Windows XP Microsoft Bluetooth Drivers

Question

I thought I would share a discovery I made yesterday for all of those who struggle with the Bluetooth compatability within LabVIEW.
I have had lots of problems deploying Bluetooth applications written in LabVIEW because of the limited hardware support (being tied to the MS BT stack). The bulk of my problems have been with people using laptops that have built in Bluetooth radios, the vendor's drivers tend to hijack the BT radio and prevent anything else working .
I stumbled upon a website yesterday where somebody has created an update for the XP drivers which includes support for an additional 116 devices. I have installed it on a Dell laptop which would not let me use the MS drivers and it is now running my LabVIEW application.
I hope it is of some use:
http://www.vinsvision.com/Downloads/tabid/57/Default.aspx

Answer 1

Hi,
It does not seem like the Bluetooth VIs allow you to display the signal strength and I can definitly enter that as a product suggestion for the Bluetooth functionality in LabVIEW. For now, I would suggest going through the Windows API and searchingn for RSSI - Received Signal Strength Indication. I did not have a lot of luck in my searches through Microsoft, but you can give that a shot and post back with any more headway you make.
Also, you can try going to SourceForge.net. Just doing a search for Bluetooth and RSSI popped up several hits of code that has been developed for Bluetooth applications. Then, you can see about creating a DLL call to a particular function that will return RSSI information to you, to which
you can then use in LabVIEW with the Call Library Node.vi.
Hope this helps and best of luck!
Kileen C.
NI