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Bluetooth Serial Plugin for PhoneGap

This plugin enables serial communication over Bluetooth. It was written for communicating between Android or iOS and an Arduino.

Android and Windows Phone use Classic Bluetooth. iOS uses Bluetooth Low Energy.

Supported Platforms

Supporting other Bluetooth Low Energy hardware

Limitations

Installing

Install with Cordova cli

$ cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-bluetooth-serial

Note that this plugin's id changed from com.megster.cordova.bluetoothserial to cordova-plugin-bluetooth-serial as part of the migration from the Cordova plugin repo to npm.

Examples

There are some sample projects included with the plugin.

API

Methods

connect

Connect to a Bluetooth device.

bluetoothSerial.connect(macAddress_or_uuid, connectSuccess, connectFailure);

Description

Function connect connects to a Bluetooth device. The callback is long running. Success will be called when the connection is successful. Failure is called if the connection fails, or later if the connection disconnects. An error message is passed to the failure callback.

Android

For Android, connect takes a MAC address of the remote device.

iOS

For iOS, connect takes the UUID of the remote device. Optionally, you can pass an empty string and the plugin will connect to the first BLE peripheral.

Windows Phone

For Windows Phone, connect takes a MAC address of the remote device. The MAC address can optionally surrounded with parenthesis. e.g. (AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF)

Parameters

connectInsecure

Connect insecurely to a Bluetooth device.

bluetoothSerial.connectInsecure(macAddress, connectSuccess, connectFailure);

Description

Function connectInsecure works like connect, but creates an insecure connection to a Bluetooth device. See the Android docs for more information.

Android

For Android, connectInsecure takes a macAddress of the remote device.

iOS

connectInsecure is not supported on iOS.

Windows Phone

connectInsecure is not supported on Windows Phone.

Parameters

disconnect

Disconnect.

bluetoothSerial.disconnect([success], [failure]);

Description

Function disconnect disconnects the current connection.

Parameters

write

Writes data to the serial port.

bluetoothSerial.write(data, success, failure);

Description

Function write data to the serial port. Data can be an ArrayBuffer, string, array of integers, or a Uint8Array.

Internally string, integer array, and Uint8Array are converted to an ArrayBuffer. String conversion assume 8bit characters.

Parameters

Quick Example

// string
bluetoothSerial.write("hello, world", success, failure);

// array of int (or bytes)
bluetoothSerial.write([186, 220, 222], success, failure);

// Typed Array
var data = new Uint8Array(4);
data[0] = 0x41;
data[1] = 0x42;
data[2] = 0x43;
data[3] = 0x44;
bluetoothSerial.write(data, success, failure);

// Array Buffer
bluetoothSerial.write(data.buffer, success, failure);

available

Gets the number of bytes of data available.

bluetoothSerial.available(success, failure);

Description

Function available gets the number of bytes of data available. The bytes are passed as a parameter to the success callback.

Parameters

Quick Example

bluetoothSerial.available(function (numBytes) {
    console.log("There are " + numBytes + " available to read.");
}, failure);

read

Reads data from the buffer.

bluetoothSerial.read(success, failure);

Description

Function read reads the data from the buffer. The data is passed to the success callback as a String. Calling read when no data is available will pass an empty String to the callback.

Parameters

Quick Example

bluetoothSerial.read(function (data) {
    console.log(data);
}, failure);

readUntil

Reads data from the buffer until it reaches a delimiter.

bluetoothSerial.readUntil('\n', success, failure);

Description

Function readUntil reads the data from the buffer until it reaches a delimiter. The data is passed to the success callback as a String. If the buffer does not contain the delimiter, an empty String is passed to the callback. Calling read when no data is available will pass an empty String to the callback.

Parameters

Quick Example

bluetoothSerial.readUntil('\n', function (data) {
    console.log(data);
}, failure);

subscribe

Subscribe to be notified when data is received.

bluetoothSerial.subscribe('\n', success, failure);

Description

Function subscribe registers a callback that is called when data is received. A delimiter must be specified. The callback is called with the data as soon as the delimiter string is read. The callback is a long running callback and will exist until unsubscribe is called.

Parameters

Quick Example

// the success callback is called whenever data is received
bluetoothSerial.subscribe('\n', function (data) {
    console.log(data);
}, failure);

unsubscribe

Unsubscribe from a subscription.

bluetoothSerial.unsubscribe(success, failure);

Description

Function unsubscribe removes any notification added by subscribe and kills the callback.

