BlueSMiRF and Linux

Wireless & IoT
1

Does anyone know how to connect and use the BlueSMiRF in Linux?

I get as far as:

# hciconfig 
hci0:   Type: USB
        BD Address: 00:13:EF:F0:D8:6F ACL MTU: 192:8 SCO MTU: 64:8
        UP RUNNING PSCAN ISCAN 
        RX bytes:107 acl:0 sco:0 events:14 errors:0
        TX bytes:304 acl:0 sco:0 commands:14 errors:0

# hcitool dev
Devices:
        hci0    00:13:EF:F0:D8:6F

# hcitool inq
Inquiring ...
        00:A0:96:0E:4C:8A       clock offset: 0x1ca3    class: 0x000000

# hcitool scan
Scanning ...
        00:A0:96:0E:4C:8A       Goofy Giggles

# l2ping 00:A0:96:0E:4C:8A
Ping: 00:A0:96:0E:4C:8A from 00:13:EF:F0:D8:6F (data size 44) ...
44 bytes from 00:A0:96:0E:4C:8A id 0 time 44.90ms
44 bytes from 00:A0:96:0E:4C:8A id 1 time 48.00ms
44 bytes from 00:A0:96:0E:4C:8A id 2 time 35.12ms
44 bytes from 00:A0:96:0E:4C:8A id 3 time 36.22ms
4 sent, 4 received, 0% loss

and can’t get any more to work. As you can see, I can see the device, and can “ping” it, so I think I have everything set up right. I’ve tried Google, but I can’t find anything on connecting to Bluetooth serial ports in Linux, (other than a few references to “rfcomm” saying that it is deprecated). The module works fine in Windows, and I have renamed it to “Goofy Giggles” for a project using the ATSN command.

2

I have it working now. I’m using Gentoo, so file locations may be different for other distros.

/etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf contains

options {
        autoinit yes;
        security user;
        pairing multi;
        pin_helper /etc/bluetooth/pin-helper
}

device {
        name "BlueZ (%d)";
        class 0x3e0100;
        iscan enable; pscan enable;
        lm accept;
        lp rswitch,hold,sniff,park;
}

/etc/bluetooth/pin:

default

/etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf: (where 00:A0:96:0E:4C:8A is the address of the BlueSMiRF.)

rfcomm0 {
        bind yes;
        device 00:A0:96:0E:4C:8A;
        channel 1;
        comment "debug interface";
}

/etc/udev/rules.d/10-local.rules contains

KERNEL="rfcomm[0-9]*", NAME="bluetooth/%k", GROUP="dialout", MODE="0660"

Because of the “bind yes” in rfcomm.conf the serial link is established when the Bluetooth subsystem is loaded.

Using minicom, or any other serial program, I can connect to /dev/bluetooth/rfcomm0 and talk across the Bluetooth link.

sparky: feel free to copy/modify this and use it as you see fit in documentation.