BH4-X Driver for USB Adapters Enabled with Bluetooth® Wireless Technology

License

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Requirements

Description

If you develop Bluetooth® wireless technology enabled applications for Sony Ericsson or Motorola UIQ mobiles, BH4-X from CYBERABI is an easy-to-use Windows 2000 device driver that can help with your debugging.

BH4-X allows industry standard USB adapters enabled with Bluetooth wireless technology to emulate a Bluetooth adapter that uses the standard Bluetooth UART HCI (also called the H4 HCI, because it is described in Section H4 of the Bluetooth standard). The UIQ 2.1 SDK for Symbian OS v7.0 can use an H4 HCI Bluetooth adapter to debug Bluetooth applications on a PC host.

Advantages:

BH4-X installs as a Windows COM port, just as a Bluetooth PCMCIA card or hardware reference platform would. In our side-by-side tests, BH4-X was recognized by the UIQ 2.1 SDK for Symbian OS v7.0 EPOC Emulator and performed correctly onthe EPOC Emulator Bluetooth control panel, device discovery, Jotter Bluetooth send/receive, and Contacts Bluetooth send/receive applications.

Compatibility

BH4-X uses only industry standard Bluetooth HCI commands and should work with any USB adapter enabled with industry standard Bluetooth technology, regardless of chipset. Nonetheless there are exceptions.

We've verified BH4-X compatibility with the Belkin F8T003, the Amazing Technology BlueGear, and the Hawking Technology H-BT10U. All of these USB adapters use chipsets from Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR).

Adapters based on the Broadcom BCM2033 and similar chipsets are not compatible with BH4-X. These adapters don't support industry standard Bluetooth HCI commands until a proprietary Broadcom firmware loader runs at each power-up. BH4-X does not include a firmware loader, and so cannot be used with these adapters.

Incompatible adapters include:

This list is not comprehensive. Check the specifications of your adapter to determine compatibility.

WARNING: Use BH4-X at your own risk! BH4-X is kernel-mode system software, and may cause your computer to stop responding under certain error conditions. BH4-X is not endorsed by the Bluetooth SIG, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Microsoft, Cambridge Silicon Radio, Broadcom Corporation, Socket Communications, Amazing Technology, or Hawking Technology. All of the mentioned brand and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Advanced Compatibility

New models of Bluetooth device come onto the market and leave the market constantly. Each device is identified by a unique combination of numbers, the vendor ID (VID) and product ID (PID). The BH4-X.inf file provided with BH4-X driver tells Windows which Bluetooth adapters work with the driver by listing combinations of vendor ID and product ID.

Not all compatible devices are listed in BH4-X.inf due to rapid proliferation of USB adapter models. Although your device might meet all requirements for compatibility with BH4-X, installation will fail if the device isn't listed. In this case, an internet search using your device's model number and the words VID and PID as search terms might reveal the correct IDs for your device. You can then edit your copy of the BH4-X.inf file, adding the necessary VID and PID.

Example: Suppose your USB Bluetooth adapter from XYZ Corporation has VID=0234 and PID=E2DE. This fictional adapter is not listed in BH4-X.inf. To install it, you must add the following two lines to BH4-X.inf.

Below [DeviceList], add:
%USB\VID_0234&PID_E2DE.DeviceDesc%=BH4-X, USB\VID_0234&PID_E2De ; XYZ Corporation VID&PID

Below BH4-XClassName="CYBERABI BH4-X Bluetooth(R) HCI Bridge", add:
USB\VID_0234&PID_E2DE.DeviceDesc="CYBERABI BH4-X (XYZ Corporation USB)"

Save the modified BH4-X.inf file, then re-install the driver making certain that the modified file is used instead of any copy that Windows might have cached (for example, the system might have renamed and cached a copy in WINDOWS\INF\OEMxxx.INF).

These steps should allow you to install BH4-X when using newer USB Bluetooth adapters not listed in BH4-X.inf.

Installation (Windows 2000)

BH4-X installs like any other plug-and-play USB device that uses a custom device driver. There's no installation program, just an .INF file that tells Windows how to install the .SYS device driver. Follow these steps to install BH4-X.

