Help with bluetooth! hci_get_route returns ERNODEV

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Hi!

I am developing an application which connects a Wiimote to a bluetooth enabled android phone/device.

I did this by interfacing with the native bluez bluetooth library directly, rather than via the Android API. The reason for this is that Android API doesn't support HID devices, which a Wiimote is.

A problem now is that on some devices, mostly those sold by HTC, my app simply doesn't work. After calling the hci_get_route(NULL), this function should return an id of the first bluetooth device available (most likely 0), but instead returns ERNODEV (-1) as if no bluetooth device is available.

I suspect it has something to do with our beloved HTC grossly modifying something in the libbluetooth library to make this fail to work.

Has anyone ever done this kind of bluetooth interfacing?
How could I make this work?
Rooting the phone and replacing a library or two would be fine too.

For a list of working and non-working devices, check out the 2nd post of this thread.

HTC support

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I just sent a customer service message to HTC about this issue. I hope they can get back to me with a "we'll work on it" message, or something. I really want this on my incredible. I'm new to coding like this, but could you disguise the Wiimote as another kind of device?

Just a response from someone equally interested in a solution. I'm trying to set up a bluetooth keyboard (Freedom Pro) with my gsm Hero running the 1.5 based MCR 3.2. Available drivers (Freedom's own, BlueInput & KeyPro) should work with 1.5, but HTC devices, especially the Hero, seem to be lacking something that is present in most 1.5 builds.

Investigating, I find the same issue of no route to device, because there is no known device. AIUI when bluetooth is turned on hciattach is used to establish a link to the hardware. At that point an hciconfig should list the hci0 device as present but down. However I find this list remains empty at all times.

I found this for keyboards.
Since I can't post the link, it's called "KeyPro for Android"
Google "keypro android" and click the first link.

Maybe that could help. It says it works with any android device above 1.5, however, I did read that some keyboards use a different type of bluetooth profile, SPP rather than HID.

I haven't heard back form HTC yet either.

EDIT: Upon reading your post again, you have tried this. Sorry, my bad.

Thanks for looking though The Freedom Pro is switchable between spp & hid profiles, so I figured I was safe, lol. Not with HTC's butchered 1.5 bt it seems.

Did you ever try to use the most likely id 0 on an HTC device? Even though the call to get the id fails?
Maybe you could use also the Android API to synchronize if a device is present and then use the id that Android API gives you?

Just some thoughts since I would love to see that App running on my Desire with Snesoid

Edit: Double post

Originally Posted by tobren

Did you ever try to use the most likely id 0 on an HTC device? Even though the call to get the id fails?
Maybe you could use also the Android API to synchronize if a device is present and then use the id that Android API gives you?

Just some thoughts since I would love to see that App running on my Desire with Snesoid

Believe it or not, I actually tried this. Unfortunately, the next command (to bind the bluetooth adapter) also fails, and of course every command after that one because the adapter is not bound.

Thanks for the idea anyway.

usb

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does the wii remote have usb connectivity? could it be possible to have the communication pass through that connection rather than bluetooth? one advantage of this would be increased battery life and probably better compatibility across models.

i'm sure some people would prefer bluetooth, but i figure i'll always be using it very close to my phone so i can see the screen, so the wired option is actually a bit more attractive (considering battery performance).

i know ps3 has usb connectivity as well, you just might need an adapter (mini to micro).

Originally Posted by rubber soul

does the wii remote have usb connectivity? could it be possible to have the communication pass through that connection rather than bluetooth?
[snip]
i know ps3 has usb connectivity as well, you just might need an adapter (mini to micro).

I'm pretty sure the first answer is no - our wii is round at a friend's atm. However even if it was yes, you'd need more than an adapter. USB operates with one device as master & the other as slave. To allow you to connect slave devices to your phone it would need to be in host mode. Some mobile phone hardware implementations support this, however I don't know of any mainstream Android kernels which do. Even if you workaround that, you're left with the huge issue that slave devices can assume it's safe to draw power from the USB bus which could do nasty things (tm) to a lower power device like a mobile. This can be worked around via a powered hub, but it all gets very messy.

I looked into this a few months ago, hoping I'd be able to use a usb keyboard with my Hero. I ended up with a BT keyboard instead. Of course that doesn't work either but for completely different reasons, as hinted at by this thread. Hopefully a 2.1 ROM will solve that, but that's the subject of numerous other threads.