CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windows-7bluetoothbluetooth-lowenergy
EquiGym
EquiGym

Reputation: 21

Windows 7 and bluetooth 4.0 Smart

I am looking to implement the use of a Bluetooth 4.0 Smart Ready device (Polar H6/H7 Heart Rate Sensors) in my application. I am forced to target Windows 7 OS. However, I'm only seeing Windows 8 support for Smart Ready devices. I will not be able to upgrade clients to windows 8 in order to use these devices.

The first problem I found is that Windows 7 does not even see the device in order to pair with it. This might be the dongle I'm using. I have tried 2 different ones. The first is a CSR V4.0 (I'm not sure the actual model number). The second is StarTech USBBT1EDR4. Both seem to be using a CSR chipsets. Maybe I should try a different chipset based dongle? Such as Broadcom or TI? I do see and can pair with the device with my Windows 8.1 Surface Pro.

Is there no way to get Bluetooth Smart implementation for Windows 7 OS platform?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 23974

Answers (2)

Booij
Booij

Reputation: 1

Strange thing is, I installed windows 10 and I could use bluetooth smart from my Logitech MX master mouse, but I had to go back to windows 7 because of display drivers and now it does not support it anymore. Windows 7 does not support smart bluetooth. It's just a driver I would presume, but Logitech does not provide it.

I find it realy strange that the old bluetooth device in my laptop worked fine with bluetooth smart devices in Windows 10 but in windows 7 it can only connect to plain old bluetooth devices.

Upvotes: 0

Paradela
Paradela

Reputation: 180

I've recently faced the same problems! I need to run an application in o older version of windows (win xp) and I cannot find any support to that with my dongle (one based in broadcom bcm20702).

What I've found is that windows prior to windows 8, has no bluetooth low energy support, so you would not be able to use the windows bluetoth stack, and broadcom doesn't have a sdk for BLE (I've contacted them, and they said it).

So I've looked for other alternatives and BlueGiga bluetooth 4.0 dongle has a C SDK that you can use to develop your applications in Windows XP and 7. In that page (after register) you can find all the documentation you need.

I've also found a C# Wrapper and a Java Wrapper to its API.

Hope it can help.

[EDIT] : just received my dongle, tried it with win XP and it worked. Guess this is a solution for you also!

Upvotes: 7

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