how to test bluetooth application on emulators in android

Question

I've made a Bluetooth chat application on Android and I need to test it, but I do not own an Android phone so I am dependent on an emulator for all my testing purposes. Is there a way for me to test Bluetooth-based applications on an Android emulator? I am using Eclipse for development. I'd like to run 2 emulators simultaneously and see if my chat application is working properly or not.

Also, how can I integrate the new emulator with Eclipse?

Madalinemadalyn

#2384961 – Gatehouse

Answer 1

Fortunately, there is a way out - Install the Android image on a VM and use your own Bluetooth device. Follow these Steps:

• Download Androidx86 from http://www.android-x86.org/. This is an .iso file, so you'd need something like VMWare or VirtualBox to run it. Me, I use VirtualBox.

• When creating the virtual machine, you need to set the type of guest OS as Linux instead of Other.

• After creating the virtual machine, set the network adapter to 'Bridged'.

• Start the VM and select 'Live CD VESA' at boot.

• Now you need to find out the ip of this VM. Go to terminal in VM (use Alt+F1 & Alt+F7 to toggle) and use the netcfg command to find this.

• Now you need open a command prompt and go to your android install folder (on host). This is usually C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>.

• Type adb connect IP_ADDRESS

• There done! Now you need to add Bluetooth. Plug in your USB Bluetooth dongle.

• In VirtualBox screen, go to Devices>USB devices. Select your dongle.

• Done! now your Android VM has Bluetooth. Try powering on Bluetooth and discovering/paring with other devices.

• Now all that remains is to go to Eclipse, and run your program. The Android AVD manager should show the VM as a device on the list.

Aeonian

Answer 2

i am tired if searching the answer for this question and finally i got the solution out of my personal experience.

Under settings of the virtual machine,goto serialports -> Port 1

1. check Enable serial port
2. select a port number
3. then select port mode as disconnected
4. click ok.

now,start virtual machine.

Under Devices -> USB Devices -> you can find your laptop bluetooth listed.

You can simply check the option and start testing the android bluetooth application .

this worked for me . Hope you find the solution.

Burletta

All forum posts saying not possible. After trying it in vmware for hours, I was able to do it with your method in Virtualbox. Thank you so much. Please add Virtualbox to the description. – Nudibranch

Additionaly commands for enable bluetooth device in Android Emulator. If you get a crash error over an over again, you can use down command at last line. And than check your bluetooth discovery page: ``` pm enable com.android.bluetooth service call bluetooth_manager 6 hciconfig hci0 up #hciconfig hci0 down ``` – Nudibranch