Bluetooth Low Energy

BLE-Shield v2.0.0 ready for Beta testing

Hello everyone, the BLE-Shield v2.0.0 now entered Beta Testing state. It is almost finished, but I want to get some makers the possibility to get an early access hands-on before it will be manufactured and available globally. The product description is already available in the Hardware section of this blog: http://www.mkroll.mobi/?page_id=1124 The test sketches for Arduino UNO R3 and the Leonardo are available on github already: https://github.com/michaelkroll/BLE-Shield/tree/master/arduino/ It might be worth reading the product description, since the board has some great new features to upgrade it’s firmware easily.

iBeacon112 firmware for the BLE112 module from Bluegiga available

Hello everyone, I just finished an early version of an iBeacon compatible firmware for Bluegiga’s BLE112 module. It is not yet optimized for battery life, but it shows the necessary structure for the Advertisement and the Scan response package. The latter on is only used if you’d like to send a local name as well. The firmware project compiled against the latest v1.2 SDK from Bluegiga is available at github: https://github.

BLEBee v1.0.0 is now a final product

Hello everyone, the BLEBee left beta test status and is now declared final product. The product description is now available in the Bluetooth Hardware section of this blog: http://www.mkroll.mobi/?page_id=1070 Since the hardware is open, all design files are available from my github account: https://github.com/michaelkroll/BLEbee. The BLEBee will be produced soon and will be hopefully available at Seeedstudio as the BLE-Shield v1.0.0. I will let you know when it is available!

Firmware v1.1.0 available for the BLE-Shield v1.0.0

Hello everyone, I already published the new firmware v1.1.0 for the BLE-Shield v1.0.0 to my github repository which is available through this link: https://github.com/michaelkroll. In this firmware I omitted the internal 16 byte buffer so the shield now acts better as a serial bridge as before. I removed the control characteristics to query the content of the buffer and reset the buffer count completely. The remaining characteristics are now: The characteristics of the BLE-Shield v1.

BGLib on the BLE-Shield v1.0.0

Hello everyone, I should have done this earlier, but good things need some time. As you might know, Jeff Rowberg @SectorFej as a BGLib Implementation created and published on github: https://github.com/jrowberg/bglib which runs on Arduino. You need a special firmware for the BLE112 module to be flashed which is available on his github repository as well. The BLE112 needs to be wired to the Arduino as he describes in his Arduino Sample sketches:

A whole family of BLE devices. The BLEbee, the BLE-Shield v2.0.0 and the early version of the BLE-Duino 32u4

Hello everyone, this time I have a pile of news for you. Since the development of the BLE-Shield and the initial prototype of the BLEbee, I did some more research and prototyping on three new BLE enabled boards: BLE-Shield v2.0.0 (need another iteration before a private beta test) BLEbee v1.0.0 (almost ready for a private beta test) BLE-Duino 32u4 which is an early prototype with version number 0.6 In the following paragraphs I will share some EagleUp renderings and photos of the real boards with you and talk a little bit about the features and improvements of these boards.

BLE-Shield v1.0.0 Revision B Eagle- and Firmwarefiles v1.0.1 available at GitHub

Hello everyone, for another production run of BLE-Shields I adjusted some via distances on the PCB demanded by the assembler Seeedstudio. The resulting revision B PCB is already uploaded to my github account which can be accessed through the following link: https://github.com/michaelkroll/BLE-Shield The firmware v1.0.1 for the revision B board is similar to the revision A one including the adjusted hardware info characteristic to reflect the updated revision. So stay tuned for an slightly adjusted BLE-Shield v1.

First look at Bluegiga's Development Kit DKBLE113

Hello everyone, last wednesday I received the DKBLE113 Development Kit from Bluegiga. Today it is time to write an initial article about what is see what’s in the box and compare it with the DKBLE112 I’m already using to develop my hardwares based on BLE technology. On first sight I can say the box is much bigger 🙂 The contents of the box is as follows: Of course the most important part: BLE113 Development Board Quickstart and EULA Documentation and an Import Notice another CC-Debugger a mini USB Cable (for the CC-Debugger) a micro USB Cable (for the BLE113 Development Board) one BLED112 USB Dongle two BLE113 Modules one CR2032 Battery The detailed photo below shows the development board as good as I can show it to you guys using an iPhone camera:

BLEtherm - An Arduino based Bluetooth Low Energy thermometer

Hello everyone, I was dealing with small embedded systems acting as weather stations for a long time now. I created a simple setup using a Sensirion SHT15 connected to an Arduino board which was posting temperature and humidity values using a Wifi shields some years ago. A great project which has replaced my DIY solution based on Arduino was the Netatmo http://www.netatmo.com weather station I bought some months ago. I really like it.

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

Hello everyone, maybe you are familiar with IT-Croud and where the title for this blog post came from. It is some kind of an opener for a little story about a hardware I’m developing with a friend of mine in Zurich. A long time ago I started to play around with Bluetooth Low Energy and I ordered the BLE112 Devkit provided by BlueGiga. The first thing I did was to set a GPIO pin high and low in order to turn LEDs on and off.