Help wanted - Bluetooth pairing from Windows

[samsharp99]

Please go easy on me as I am not a C# programmer, but instead program in LabVIEW (a graphical programming language). I am trying to work out how to pair Bluetooth devices (most likely Android, but other Windows/iOS devices would be great too) from Windows.

I am struggling to find a working, up-to-date example - many of the examples/questions I've found are based on older version(s) of the library and the methods/techniques employed seem to no longer be available in newer versions of the InTheHand library.

I am trying to build up a C# WPF test application that can discover devices, pair to them and then communicate (like a terminal/console) over a bluetooth socket.

I can call the 'PairRequest' method and I can see it triggers a pairing request on my other device and it always returns that the pairing was successful, but if I pair in this way, I cannot communicate/open a socket to the other device. If I pair manually, the communication works successfully.

I don't quite understand how the supplied 'PIN' in the PairRequest method works, it doesn't match the pin that appears on the target device and I don't know how to handle the handshaking to agree/share a common PIN.

In the examples I'm finding, I'm seeing references to SetPin, references to BluetoothWin32Authentication and attaching an event callback to BluetoothSecurity.PairRequest, but none of these methods/references seem to be available.

This is my current code, with some commented out functionality that doesn't work (or seem to exist):

`
private async void Pair_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
BluetoothDeviceInfo selected = devices.ElementAt(dataGridView1.SelectedRows[0].Index);

        // pairingTaskCompletionSource = new TaskCompletionSource<bool>();
        // BluetoothSecurity.PairRequest += BluetoothSecurity_PairRequest;

        try
        {
            BluetoothSecurity.PairRequest(selected.DeviceAddress, null);

            // await pairingTaskCompletionSource.Task;

            MessageBox.Show("Device paired successfully");
        } catch (Exception ex)
        {
            MessageBox.Show($"Pairing failed: {ex.Message}");
        }
        finally
        {
            // BluetoothSecurity.PairRequest -= BluetoothSecurity_PairRequest;
            
        }
        
    }

    /*
    private void BluetoothSecurity_PairRequest(object sender, BluetoothWin32AuthenticationEventArgs e)
    {
        
    }
    */

`

I would appreciate any input or pointers to some documentation on how to successfully pair devices on Windows. My goal is to trigger and handle the pairing request programmatically (i.e. for a kiosk/shell type application).