Playing PyBluez

This tutorial shows how to use PyBluez, which is a Bluetooth library, in Python program that search all the nearby devices.

How to install bluez and PyBluez in ubuntu14.04

Bluez

# By default, ubuntu 14.04 use Bluez already…
# If you don’t have one, you can paste the command in your terminal
$ sudo apt-get install bluez
$ sudo apt-get install bluez python-gobject python-dbus

# Install the utilities of bluez
$ sudo apt-get install bluez-utils

# Development files for using the BlueZ Linux Bluetooth library
# You can use it by #include 
$ sudo apt-get install libbluetooth-dev

PyBluez

$ pip install pybluez
$ sudo apt-get install python-bluetooth

# Another way to install is to download the latest version of pyBluez 
from https://code.google.com/p/pybluez/downloads/list and setup it.
# For example:
$ wget https://pybluez.googlecode.com/files/PyBluez-0.20.zip
$ unzip PyBluez-0.20.zip
$ cd PyBluez-0.20

# Setup your PyBluez
$ sudo python setup.py install

Check the version of Bluetooth

$ dpkg --status bluez | grep '^Version:'
Version: 4.101-0ubuntu13

$ bluetoothd -v
4.101

$ hciconfig -a
hci0:    Type: BR/EDR  Bus: USB
    BD Address: C8:F7:33:E3:9B:ED  ACL MTU: 310:10  SCO MTU: 64:8
    UP RUNNING PSCAN ISCAN
    RX bytes:937 acl:0 sco:0 events:48 errors:0
    TX bytes:1500 acl:0 sco:0 commands:47 errors:0
    Features: 0xff 0xff 0x8f 0xfe 0xdb 0xff 0x5b 0x87
    Packet type: DM1 DM3 DM5 DH1 DH3 DH5 HV1 HV2 HV3
    Link policy: RSWITCH HOLD SNIFF PARK
    Link mode: SLAVE ACCEPT
    Name: 'ubuntu-0'
    Class: 0x640100
    Service Classes: Rendering, Audio, Telephony
    Device Class: Computer, Uncategorized
    HCI Version: 4.0 (0x6)  Revision: 0x1ebd
    LMP Version: 4.0 (0x6)  Subversion: 0xfc00
    Manufacturer: Intel Corp. (2)

Playing PyBluez

First, you need to enable bluetooth of your devices. Then, you can write a python program to communicate with them. I have a flame now, so I take it as an example.

$ vim bluetooth.py

Click here to view code on gist

import bluetooth

print "Start discovering...."

nearby_devices = bluetooth.discover_devices()

print "Found devices:"
for bdaddr in nearby_devices:
    print bluetooth.lookup_name( bdaddr ), "with address:", bdaddr

Now, you can enable bluetooth of your devices and use the program to discover them.

$ python bluetooth.py
# output:
Start discovering....
Found devices:
flame with address: D8:E5:6D:1B:FF:6B

Actually, you can write your code more formally like this:

$ vim bluetooth_discover.py

import bluetooth

def search(searchTime):         
    devices = bluetooth.discover_devices(duration=searchTime, lookup_names = True)
    return devices

if __name__=="__main__":
    print "Start discovering...."
    results = search(5);
    if(results!=None):
        for addr, name in results:
            print "{0} - {1}".format(addr, name)
        #endfor
    else:
        print "nothing found!"
    #endif

$ python bluetooth_discover.py
# output:
Start discovering....
D8:E5:6D:1B:FF:6B - flame

Find the bluetooth services on your devices

$ vim bluetooth_find_services.py

import bluetooth
from pprint import pprint

def search(searchTime):         
    devices = bluetooth.discover_devices(duration=searchTime, lookup_names = True)
    return devices

if __name__=="__main__":
    print "Start discovering...."
    results = search(10);
    if(results!=None):
        for addr, name in results:
            print "{0} - {1}".format(addr, name)
            service = bluetooth.find_service(address=addr)
            pprint(service)
        #endfor
    else:
        print "nothing found!"
    #endif

$ python bluetooth_find_services.py
# output:
Start discovering....
D8:E5:6D:1B:FF:6B - flame
[{'description': None,
  'host': 'D8:E5:6D:1B:FF:6B',
  'name': None,
  'port': None,
  'profiles': [('1200', 258)],
  'protocol': None,
  'provider': None,
  'service-classes': ['1200'],
  'service-id': None},
 {'description': None,
  'host': 'D8:E5:6D:1B:FF:6B',
  'name': 'Audio Source',
  'port': 25,
  'profiles': [('110D', 258)],
  'protocol': 'L2CAP',
  'provider': None,
  'service-classes': ['110A'],
  'service-id': None},
 {'description': None,
  'host': 'D8:E5:6D:1B:FF:6B',
  'name': 'AVRCP TG',
  'port': 23,
  'profiles': [('110E', 259)],
  'protocol': 'L2CAP',
  'provider': None,
  'service-classes': ['110C'],
  'service-id': None},
 {'description': None,
  'host': 'D8:E5:6D:1B:FF:6B',
  'name': 'Voice Gateway',
  'port': 10,
  'profiles': [('111E', 261)],
  'protocol': 'RFCOMM',
  'provider': None,
  'service-classes': ['111F', '1203'],
  'service-id': None},
 {'description': None,
  'host': 'D8:E5:6D:1B:FF:6B',
  'name': 'Voice Gateway',
  'port': 11,
  'profiles': [('1108', 258)],
  'protocol': 'RFCOMM',
  'provider': None,
  'service-classes': ['1112', '1203'],
  'service-id': None},
 {'description': None,
  'host': 'D8:E5:6D:1B:FF:6B',
  'name': 'OBEX Object Push',
  'port': 12,
  'profiles': [('1105', 258)],
  'protocol': 'RFCOMM',
  'provider': None,
  'service-classes': ['1105'],
  'service-id': None}]

Reference

http://people.csail.mit.edu/albert/bluez-intro/index.html