Qt bluetooth for Windows 7

_Dron_

Hello,
I have got a device with bluetooth 4.0 in it and a laptop (Windows 7) with builtin bluetooth module. I want to write a small program for communication with this device. How can I do it with Qt?
I read that Qt Bluetooth module doesn't support Windows 7 (why?...). Is there any walkaround?

kuzulis

Bluetooth 4.0, aka BLE, is supported from windows 8 and newer.
Official Qt does not supported BLE on Windows, except WinRT (win10 AFAIK).
QtConnectivity module has 'additional' wip/win branch which support BLE (bluetooth 4.0) with win32 API.

So, summary: If you want BLE support, you should to have the Windows >= 8..x, and a himself to compile and install the wip/win branch of QtConnectivity module. Or, maybe, to use Qt for WinRT, but I don't know how it work.

Gojir4

You can maybe communicate with your Bluetooth device configured as a virtual serial port. Actually this is what I'm doing with a BLE dongle, but the target device is Bluetooth 3.0 (or even 2.0). So I don't know if it could work in your case.
But this is only for raw serial communication and you will lose the BLE layer (Services, Characteristics, Descriptors, etc...).

_Dron_

Hello,
I downloaded folder win/win from http://code.qt.io/cgit/qt/qtconnectivity.git.
In QtCreator opened file qtconnectivity.pro. Tried to compile it - got error: "[sub-bluetooth-qmake_all] Error 3".
Now what should I do with it?

mrjj

@_Dron_
I don't think it can work on win 7 at all.
As far as i know its win8/10 only.
Since microsoft first added BLE stack to win 8.
So while its possible to add 3rd party drivers to win 7 and an BLE device , as far as i know there is
no generic BLE support and hence i have doubts it can work.

Hopefully someone proves me wrong :)