Some time ago when we started planning the renovation of our house we were thinking of adding some HomeKit accessories. Lightbulbs are kind of massively available but in the wall mounted switches are kind of rare to get especially in Europe. So I decided to build something myself based on HAP-NodeJS. Well just building the accessory using some buttons is not a big deal but mounting it into something usable more of a challenge.
Hello everyone,
as some of you might have already recognised I was working on a cooking companion app for the last couple of months. Finally Let’s Cook! is available on the Apple AppStore.
More detailed information about the app can be found on the companion webpage available at http://www.letscook.mobi.
Currently I’m working on integrating some BLE kitchen gadgets into the app. So stay tuned for more detailed information about premium integration features and some GitHub projects where you will find the code to deal with those devices properly.
Hello everyone
well maybe it is time to tell you about the project that still keeps me busy. Of course I’m not a company behind all the developments so it takes a little more time 🙂
The initial idea was similar to what Punch Through Design finally delivered with their Bean. If you are not familiar with the Bean you can take a look at it here, but promise to come back after you visited the Bean description.
Hello iBeacon enthusiasts,
after a little struggle with the Apple Review Team, DropBeacon v1.0.1 was approved for the Apple App Store.
You might have read the blog post at beekn.net about Apple locking down iBeacon: http://www.beekn.net/2014/05/apple-closed-system-apple-slowly-locking-ibeacon/.
The DropBeacon update was affected by this as well.
The updated to v1.0.1 has no longer a UUID editor included. Apple somehow forced me to remove the editor functionality to get the update approved. I asked them what about adding the three UUIDs which has beed added to the AirLocate sample provided by Apple at WWDC2013.
Hello iBeacon enthusiasts,
after some weeks of development, design adjustments, enclosure designs, firmware iterations and battery tests I finished v1.0.0 of my hardware DropBeacon. You might have read about the DropBeacon iOS app acting like a virtual DropBeacon but where is the real one?
Here is version 1.0.0 of the DropBeacon:
The DropBeacon uses a BLE112 module from Bluegiga. The DropBeacon is designed with an additional SPI flash to enable OTA upgrades of the DropBeacon’s firmware.
Hello everyone,
since my DropBeacon iOS App is now available for sale in the Apple App Store, I added a small product page illustrating the use of the app in a short Vimeo video.
Thanks for reading,
Michael.
Hello everyone,
some people asked me how to use the ranging feature of BLExplr to range for beacons. So I decided to write a blog post describing how to achieve that.
Please make sure that you have installed the latest version 1.5.2 of BLExplr installed. You can get it from this AppStore link for your convenience: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blexplr/id524018027
In order to range a beacon, of course you must have a hardware beacon or another iPhone where you can simulate a beacon.
Hello everyone,
the hunt has ended more quickly as I imagined. The easter egg is hidden behind the app icon in the settings screen. You can see it by double tapping on the icon.
The winner is: Tian Zhang (@KhaosT) He will receive the BLEBee v1.0.0 as soon as it can be shipped from Seeedstudio. Thanks for participating,
Michael.
Hello everyone,
the new BLExplr app v1.5.0 has a hidden easter egg 🙂
If you find it, please make a screenshot and send it over to me using the “E-Mail to the Author” function available in BLExplr and leave your full name as well. If the screenshot shows the easter egg, I will publish the finder on my blog and the finder will get a BLEBee for free 🙂
Happy hunting,
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.