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?

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.