class QLowEnergyCharacteristic

The QLowEnergyCharacteristic class stores information about a Bluetooth Low Energy service characteristic. More

Synopsis

Methods

Note

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Detailed Description

QLowEnergyCharacteristic provides information about a Bluetooth Low Energy service characteristic’s name() , uuid() , value() , properties() , and descriptors() . To obtain the characteristic’s specification and information, it is necessary to connect to the device using the QLowEnergyService and QLowEnergyController classes.

The characteristic value may be written via the QLowEnergyService instance that manages the service to which this characteristic belongs. The writeCharacteristic() function writes the new value. The characteristicWritten() signal is emitted upon success. The value() of this object is automatically updated accordingly.

Characteristics may contain none, one or more descriptors. They can be individually retrieved using the descriptor() function. The descriptors() function returns all descriptors as a list. The general purpose of a descriptor is to add contextual information to the characteristic. For example, the descriptor might provide format or range information specifying how the characteristic’s value is to be interpreted.

class PropertyType

(inherits enum.Flag) This enum describes the properties of a characteristic.

Constant

Description

QLowEnergyCharacteristic.Unknown

The type is not known.

QLowEnergyCharacteristic.Broadcasting

Allow for the broadcasting of Generic Attributes (GATT) characteristic values.

QLowEnergyCharacteristic.Read

Allow the characteristic values to be read.

QLowEnergyCharacteristic.WriteNoResponse

Allow characteristic values without responses to be written.

QLowEnergyCharacteristic.Write

Allow for characteristic values to be written.

QLowEnergyCharacteristic.Notify

Permits notification of characteristic values.

QLowEnergyCharacteristic.Indicate

Permits indications of characteristic values.

QLowEnergyCharacteristic.WriteSigned

Permits signed writes of the GATT characteristic values.

QLowEnergyCharacteristic.ExtendedProperty

Additional characteristic properties are defined in the characteristic’s extended properties descriptor.

It is not recommended to set both Notify and Indicate properties on the same characteristic as the underlying Bluetooth stack behaviors differ from platform to platform. Please see clientCharacteristicConfiguration

See also

properties()

PySide6.QtBluetooth.QLowEnergyCharacteristic.CCCDDisable
PySide6.QtBluetooth.QLowEnergyCharacteristic.CCCDEnableNotification
PySide6.QtBluetooth.QLowEnergyCharacteristic.CCCDEnableIndication
__init__()

Construct a new QLowEnergyCharacteristic . A default-constructed instance of this class is always invalid.

See also

isValid()

__init__(other)
Parameters:

otherQLowEnergyCharacteristic

Construct a new QLowEnergyCharacteristic that is a copy of other.

The two copies continue to share the same underlying data which does not detach upon write.

clientCharacteristicConfiguration()
Return type:

QLowEnergyDescriptor

Returns the Client Characteristic Configuration Descriptor or an invalid QLowEnergyDescriptor instance if no Client Characteristic Configuration Descriptor exists.

BTLE characteristics can support notifications and/or indications. In both cases, the peripheral will inform the central on each change of the characteristic’s value. In the BTLE attribute protocol, notification messages are not confirmed by the central, while indications are confirmed. Notifications are considered faster, but unreliable, while indications are slower and more reliable.

If a characteristic supports notification or indication, these can be enabled by writing special bit patterns to the Client Characteristic Configuration Descriptor. For convenience, these bit patterns are provided as QLowEnergyCharacteristic::CCCDDisable , QLowEnergyCharacteristic::CCCDEnableNotification , and QLowEnergyCharacteristic::CCCDEnableIndication .

Enabling e.g. notification for a characteristic named mycharacteristic in a service called myservice could be done using the following code.

auto cccd = mycharacteristic.clientCharacteristicConfiguration();
if (!cccd.isValid()) {
    // your error handling
    return error;
}
myservice->writeDescriptor(cccd, QLowEnergyCharacteristic::CCCDEnableNotification);

Note

Calling characteristic.clientCharacteristicConfiguration() is equivalent to calling characteristic.descriptor(QBluetoothUuid::DescriptorType::ClientCharacteristicConfiguration).

Note

It is not recommended to use both notifications and indications on the same characteristic. This applies to both server-side when setting up the characteristics, as well as client-side when enabling them. The bluetooth stack behavior differs from platform to platform and the cross-platform behavior will likely be inconsistent. As an example a Bluez Linux client might unconditionally try to enable both mechanisms if both are supported, whereas a macOS client might unconditionally enable just the notifications. If both are needed consider creating two separate characteristics.

See also

descriptor()

descriptor(uuid)
Parameters:

uuidQBluetoothUuid

Return type:

QLowEnergyDescriptor

Returns the descriptor for uuid or an invalid QLowEnergyDescriptor instance.

See also

descriptors()

descriptors()
Return type:

.list of QLowEnergyDescriptor

Returns the list of descriptors belonging to this characteristic; otherwise an empty list.

See also

descriptor()

isValid()
Return type:

bool

Returns true if the QLowEnergyCharacteristic object is valid, otherwise returns false.

An invalid characteristic object is not associated with any service (default-constructed) or the associated service is no longer valid due to a disconnect from the underlying Bluetooth Low Energy device, for example. Once the object is invalid it cannot become valid anymore.

Note

If a QLowEnergyCharacteristic instance turns invalid due to a disconnect from the underlying device, the information encapsulated by the current instance remains as it was at the time of the disconnect. Therefore it can be retrieved after the disconnect event.

name()
Return type:

str

Returns the human-readable name of the characteristic.

The name is based on the characteristic’s uuid() which must have been standardized. The complete list of characteristic types can be found under Bluetooth.org Characteristics .

The returned string is empty if the uuid() is unknown.

__ne__(b)
Parameters:

bQLowEnergyCharacteristic

Return type:

bool

Returns true if a and b are not equal; otherwise false.

Two QLowEnergyCharcteristic instances are considered to be equal if they refer to the same characteristic on the same remote Bluetooth Low Energy device or both instances have been default-constructed.

__eq__(b)
Parameters:

bQLowEnergyCharacteristic

Return type:

bool

Returns true if a is equal to b, otherwise false.

Two QLowEnergyCharacteristic instances are considered to be equal if they refer to the same characteristic on the same remote Bluetooth Low Energy device or both instances have been default-constructed.

properties()
Return type:

Combination of PropertyType

Returns the properties of the characteristic.

The properties define the access permissions for the characteristic.

uuid()
Return type:

QBluetoothUuid

Returns the UUID of the characteristic if isValid() returns true; otherwise a null UUID.

value()
Return type:

QByteArray

Returns the cached value of the characteristic.

If the characteristic’s properties() permit writing of new values, the value can be updated using writeCharacteristic() .

The cache is updated during the associated service’s detail discovery , a successful read / write operation or when an update notification is received.

The returned QByteArray always remains empty if the characteristic does not have the read permission . In such cases only the characteristicChanged() or characteristicWritten() may provice information about the value of this characteristic.