Tracking issue for BLE support

[lukipuki]

Is your feature request related to a problem?
Connecting to a device via BLE is not supported.

Describe the solution you’d like
Use the btleplug crate for easy cross-platform BLE support. The interface should be almost the same as for serial and TCP connection.

Additional context
This is more complex than serial/TCP support, as the BLE API is a bit complex.

• implement build_ble_stream
• add example
• update docs
• add a function to discover Meshtastic devices

[andrewdavidmackenzie]

There is a working BLE example now, so maybe this issue can be closed, done?

[andrewdavidmackenzie]

I was playing with the BLE example to use btleplug scanning to discover my t-echo devices.

I was going to do it using the device name, like the btleplug example/docs code.

Not sure if there is a way to determine that device is "meshtastic capable", but the android app and web client only seem to show meshtastic BT devices to pair to....so maybe it is possible?

[lukipuki]

I was playing with the BLE example to use btleplug scanning to discover my t-echo devices.

I was going to do it using the device name, like the btleplug example/docs code.

Not sure if there is a way to determine that device is "meshtastic capable", but the android app and web client only seem to show meshtastic BT devices to pair to....so maybe it is possible?

That's what the last task "add a function to discover Meshtastic devices" is about. I wrote some code two months ago which did just that but I didn't like the API and I haven't had time to fix it yet. I'll try to post it in a couple of weeks.

And then we can close this issue.

[andrewdavidmackenzie]

feel free to share that code if you want, and I can take a look. Meanwhile I'll browse the android and web repos to see if I can figure out how they do the device filtering.

…

On Sat, Sep 27, 2025 at 7:11 PM Lukáš Poláček ***@***.***> wrote: *lukipuki* left a comment (meshtastic/rust#32) <#32 (comment)> I was playing with the BLE example to use btleplug scanning to discover my t-echo devices. I was going to do it using the device name, like the btleplug example/docs code. Not sure if there is a way to determine that device is "meshtastic capable", but the android app and web client only seem to show meshtastic BT devices to pair to....so maybe it is possible? That's what the last task "add a function to discover Meshtastic devices" is about. I wrote some code two months ago which did just that but I didn't like the API and I haven't had time to fix it yet. I'll try to post it in a couple of weeks. And then we can close this issue. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#32 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABKF4LBIB4L4ZTIDC2WVYBT3U3AM5AVCNFSM6AAAAABVSG2WF6VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTGNBRHEZDIOJWGU> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[lukipuki]

We have a function scan_peripherals which restricts the search to MSH_SERVICE, this returns just the Meshtastic devices:

rust/src/connections/ble_handler.rs

Line 107 in 70c0f7c

services: vec![MSH_SERVICE],

This function is private right now.

If you want an immediate solution to your problem, you can copy (and modify) this function into your own project.

[andrewdavidmackenzie]

Will do for now. I just found the UUid that I thought corresponded to Mesh, so was getting close :-)

…

On Sat, Sep 27, 2025 at 10:46 PM Lukáš Poláček ***@***.***> wrote: *lukipuki* left a comment (meshtastic/rust#32) <#32 (comment)> We have a function scan_peripherals which restricts the search to MSH_SERVICE, this returns just the Meshtastic devices: https://github.com/meshtastic/rust/blob/70c0f7cf9aeaac00059546a68a04d04762ee78f5/src/connections/ble_handler.rs#L107 This function is private right now. If you want an immediate solution to your problem, you can copy (and modify) this function into your own project. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#32 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABKF4LEL45HOZUFWZFUCM2D3U3ZSTAVCNFSM6AAAAABVSG2WF6VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTGNBSGAZTMNJUGQ> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[andrewdavidmackenzie]

It seems all of connections, which contains BleHandler, which contains that function is crate private

pub(crate) mod connections;

[andrewdavidmackenzie]

I started a skeleton Iced GUI app that uses the "rust" crate.

FYI here is the first pass at some code that I use in the iced subscription to find new/lost devices, to update the UI live with:
https://github.com/andrewdavidmackenzie/meshchat/blob/main/src/discovery.rs#L18

At the moment it's just using btleplug directly.

Would you like to use me as a guinea pig for your API in meshtastic/rust?

[lukipuki]

@andrewdavidmackenzie I've dug out my code from the summer and tried to fix things I didn't like. Please test: #66

You can call available_ble_devices(Duration::from_secs(10)).await.

[andrewdavidmackenzie]

As per comments on the PR. This is now working for me, discovery and then connecting to a device and receiving FromRadio packets with the config, in my Iced GUI app.

I have had to implement my own compare_bleid() method lacking PartialEq on that struct.
That would be an improvement, can can simply be derived.