  1. Unzip the archive file to a convenient folder on your hard drive.
  2. Verify that the folder contains the three files, catalog.cat, BH4-X.sys and BH4-X.inf.
  3. Uninstall all other Bluetooth drivers and software from your PC, including any drivers and software that came with your USB Bluetooth adapter.
  4. Make sure your USB Bluetooth adapter is not plugged in to a USB port, and restart your computer.
  5. Insert your USB Bluetooth adapter into a USB port, wait for the Found New Hardware Wizard to appear, and click Next.
  6. Select Search for a suitable driver for my device (recommended) and click Next.
  7. Windows will ask where you want to search. Uncheck all boxes, and then check the Specify a location box, and click Next.
  8. Windows will ask you to insert the manufacturer's installation disk. Instead, click the Browse button and navigate to the folder containing catalog.cat, BH4-X.sys and BH4-X.inf. Then click Open.
  9. The folder path will appear in the text box at the bottom of the prompt window. Click OK.
  10. Click Next to begin installation.
  11. You may receive an Update Driver Warning indicating that Windows cannot verify the source of the BH4-X driver, or that the driver has not been qualified by Microsoft. If you receive such a warning, click Yes to continue.
  12. Wait for the Start Driver Installation dialog to appear, then click Next.
  13. Once the driver is installed, click Finish to close the hardware wizard.

Congratulations! BH4-X is now installed and ready for use.

Emulator Configuration

BH4-X creates a new COM port in the Device Manager control panel of your PC, just as a Bluetooth PCMCIA card or hardware reference platform would. The COM port created by BH4-X is named CYBERABI BH4-X, and the COM port number is indicated after this name in the control panel (for example, CYBERABI BH4-X (CSR USB) (COM3).

You must configure your UIQ SDK EPOC Emulator to use this port for Bluetooth functions. To do this, edit the bt.esk file provided with the Emulator.

  1. Set the port parameter in bt.esk to one less than the COM port number of BH4-X, just as you would have to do when configuring a Casira™ hardware reference platform or Bluetooth PCMCIA card. For example, to use BH4-X on COM3, set the port parameter in bt.esk to 2.
  2. Set the hcidllfilename parameter in bt.esk to hci_h4.dll to load the correct HCI driver into the emulator.

NOTE: The UIQ SDK EPOC Emulator requires that BH4-X be installed as COM1-COM7. Refer to Symbian's UIQ Bluetooth testing environment documentation for additional information, and select a suitable COM port number.

NOTE: The UIQ SDK EPOC Emulator does not provide 100% emulation of the actual mobile phone Bluetooth environment. The Emulator and phone use different Bluetooth protocol stacks, and different operating system multitasking technologies, leading to differing behaviors and error conditions. The Emulator does not provide all of the same communication services as the phone. Always test your application with a real phone before releasing it!

NOTE: Some emulators install two or more copies of the bt.esk file; if you find multiple copies, edit each of them.

Device Manager Properties Page

BH4-X creates a properties page for its COM port in the Device Manager. This properties page is accessed from Windows 2000 in the usual manner:

  1. Select Start | Settings | Control Panel
  2. Double-click on System
  3. Select the Hardware tab
  4. Click the Device Manger... button
  5. Expand the Ports (COM&LPT) list if necessary, by clicking on the small + to the left
  6. Right-click on CYBERABI BH4-X, and select Properties from the pop-up menu.

The properties page includes General, Port Settings, and Driver tabs.

You can change the COM port number assigned to BH4-X using the Port Settings | Advanced window. Although the window updates immediately to show the new COM port number, you must restart your PC before the port number change takes effect.

You can change the default data rate and flow control of BH4-X using the Port Settings window. The EPOC Emulator prefers a data rate of 115200 bits per second with Hardware flow control, and will set these parameters automatically when running.

Device Removal

BH4-X supports "surprise removal", meaning you can unplug an adapter controlled by BH4-X at any time, even while your computer is running. However, programs that interact with the BH4-X COM port, such as the EPOC Emulator or an application under test, might respond unpredictably to sudden unplugging of the adapter.

WARNING: Unplugging an adapter with applications running may cause your computer to lock-up or restart.

WARNING: Under Windows XP, BH4-X supports surprise removal only if the Bluetooth USB adapter was plugged in after system start-up.

For best results, we recommend exiting all Bluetooth applications and the EPOC Emulator, and then using the Safely Remove Hardware desktop icon, before unplugging your Bluetooth USB adapter.

Uninstallation (Windows 2000)

You can uninstall BH4-X like any other plug-and-play device, by using the Device Manager. The USB adapter must be plugged in in order to uninstall BH4-X.

Release History

Version 1.03 (27 March, 2004)

If you need help with installing or using BH4-X, please visit our web site at http://www.cyberabi.com, or contact us at support@cyberabi.com.

Customer Support

We dont just sell BH4-X and DTL-X, we also use then to debug and test CYBERABI's software products that communicate using Bluetooth technology. If you need help installing or using BH4-X, please visit our website at http://www.cyberabi.com, or contact us at support@cyberabi.com.