Is it possible to connect to my custom BLE peripheral device (it implements non standard services/characteristics) on Windows 10 and read/write GATT characteristics? What technology is available - Windows 10 SDK, Xamarin?
Yes. You can use the standard Windows APIs in order to read/write GATT characteristics. You can choose among the Win32 APIs (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/hh450825(v=vs.85).aspx) and the newer Windows RT APIs (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/windows.devices.bluetooth.genericattributeprofile.aspx) which are mostly wrappers around the Win32 APIs.
The only requirement I'm aware of is that your custom BLE peripheral device must implement pairing functionality ("Just Works" or "Passkey Entry").
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I am trying to use Windows PC as a Central and connect it to BLE L2CAP CoC opened by Android smartphone using BluetoothAdapter#listenUsingL2capChannel(). From what I found after looking through MSDN documentation dedicated to the use of Bluetooth on Windows, I assumed I had to implement kernel-mode driver similar to Bluetooth Echo L2CAP Client Profile Driver. But it looks like BRBs for opening l2cap channel are not designed to support LE Credit Based Flow Control Mode (which I assume is the mode the channel opened by Android is configured in). And that leads to the conclusion that one can not use the transmission directly over BLE L2CAP channel on Windows.
What I expect in the answer is a confirmation or a contradiction to my conclusion and sharing the experience of setting up an interaction between Android and Windows using BLE. Is using the GATT the only option for this?
I want to develop an activex control running on windows 7,which use bluetooth 4.0(ble) to communicate with portable devices.It seems that only windowd 8.1 can support ble development.So how can i develop such ocx running on windows 7 ?
As documented under Bluetooth Low Energy Overview:
Windows 8 introduces support for the Bluetooth Low Energy technology.
Prior to Windows 8, you cannot use Bluetooth Low Energy, irrespective of whether this is for an ActiveX control or any other implementation. You need Windows 8 to use the Bluetooth Low Energy technology.
I am creating a mobile application that can detect iBeacons and I am confused which windows devices support that. I already checked that it's possible in Windows 10 but somewhere I read that it's also possible for Windows 8.1.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to detect beacons with Windows Phone 8.x because the OS has no built-in beacon support and does not allow apps to access raw Bluetooth LE scan results.
You can read more info about this here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/30603394/1461050
Have anyone managed to interface with BLE peripherals on Windows? Is there any library/API that can be used? Qt has now support for BLE in several platforms except Windows (http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtbluetooth-index.html) and unfortunately I'm not aware of an alternative for it.
You can find the API released by Microsoft for BLE in this link:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/hh450825(v=vs.85).aspx
Be aware that the main drawback of using BLE for Windows 8.1 is that you have to establish a connection with your peripheral device manually in Bluetooth Options for Windows 8.1. You cannot implement a scanning functionality in your application.
How can I create an iBeacon on a windows 7 PC with Smart Bluetooth 4.0 integrated with the Wi-Fi, I.e not a separate dongle. I'd rather not look at other OS's as the device also has to run an Adobe air application at the same time.
Thanks
Mike
Sorry, but you cannot natively make a Bluetooth LE-equipped Windows 7/8/8.1 computer broadcast as an iBeacon. The operating system is limited in its BLE support to allowing third party apps to work with a limited number of BLE profiles. More details are available here in this question about Windows phone, but the info also applies to the desktop Windows OS:
iBeacon support for Windows Phone devices. Support is expected to be added in Windows 10 in late 2015.
Until then, your options are limited to a Linux VM or to a hardware dongle with native iBeacon support.
As David pointed out, there is no API available for working with iBeacons until Windows 10.
If you don't need any other Bluetooth connectivity, you can replace the Bluetooth driver with a libusb driver and use your own Bluetooth stack which adds support for iBeacon. You can check out open-source libraries like BlueZ and btstack and make the HCI layer work. On top of that you can implement/port the BLE advertisement and discovery HCI commands and you have all you need for working with iBeacons.