Posts Tagged ‘BLE’
Chipset vs Module Bluetooth LE Solutions: The Ultimate Guide
Whether you’re creating a new Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) product or updating an existing one, deciding whether to go with a chipset vs a module is a very important decision. What’s the difference between the two? And which one is best for you? Summary Answer: SoC chipset is an IC that integrates a programmable processor,…
Read More17 Most Popular Bluetooth Low Energy Chipsets Compared
According to Pareto’s 80/20 rule, roughly 80% of the results come from 20% of the efforts. There are probably over a hundred of BLE System-on-Chips (SoCs) in the market, but most come from only a handful of manufacturers. So, who are the top players in the BLE chipset industry? The most popular Bluetooth LE SoCs…
Read MoreNative vs. Cross-Platform Bluetooth Low Energy Mobile App Development
This post comes straight from the Bluetooth Developer Academy community forums. It all started with this simple question from one of the Academy members: We are planning to start making an app for Android phones and iPhones from scratch and wondering what BLE developers’ thoughts on language choice are. I believe the most common language (for BLE app development)…
Read MoreThe World’s First Programming-Free Bluetooth Beacon Platform
This article/video is sponsored by InPlay, Inc. However, the opinions expressed by the author are his own and were not influenced by the sponsor. Introduction In some cases, you may want to build a very simple Bluetooth Low Energy device that sends out sensor data like a temperature reading or the state of a particular…
Read MoreImplementing Nordic nRF52 OTA DFU over Bluetooth LE – Part 4
In a few previous posts (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3), we covered the basics of designing a secure Over-the-Air Device Firmware Update (OTA DFU) process, an overview of the Nordic nRF52 OTA DFU process, as well as testing out one of the DFU examples included in the nRF5 SDK. In this tutorial, we…
Read MoreBluetooth vs. Bluetooth Low Energy: What’s the Difference? [2022 Update]
First, a Short Story… Before I dive into the meat of the topic (Bluetooth Low Energy vs. Bluetooth Classic), I’d like to tell you a little story… A few years ago (circa 2012), a friend of mine came to me with an idea that he wanted to partner with me on developing. At that time,…
Read MoreHow to Manage Multiple BLE Peripherals in iOS [SwiftUI]
This tutorial is an excerpt from a course available within the Bluetooth Developer Academy, developed in collaboration with Anas Imtiaz, Ph.D. For the purpose of this tutorial (separated into two parts), our goal is to create an iOS app that can manage multiple BLE peripherals. Our example will be an app that can be used…
Read MoreHow Bluetooth Low Energy Works: 21 Interesting Facts
Whether you’re a beginner or an expert in Bluetooth Low Energy development, it’s always good to take a step back and revisit some of the basics and facts. In this post, I’ll be going through a list of 21 facts about Bluetooth Low Energy technology. You may know about all of these, but it’s always…
Read MoreHow Bluetooth Low Energy Works: Advertisements (Part 1)
To fully understand advertisements in BLE, we need to take a step back and learn about one of the layers within the architecture of BLE: the Generic Access Profile (GAP). GAP provides a framework that defines how BLE devices interact with each other. This includes: Roles of BLE devices Advertisements (Broadcasting, Discovery, Advertisement parameters, Advertisement…
Read MoreIntroduction to BLE Mobile Development [iOS]
This tutorial represents a small portion of a complete course on BLE development for iOS in the Bluetooth Developer Academy. The course was developed in partnership with Anas Imtiaz, PhD. In this tutorial, we will look at developing iPhone/iPad apps that interface with a Bluetooth Low Energy peripheral to send/receive data. We will start by…
Read MoreUnderstanding the “SweynTooth” BLE Vulnerabilities
About two weeks ago (February 11, 2020), a group of Singaporean researchers released a group of vulnerabilities discovered in quite a few BLE vendor SDKs. They named the group of vulnerabilities “SweynTooth“. Here’s their explanation: The insight behind the name SweynTooth arrives from Sweyn Forkbeard, the son of King Harald Bluetooth (after whom the Bluetooth…
Read MoreAn overview of Bluetooth Beacons – Part 2
Bluetooth beacons are alive and well due to the low cost and widespread usage in commercial spaces like retail stores and logistics. The technology itself has been around for a while but gained widespread awareness when Apple released its iBeacon protocol in 2013. Since then, adoption and uses have increased as businesses and developers come…
Read MoreAn overview of Bluetooth Beacons – Part 1
For many of us, our first encounters with Bluetooth probably came in the form of wireless headsets and hands-free devices. However, a new breed of Bluetooth devices is emerging — they are lower in cost and they consume less power. From a non-technical and user perspective, the name Bluetooth appears to cover any form of…
Read MoreZephyr Tutorial: Bluetooth Low Energy Development
What is the Zephyr Project? Zephyr is an open-source real-time operating system (RTOS) meant for use on resource-constrained embedded systems. This can range from simple sensor devices without connectivity to much more complex IoT devices such as smartwatches and medical devices. Zephyr is a Linux Foundation project that is backed by many members including Intel, NXP Semiconductors, Synopsys, Linaro, Texas…
Read MorenRF52 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 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 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 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…
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