Posts by Mohammad Afaneh
nRF52 Development using Visual Studio Code [macOS]
Introduction When it comes to IDEs and advanced text editors we, developers, have so many choices… probably too many! But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Having these many choices can be overwhelming, and if you’re a tools geek like me, you end up spending hours and hours just exploring and trying out new tools…
Read MorePrototyping BLE apps on the nRF52840 USB Dongle (Part B)
As a continuation of last week’s tutorial (Prototyping BLE apps on the nRF52840 USB Dongle (Part A)), where we covered the following: Adding header rows to the USB dongle Mounting it on a breadboard Connecting an external LED and an external push button to the dongle Reuse and modify a Nordic template BLE peripheral example…
Read MorePrototyping BLE apps on the nRF52840 USB Dongle (Part A)
In the previous post (The nRF52840 USB Dongle Tutorial (Part 1)), we explored how to use the new nRF52840 USB Dongle to enable nRF Connect PC applications such as the Bluetooth Low Energy application (central and peripheral emulator), the nRF Cloud Gateway application, and the RSSI Viewer application. More importantly, we also talked about how the dongle can be used…
Read MoreThe nRF52840 USB Dongle Tutorial (Part 1)
When it comes to Bluetooth Low Energy modules, chipsets and development kits, prices are only getting lower. Take for example the new nRF52840 USB dongle. The dongle costs only $10 and can serve as a great development kit with a few I/O peripherals including one button, two LEDs (one green, one RGB), and 15 GPIO pins.…
Read MoreThe Ultimate Bluetooth Mesh Tutorial (Part 7)
In today’s tutorial: We’ll first take a step back and talk a little bit about interoperability and compatibility in Bluetooth mesh. Then, we’ll go through a demo of setting up a mesh network that includes a mix of off-the-shelf devices. Finally, we’ll go through the source code step-by-step and the changes needed to implement the…
Read MoreThe Ultimate Bluetooth Mesh Tutorial (Part 6)
Now that we’ve covered the basics of Bluetooth mesh and also gone over how to run a simple example on the nRF52 platform, it’s time for us to dig deeper into the source code of each type of device/node involved in a mesh network. If you missed the previous posts in this series, you can find…
Read MoreThe Ultimate Bluetooth Mesh Tutorial (Part 5)
In the last post in this series on Bluetooth mesh (found here), we provided a high-level overview of the nRF5 SDK for Bluetooth mesh. We also listed the different examples provided as part of the Nordic SDK. The most complete of these examples is the lighting example, and this is the one we’ll go forward…
Read MoreA Recap of Bluetooth World 2018
This week’s blog post will be a bit different. I’ll be covering a recap of the yearly event that covers all things Bluetooth: Bluetooth World in Santa Clara, California. Bluetooth World took place last week on September 18th and 19th. If you’re subscribed to my weekly BLE newsletter, you probably noticed that most of the…
Read MoreThe Ultimate Bluetooth Mesh Tutorial (Part 4)
This week we will continue our tutorial series on Bluetooth mesh. Here’s where you can find part 1, part 2, and part 3. But before we get into the practical implementation of an example on the nRF52 series platform, let’s better understand how Bluetooth mesh works on the platform. We’ll go over: The basics and architecture…
Read MoreThe Ultimate Bluetooth Mesh Tutorial (Part 3)
In this post, we’re continuing our tutorial series on Bluetooth mesh (you can find part 1 here and part 2 here). This will be the final post that will cover “theory only” content — in the upcoming posts we’ll start digging into more practice by implementing a Bluetooth mesh example on the Nordic nRF52 series platform.…
Read MoreThe Ultimate Bluetooth Mesh Tutorial (Part 2)
In last week’s tutorial (The Ultimate Bluetooth Mesh Tutorial (Part 1)) in this series on Bluetooth mesh, we covered the following: Basics of Bluetooth mesh Terminology: nodes, elements, states, properties, messages, addresses, publish-subscribe, and managed flooding. In this week’s tutorial, we’ll continue by covering a few more concepts within Bluetooth mesh, including: Models Scenes Types…
Read MoreThe Ultimate Bluetooth Mesh Tutorial (Part 1)
Bluetooth has been around for a while. In fact, it recently celebrated its 20th year anniversary! The introduction of the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) standard came in 2010 to address the rapid growth of use cases in the Internet of Things (IoT) field including sensors, wearables, medical devices, etc. However, one thing that BLE lacked…
Read MoreHow to build the simplest nRF52 BLE Central (Lightbulb use case)
In any BLE application, there are (at least) two devices involved: a BLE Peripheral device and a BLE Central device. Usually, the BLE Central is a smartphone, but that doesn’t mean it has to be! What if: you do not want to have to launch an app everytime you want to control a BLE Peripheral?…
Read MoreHow to build the simplest nRF52 BLE Peripheral application (Lightbulb use case)
Let’s face it… One of the hardest things when working with BLE is simply getting started. Whether it’s the setup of the IDE, the configuration of the project, or the implementation the BLE application. I’ve been there… I’ve felt lost, not knowing where and how to start… This is especially true since I was trying…
Read MoreThe complete cross-platform nRF development tutorial
In a previous blog post (The complete nRF Mac development tutorial), I went over how to set up your nRF development environment using the NetBeans IDE on a Mac. The beauty with NetBeans is that it’s cross-platform and customizable to fit your needs. I had been using NetBeans for over a decade, so I was very comfortable…
Read MoreBluetooth 5 speed: How to achieve maximum throughput for your BLE application
Introduction In this second post in the series on Bluetooth 5, we cover the new feature of improved 2x speed along with a general overview of throughput for a BLE application (the previous post went over Bluetooth 5’s new features in general and more specifically covered the increased advertisement capacity feature). First, we need to…
Read MoreBluetooth 5 Advertisements: Everything you need to know
You’ve probably heard so much about the recently released Bluetooth 5. You’ve seen all the hype on 2x Speed, 4x Range, and 8x Advertising data increase capabilities. But what does this all mean?? How does it achieve all these improvements? Is it really possible to achieve all these simultaneously?? What about power consumption? How is that…
Read MoreBluetooth GATT: How to Design Custom Services & Characteristics [MIDI device use case]
You’re probably aware that adding Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to your device is one of the best ways to achieve a great user experience for your IoT device. Why is that, you may ask? Well, because adding BLE allows your device to be connectable from a smartphone app. And we can all agree that smartphone…
Read MoreGetting started with Bluetooth Low Energy: Five action steps
If you’re just getting started with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), just looking to learn more about it, or exploring different ways to stay up-to-date then read on. Here are a few steps to get you started: Sign up for my FREE 7-day BLE email crash course: most books out there on the topic of Bluetooth Low…
Read MoreThe complete nRF52 Mac development tutorial
[Update] I’ve published a more up-to-date version of this blog post that covers all three major operating systems (macOS, Windows, and Linux) using a different IDE. Check it out here: The complete cross-platform nRF development tutorial Today’s tutorial focuses on setting up the environment for nRF52 Mac development and debugging for Bluetooth Low Energy applications.…
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