Parameters

Quick Example

bluetoothSerial.unsubscribe();

subscribeRawData

Subscribe to be notified when data is received.

bluetoothSerial.subscribeRawData(success, failure);

Description

Function subscribeRawData registers a callback that is called when data is received. The callback is called immediately when data is received. The data is sent to callback as an ArrayBuffer. The callback is a long running callback and will exist until unsubscribeRawData is called.

Parameters

Quick Example

// the success callback is called whenever data is received
bluetoothSerial.subscribeRawData(function (data) {
    var bytes = new Uint8Array(data);
    console.log(bytes);
}, failure);

unsubscribeRawData

Unsubscribe from a subscription.

bluetoothSerial.unsubscribeRawData(success, failure);

Description

Function unsubscribeRawData removes any notification added by subscribeRawData and kills the callback.

Parameters

Quick Example

bluetoothSerial.unsubscribeRawData();

clear

Clears data in the buffer.

bluetoothSerial.clear(success, failure);

Description

Function clear removes any data from the receive buffer.

Parameters

list

Lists bonded devices

bluetoothSerial.list(success, failure);

Description

Android

Function list lists the paired Bluetooth devices. The success callback is called with a list of objects.

Example list passed to success callback. See BluetoothDevice and BluetoothClass#getDeviceClass.

[{
    "class": 276,
    "id": "10:BF:48:CB:00:00",
    "address": "10:BF:48:CB:00:00",
    "name": "Nexus 7"
}, {
    "class": 7936,
    "id": "00:06:66:4D:00:00",
    "address": "00:06:66:4D:00:00",
    "name": "RN42"
}]

iOS

Function list lists the discovered Bluetooth Low Energy peripheral. The success callback is called with a list of objects.

Example list passed to success callback for iOS.

[{
    "id": "CC410A23-2865-F03E-FC6A-4C17E858E11E",
    "uuid": "CC410A23-2865-F03E-FC6A-4C17E858E11E",
    "name": "Biscuit",
    "rssi": -68
}]

The advertised RSSI may be included if available.

Windows Phone

Function list lists the paired Bluetooth devices. The success callback is called with a list of objects.

Example list passed to success callback for Windows Phone.

[{
    "id": "(10:BF:48:CB:00:00)",
    "name": "Nexus 7"
}, {
    "id": "(00:06:66:4D:00:00)",
    "name": "RN42"
}]

Note

id is the generic name for uuid or [mac]address so that code can be platform independent.

Parameters

Quick Example

bluetoothSerial.list(function(devices) {
    devices.forEach(function(device) {
        console.log(device.id);
    })
}, failure);

isConnected

Reports the connection status.

bluetoothSerial.isConnected(success, failure);

Description

Function isConnected calls the success callback when connected to a peer and the failure callback when not connected.

Parameters

Quick Example

bluetoothSerial.isConnected(
    function() {
        console.log("Bluetooth is connected");
    },
    function() {
        console.log("Bluetooth is *not* connected");
    }
);

isEnabled

Reports if bluetooth is enabled.

bluetoothSerial.isEnabled(success, failure);

Description

Function isEnabled calls the success callback when bluetooth is enabled and the failure callback when bluetooth is not enabled.

Parameters

Quick Example

bluetoothSerial.isEnabled(
    function() {
        console.log("Bluetooth is enabled");
    },
    function() {
        console.log("Bluetooth is *not* enabled");
    }
);

readRSSI

Reads the RSSI from the connected peripheral.

bluetoothSerial.readRSSI(success, failure);

Description

Function readRSSI calls the success callback with the rssi.

BLE only This function is experimental and the API may change

Parameters

Quick Example

bluetoothSerial.readRSSI(
    function(rssi) {
        console.log(rssi);
    }
);

showBluetoothSettings

Show the Bluetooth settings on the device.

bluetoothSerial.showBluetoothSettings(success, failure);

Description

Function showBluetoothSettings opens the Bluetooth settings on the operating systems.

iOS

showBluetoothSettings is not supported on iOS.

Parameters

Quick Example

bluetoothSerial.showBluetoothSettings();

enable

Enable Bluetooth on the device.

bluetoothSerial.enable(success, failure);

Description

Function enable prompts the user to enable Bluetooth.

Android

enable is only supported on Android and does not work on iOS or Windows Phone.

If enable is called when Bluetooth is already enabled, the user will not prompted and the success callback will be invoked.

Parameters

Quick Example

bluetoothSerial.enable(
    function() {
        console.log("Bluetooth is enabled");
    },
    function() {
        console.log("The user did *not* enable Bluetooth");
    }
);

discoverUnpaired

Discover unpaired devices

bluetoothSerial.discoverUnpaired(success, failure);

Description

Android

Function discoverUnpaired discovers unpaired Bluetooth devices. The success callback is called with a list of objects similar to list, or an empty list if no unpaired devices are found.

