BT Accessory

[ncmac]

Is it possible to detect if a Bluetooth accessory is paired to an iOS device - specifically a keyboard?

[Jellicle]

Nope.

Gerry

[gpb01]

Is it possible to detect if a Bluetooth accessory is paired to an iOS device - specifically a keyboard?

Mmm ... probably YES, but you have to write an 'External' to use the 'EAAccessoryManager' class and, in particular, the 'EAAccessoryManager.connectedAccessories' property which return the list of currently connected accessories.

Guglielmo

[Jellicle]

Oh ok then...yes

Gerry

[peter786723]

Do you have a example of a external for blue tooth communication or any tips for where to begin

Peter

[gpb01]

Do you have a example of a external for blue tooth communication or any tips for where to begin
Peter

Hi Peter,

unfortunately not, but you can start here : https://developer.apple.com/library/ios ... rence.html for the 'EAAccessoryManager' class, and here : http://www.runrev.com/developers/docume ... rnals-sdk/ for how to write Externals.

Please remember that you can just use the Bluetooth devices made for iOS (... or recognized by iOS) and NOT all the bluetooth devices

Guglielmo

[monte]

Can you give some more info on your use case? Are we talking about modifying your UI based on if the keypad shows on screen or not? If that's your use case then there are notifications for that. You could write an external that sends a message to the card every time the keypad is shown.

Cheers

Monte

PS I do half price development for externals I can include in mergExt and this would be a good candidate. You could also add it as an idea in the Ideas topic on the mergExt forum and then vote on it in the poll when it comes up. See mergext.com for more details.

[monte]

LOL, it's already in the engine

See the keyboardActivated message. You shouldn't get that message if they user touches in a field and you have a keyboard connected.

Cheers

Monte

[prasannamsv]

@gpb01 Is it possible to pair a MFI licensed bluetooth device programaticcaly. Currently i have a MFI device and i can pair it with my ipad(ios 5.1) in settings-General-Bluetooth. But i dono how to do it via code. External Accesory framework only shows devices that are already paired, is it possible to pair the accesories with my ipad programatically?? Please help...

[monte]

No the user must pair the devices. Once paired you can get notifications for connection and disconnection. I have an external coming quite soon that covers the external accessory framework.

[gpb01]

... one of the many limitations imposed by strongs Apple security rules

Guglielmo

[monte]

Just announced mergAccessory! Check it out at http://mergExt.com