In my last experiment I used the Android Things developer console to create a factory image for my bus stop project. I then created an OTA update to update the bus stop apk ‘in the field.’ I concluded that experiment wondering how I was going to get my network credentials onto the device (without using adb). If your device doesn’t have a touchscreen or keyboard how are you going to get it onto your end user’s network. One possible solution to this problem is to use a companion app on the user’s phone to collect configuration information. With a companion app you get all of the UI niceness provided by that platform for ‘free.’ You still need to get the configuration from the phone to your Android Things device. This is where Bluetooth Low Energy comes in.
Bluetooth Low Energy
Bluetooth Low Energy is exactly the kind of short range wireless technology that can help out here. It’s relatively easy to implement using Android APIs and there’s no need for the device to be on a network to configure it. I can start with the BLE sample for Android Things that has almost everything I’m going to need.
For my bus stop project I have two things to configure that require end user input. I need to configure which stop number I want to display bus data for. I also need to get it onto a network to get real-time bus schedule information from a web API.