How to get Bluetooth Low Energy manufacturer's name

Question

I'm learning about Bluetooth (and LE), and I'm writing simple desktop application for Windows 10 to communicate with different kinds of BLE fitness devices.

I have Bluetooth up and running and I can send and receive data, but I have a small problem; sometimes I don't get correct manufacturer name from "Manufacturer Name String". I need to know the manufacturer so that I can send manufacturer specific commands to the devices. The problem seems to be related to different computer hardware and/or drivers, because the problem happens only on my friends computers, not on my computers. The devices I use don't support "PnP ID" and "System ID" so I can't use those to get needed information.

I also read somewhere that I can use MAC address to know the manufacturer, but the devices I use don't give me the address in a format that can be used to get Company Identifier.

What else can I use to get the manufacturer name and/or code?

Answer 1

Considering most of the fitness devices follow GATT specification, 0x2A29 uuid corresponds to org.bluetooth.characteristic.manufacturer_name_string.

https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/gatt/characteristics/

Answer 2

If the advertising data contains a manufacturer data record, the 16-bit manufacturer id can be looked up here:

https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/assigned-numbers/company-identifiers

Answer 3

Looking at the MAC address will probably be very unreliable, as many BTLE devices use a random MAC address for privacy reasons.

However, there is also the UUID of the individual BTLE characteristics, which contains a manufacturer code. See here for a list: https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/assigned-numbers/16-bit-uuids-for-members (note that this applies to shortened 16-bit UUIDs, not to the full 128-bit ones).