles supported by Window 7. Bluetooth 4.0 is provided by the GB521, and it supports the GAP profile, so, what am I missing?

  • Hi,

    HID-over-GATT (HoGP) is not supported natively by Win7. This is something that came in Win8.

    If you look further up on that page, it's stated that Win7 only support BR/EDR up to v2.1. The LE support is provided by the IOGEAR's drivers (which is Broadcom-based).

    These drivers does not include the HoGP, unfortunately.

    Best regards Håkon

  • Hi Hakon, then I have two options I guess: a) change my firmware to use serial protocol (SPP) which I think its a step back and prefer to avoid, or, b) craft my own driver to install that unrecognized device in Windows. The question is what parameters is Windows getting from the Broadcom driver to identify the service and look for a driver? when I look at the data presented by the emulator for the HID service I can't recognize any of the parameters configured: Manufacturer / Device IDs, etc. Can you point me out to other tools that I can use to snoop the BT activity in the Windows environment? Thanks for the prompt answer, Guillermo

  • Unfortunately, this isn't really something we have any information on, and I'm not even sure that implementing a custom driver would be possible. This is anyway something you'd have to discuss with Broadcom.

    As for "downgrading" to SPP, remember that this profile is BR/EDR only, and as such can not be implemented on the nRF51822, which is BLE only.

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