Example list passed to success callback.

[{
    "class": 276,
    "id": "10:BF:48:CB:00:00",
    "address": "10:BF:48:CB:00:00",
    "name": "Nexus 7"
}, {
    "class": 7936,
    "id": "00:06:66:4D:00:00",
    "address": "00:06:66:4D:00:00",
    "name": "RN42"
}]

The discovery process takes a while to happen. You can register notify callback with setDeviceDiscoveredListener. You may also want to show a progress indicator while waiting for the discover proces to finish, and the sucess callback to be invoked.

Calling connect on an unpaired Bluetooth device should begin the Android pairing process.

iOS

discoverUnpaired is not supported on iOS. iOS uses Bluetooth Low Energy and list discovers devices without pairing.

Windows Phone

discoverUnpaired is not supported on Windows Phone.

Parameters

Quick Example

bluetoothSerial.discoverUnpaired(function(devices) {
    devices.forEach(function(device) {
        console.log(device.id);
    })
}, failure);

setDeviceDiscoveredListener

Register a notify callback function to be called during bluetooth device discovery. For callback to work, discovery process must be started with discoverUnpaired. There can be only one registered callback.

Example object passed to notify callback.

{
    "class": 276,
    "id": "10:BF:48:CB:00:00",
    "address": "10:BF:48:CB:00:00",
    "name": "Nexus 7"
}

iOS & Windows Phone

See discoverUnpaired.

Parameters

Quick Example

bluetoothSerial.setDeviceDiscoveredListener(function(device) {
	console.log('Found: '+device.id);
});

clearDeviceDiscoveredListener

Clears notify callback function registered with setDeviceDiscoveredListener.

Quick Example

bluetoothSerial.clearDeviceDiscoveredListener();

setName

Sets the human readable device name that is broadcasted to other devices.

bluetoothSerial.setName(newName);

Android

For Android, setName takes a String for the new name.

iOS

Not currently implemented.

Windows Phone

Not currently implemented.

Parameters

Quick Example

bluetoothSerial.setName("Really cool name");

setDiscoverable

Makes the device discoverable by other devices.

bluetoothSerial.setDiscoverable(discoverableDuration);

Android

For Android, setDiscoverable takes an int for the number of seconds device should be discoverable. A time of 0 will make it permanently discoverable.

iOS

Not currently implemented.

Windows Phone

Not currently implemented.

Parameters

Quick Example

bluetoothSerial.setDiscoverable(0);

Misc

Where does this work?

Android

Current development is done with Cordova 4.2 on Android 5. Theoretically this code runs on PhoneGap 2.9 and greater. It should support Android-10 (2.3.2) and greater, but I only test with Android 4.x+.

Development Devices include

On the Arduino side I test with Sparkfun Mate Silver and the Seeed Studio Bluetooth Shield. The code should be generic and work with most hardware.

I highly recommend Adafruit's Bluefruit EZ-Link.

iOS

NOTE: Currently iOS only works with RedBear Labs Hardware, Adafruit Bluefruit LE, Laird BL600, and BlueGiga UART services

This plugin was originally developed with Cordova 3.4 using iOS 7.x on an iPhone 5s connecting to a RedBearLab BLEMini. Ensure that you have update the BLE Mini firmware to at least Biscuit-UART_20130313.bin.

Most development is now done with iOS 8 with Cordova 4.2 using RedBear Lab BLE Shield or Adafruit Bluefruit LE Friend.

Supporting other BLE hardware

For Bluetooth Low Energy, this plugin supports some hardware running known UART-like services, but can support any Bluetooth Low Energy hardware with a "serial like" service. This means a transmit characteristic that is writable and a receive characteristic that supports notification.

Edit BLEdefines.h and adjust the UUIDs for your service.

See Issue 141 for details on how to add support for Amp'ed RF Technology BT43H.

Props

Android

Most of the Bluetooth implementation was borrowed from the Bluetooth Chat example in the Android SDK.

iOS

The iOS code uses RedBearLab's BLE_Framework.

API

The API for available, read, readUntil was influenced by the BtSerial Library for Processing for Arduino

Wrong Bluetooth Plugin?

If you don't need serial over Bluetooth, try the PhoneGap Bluetooth Plugin for Android or perhaps phonegap-plugin-bluetooth.

If you need generic Bluetooth Low Energy support checkout my Cordova BLE Plugin.

If you need BLE for RFduino checkout my RFduino Plugin.

What format should the Mac Address be in?

An example a properly formatted mac address is AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF

Feedback

Try the code. If you find an problem or missing feature, file an issue or create a pull request.