{"id":130,"date":"2022-01-10T14:34:01","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T14:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bleuio.com\/blog\/?p=130"},"modified":"2022-07-01T10:36:45","modified_gmt":"2022-07-01T10:36:45","slug":"c-desktop-application-to-connect-to-ble-devices-using-bleuio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bleuio.com\/blog\/c-desktop-application-to-connect-to-ble-devices-using-bleuio\/","title":{"rendered":"C# desktop application to connect to BLE devices using BleuIO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)<\/strong> is a low power wireless technology used for connecting devices with each other. It is a popular communication method especially in the era of Internet of Things. Several devices around the house have a build-in buetooth transceiver and most of them provide really useful capabilitites to automate jobs. For that reason it is really interesting to create desktop application using C# that connects to the devices around the house and manage them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this example we are going to create a simple C# windows form application to communicate with BleuIO using SerialPort. This script can be used to create Bluetooth Low Energy application using C# with BleuIO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s start<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a first step lets create a new project in visual studio and select C# windows form application from the list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Choose a suitable name for your project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the project is created, we will see a blank form screen where we will add buttons and labels to communicate with BleuIO graphically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will have buttons that connects and disconnects from BleuIO. An input field that takes AT commands from the user and sends it to BleuIO using SerialPort. And a text area will display the response from BleuIO to the screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The form will look like this<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The .cs file associated to this will have the following code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source code is available at https:\/\/github.com\/smart-sensor-devices-ab\/bluetooth_low_energy_csharp_WFA.git<\/p>\n\n\n\n

using System;\nusing System.IO.Ports;\nusing System.Linq;\nusing System.Text;\nusing System.Windows.Forms;\n\nnamespace WindowsFormsApp1\n{\n    \n    public partial class Form1 : Form\n    {\n        SerialPort mySerialPort = new SerialPort(\"COM18\", 57600, Parity.None, 8, StopBits.One);\n        public Form1()\n        {\n            InitializeComponent();            \n            mySerialPort.DataReceived += new SerialDataReceivedEventHandler(mySerialPort_DataReceived);\n            mySerialPort.Open();\n\n        }\n\n        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)\n        {\n            \n            \n            lbl_test.Text = \"Connected\";\n        }\n        \n        \/\/print response from the dongle\n        private void mySerialPort_DataReceived(object sender, SerialDataReceivedEventArgs e)\n        {\n            SerialPort sp = (SerialPort)sender;\n            string s = sp.ReadExisting();\n            output_data.Invoke(new EventHandler(delegate { output_data.Text +=  s + \"\\r\\n\"; })); \n\n            \/\/lbl_output.Invoke(this.myDelegate, new Object[] { s });\n        }\n\n\n        private void tb_cmd_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)\n        {\n            \n        }\n\n        private void submit_cmd_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)\n        {\n            output_data.Text = \"\";\n            byte[] bytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(tb_cmd.Text);\n            var inputByte = new byte[] { 13 };\n            bytes = bytes.Concat(inputByte).ToArray();\n            mySerialPort.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);           \n        }\n\n        private void btn_disconnect_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)\n        {\n            mySerialPort.Close();\n            Environment.Exit(0);\n        }\n\n        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)\n        {\n\n        }\n\n        private void btn_stop_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)\n        {\n            byte[] bytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(\"\\u0003\");\n            var inputByte = new byte[] { 13 };\n            bytes = bytes.Concat(inputByte).ToArray();\n            mySerialPort.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);\n        }\n\n        private void output_data_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)\n        {\n\n        }\n\n        private void pictureBox1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)\n        {\n\n        }\n    }\n}\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
As you can notice I wrote COM18 to connect to serial port because BleuIO device on my computer is connected to COM18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can check your COM port from device manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lets run the project and click on connect button.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once we are connected to BleuIO, we will be able to write AT commands using the input filed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
List of AT commands are available at https:\/\/www.bleuio.com\/getting_started\/docs\/commands\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a stop button that write control+c to dongle and cancels current execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here is a demo of this sample app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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