Integrating RS3 with own iOS app

Reach RS3 Getting started
1

Hi,
I am an iOS developer for a company.
We have both an Android and an iOS app.

We have a functioning integration with our Android for the RS3, and now we are looking to also integrate the RS3 with our iOS app.

I am having a hard time finding any documentation on how to read the characteristics of the bluetooth services that are available when connecting the app to the RS3 via bluetooth.

Can you point me in a direction on how to translate the data that is transmitted?

2

To expand:

I can discover the services of the RS3, that contains characteristics such as:
AB0BA111-B9D7-4D3A-A624-21FB75FC0001
AB0BA111-B9D7-4D3A-A624-21FB75FC0002
…
etc.

From those characteristics I am able to receive data, but I don’t know how to proceed from here. It is not possible to convert the data to String by utf8, but I can convert it to int8 bytearray with results such as:

Received data from characteristic AB0BA111-B9D7-4D3A-A624-21FB75FC0001: 77 bytes

Byte Array: [244, 28, 22, 251, 145, 74, 237, 9, 79, 60, 226, 233, 118, 64, 215, 207, 33, 103, 237, 160, 8, 203, 102, 196, 3, 158, 132, 78, 21, 160, 251, 184, 155, 193, 66, 85, 19, 27, 93, 42, 142, 19, 141, 127, 32, 171, 170, 59, 250, 150, 132, 61, 165, 20, 83, 217, 37, 244, 99, 164, 233, 61, 68, 151, 204, 253, 203, 94, 118, 125, 126, 1, 42, 191, 138, 136, 126]

But I would like to know what is actually hidden behind the UUID of the characteristics, as well as some info about how to deal with the data that is received. I had hoped that I could convert the data to a String of something like the following: “$GNEBP,4807.038,N,01131.000,E,545.440,M*58” from the docs: NMEA specification | Reach RS3

4

It appears that another framework can be used on iOS if the bluetooth peripheral is MFI certified. Is there any plans to MFI certify the RS3? I read that you have recently MFI certified the RX.

I assume that if the RS3 will be certified that won’t apply to existing devices?

5

Hi @mal,

Welcome to our forum!

You’re correct that integrating with iOS apps requires MFi certification. Although the Reach RS3 can transmit data via Bluetooth, iOS needs MFi certification for Bluetooth peripherals. As of now, only the new batch of RX has MFi certification. If the Reaach RS3 were to receive MFi certification in the future, it would require hardware changes, so existing devices wouldn’t be automatically updated.

In the meantime, you might consider integrating your iOS app via a TCP connection if that’s an option for you. Our developer resources might help with your software development.

1 Like
6

Hi @inkar.madikyzy,

Thank you for responding.

We have shifted our focus to use TCP for now and that works fine.

Do you have any plans to MFi certify the RS3?

2 Likes
7

Thanks for the update—glad to hear that TCP option is working fine for you! Right now, the MFi certification for the Reach RS3 isn’t on our roadmap, so I can hardly share any plans.

1 Like
9

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