Release Beta

So there's four major things that have happened with BlueMesh recently:

• Messages are now sent with headers describing their size, so the message size limit is as big as a 4 byte unsigned integer can get.
• We've switched to supporting only Android 4.x since the Bluetooth stack is significantly more reliable
• After some testing, we were satisfied that this release is stable enough to be released as a beta.
• We got an honorable mention at the RPI Undergraduate Research Symposium.

That's pretty much it. From here on out we will be focused on getting proper routing to work (as much as we can between classes).

This Week at BlueMesh

Hey guys,

So we are in our FINAL FINAL stages before releasing an official Beta! (seriously this time)  BlueMesh has preformed better than ever before!  We will have a release date announced next week around this time.  We are closing down on the rest of the blocking bugs and finishing up tweaking the code.

We are do however have one BIG change that we need to announce.  We are dropping official support for 2.X devices.  This DOESN'T mean that you won't be able to use BlueMesh with a 2.X device as we are still targeting API level 7, it just means that it may not work exactly as you expect it to.  We at BlueMesh recommend that you target your BlueMesh apps to Android 4.X devices in order to avoid weird behavior from some 2.X devices.

Here is what has happened over the past week.

Bugs fixed:

• ClientThread appears to die upon first connection
• Once device disconnects it will not reconnect
• Sockets do not get closed immediately when BlueMesh is stopped

Bugs found:

• FatalException on closing BlueMesh in Android Runtime

The goals for next week will be the following.

Jerry:

• Fix FatalException in Android Runtime
• Address TODOs in code comments
• Final testing for first beta release

Zach:

• Update WIKI to reflect new API
• Final testing for first beta release
• Propose implementation for new routing protocol for Beta 2

This Week at BlueMesh

This week Zach and I worked on fixing bugs related to connectivity issues and threading issues.

Bugs fixed:

• Runaway threads on exit
• Crash on deconstruction BlueMeshService object

Bugs found:

• ClientThread appears to die upon first connection
• Once device disconnects it will not reconnect

The goals for next week will be the following.

Jerry:

• Fix newly found connectivity bugs
• Final testing for first beta release

Zach:

• Propose implementation for new routing protocol
• Final testing for first beta release