Hello everyone I has been a little quiet around here but this was not due to the fact that I’m no longer interested in what I did before, but just the lack of time. I read an article in elektor magazine issue 1/15 bout the ARM board from Atmel. The Atmel SAM D20 Xplained Pro and just ordered it from the elektor shop for just EUR26. I just arrived and I started to read the article in elektor to get an initial hands on.

Hello everyone, I was a little quiet lately. I was not sleeping but working on a few hardware designs and another iOS BLE application. After I created new versions of the BLE-Shield, the BLEBee is the another hardware that needs an update. The BLEBee v2.0.0 is now designed to use the BLE113-256k module which will enable OTA firmware updates without additional SPI flash. Moreover the power consumption will be slightly lower.

Hello everyone, Initially I wanted to show the BLE-Shield v3.0.0 and the BLE-Shield v3.0.0 LR (Long Range) at Maker Faire Rome 2014, but they didn’t make it in time for a presentation in rome. Now I was able to solder the BLE113 and BLE121LR module using a simple hot plate successfully. Since both modules are equipped with 256kb flash, there is no need for additional SPI Flash memory chips or a USB port to support upgrading the firmware.

Hello everyone, I’m happy to announce that I will present some new MiKro-Labs branded designs together with BlueKitchen (http://www.bluekitchen-gmbh.com) at Maker Faire Rome 2014. I partnered up with Matthias Ringwald, the author of BTstack <(http://www.btstack.org>) to create some BLE Shields which are running his Low Energy part of BTstack. I have not dropped support for Bluegiga based shields. They were not yet finished in time. There is a BLE-Shield v3.0.0 based on a BLE113 and a v3.

Hello everyone, after creating the BLE-Shield and the BLEBee I decided to work a little more on gadgets. In this blogpost I will show you how to create a joystick kind of gadget that is connected to an iPhone running BLExplr over a BLE connection. In order to setup the BLE-Joystick you need the following parts: Arduino Leonardo (http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardLeonardo) DFRobot Input Shield v2 (http://www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=35_124&product_id=62) Seeedstudio Solar Charger Shield v2 (http://www.

Hello everyone, after I promised it to a few guys, the DropBeacon is now available on github. I added more details to the DropBeacon page on this blog: http://www.mkroll.mobi/?page_id=1693 You can find the Schematic and Board files as well as the BGScript Project to compile the firmware using Bluegiga’s SDK v1.2.2 on github: https://github.com/michaelkroll/DropBeaconThanks, Michael.

Hello everyone, some people have noticed on twitter that I was trying to compile the optiboot boot loader for the ATmega 1284p for the 5V/16MHz configuration. I finally succeeded and created the MiKro board which is described in a little more detail on it’s dedicated project page: http://www.mkroll.mobi/?page_id=1696 Although the the MiKro is work in progress the schematic, board and board definition files for the Arduino v1.0.5 IDE are already available on github: https://github.

Hello everyone, a few monhts ago I silently introduced the MiKro-Labs brand to the DKBLE11x OTA Add-On Module since I no longer wanted to print my complete name to the PCBs. In the meantime I created a nice looking logo and a the first hardware designs under the MiKro-Labs brand name. In order to list the hardware designs created with the MiKro-Labs Logo I added an additional section to my blog which is now reachable using the domain mikro-labs.

Hello BLE developers, today I received the new DKBLE Development Kit today and will give you a quick summary whats included and what I think is really cool in this version. The box is not very interesting, but as you can read on the sticker it is now the “DKBLE Development Kit” without additional module number. After opening the box, I was totally impressed. The contents of the box is listed below:

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.