Bluetooth For Android Open Accessories

[Ytai], the lead developer for the IOIO breakout board for the Android Open Accessory kit, figured out how to control just about anything from an Android phone wirelessly over Bluetooth.

When [Ytai] first announced the IOIO breakout board for Android devices, one of the commentors on his post said a standard Bluetooth dongle could stand in for the USB cable between the phone and the IOIO. Wireless control of home automation project and robots was just too good of an idea to let go, so [Ytai] dove into this new Bluetooth project.

After getting a cheap Bluetooth dongle from DealExtreme, [Ytai] found btstack, a lightweight Bluetooth stack that was perfect for an embedded environment. Dealing with the USB driver for a no-name Bluetooth adapter didn’t come as easily, but after a few long nights, [Ytai] emerged victorious.

He still has a few more problems to overcome. Namely, supporting environments where more than IOIO board is available. [Ytai] is thinking about adding support for WiFi dongles, something we’d love to see. Check out [Ytai]’s demo of wireless control of a servo after the break.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFlJm86Qtuk&w=470]

13 thoughts on “Bluetooth For Android Open Accessories

  1. Could this be ported to a teensy? Been wanting to play with bluetooth in my projects, but the BT modules are too expensive for me. Would love to use a cheap dongle. Still a beginner and most my projects are made from sourced parts from my junk pile. I’d scrap together 20 dollars for a teensy if I could use it with a bluetooth tho.

  2. Excellent work. $3 bluetooth, but then $50 IOIO kills it. Are there any breadboard friendly components available that could emulate IOIO? Pretty soon old android phones will be affordable and open up all sorts of possibilities. I’m still hoping we’ll see a more affordable android to microcontroller interface.

  3. I found that a Bluetooth serial device is very easy to work with from SL4A (Scripting Languages For Android). I’ve been using the BluetoothFacade API to interface an Arduino-like gadget to a python script running on the phone. Doing any kind of graphics via SL4A is still kind of a hack, so this approach may not be for everybody.

    1. Ok, will check that out. As a uC I use STM32-discover (around 10euros). Only thing that is little “confusing” is C (++) for uC and java-like for android since QT isn’t that well supported in Android world.

  4. The more interesting thing is the fact that we now can use those cheap Bluetooth PHY’s with PICs. If you take the cost of a PIC24/32 and add on the $1.80 dongle, then for basically under 7$ you have a complete Bluetooth solution

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