Android bluetooth RFCOMM questions

Question

I am trying to get an android phone to look like a bluetooth GPS unit so that a PC or any other device that supports bluetooth GPS can use it. I figured out the whole NMEA thing and have the device spitting out correct NMEA sentences. My problem lies in the bluetooth area though.

I have a bluetooth thread setup for listening for a connection. In windows I can see the service "Bluetooth GPS" that I created. The problem is I can't figure out how to get windows to open up the connection so I can start sending the NMEA sentences. When I enable the service in windows it says "Bluetooth Peripheral Device" and there are no drivers available.

What am I missing that would allow windows to understand that I want to communicate over RFCOMM and the device is a GPS device?

Answer 1

You need atleast Android 2.0 because unfortunately older versions of Android's Bluetooth API does not support RFCOMM yet neither does it support other methods of communicating its GPS data to an other Bluetooth device such as a windows PC.

Depending on the phone you are currently using you may be able to update it to Android 2.0.

I just tried it with my phone and it only supports Bluetooth headset and A2DP stereo audio.

You would have to create an app for android that passes your GPS data over Bluetooth RFCOMM just like the Bluetooth wireless tether app. You have to have the app running and then pair the device to your PC in order to use its services.