Evothings has published the tutorial, Nordic Semiconductor nRF51-DK into a Beacon with mbed, on hackster.io. This exercise takes you through the steps to develop your own ARM mbed Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon with Nordic nRF51-DK hardware, and Evothings Studio, to create a mobile phone app that connects to your beacon hardware.

According to IndustryARC Analysis, "Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) enabled device shipments are forecasted to increase to 8.4 billion units by 2020 at a CAGR of 29%." BLE technology is ideal for resource constrained devices that can run on coin-cell batteries for months or years on end. These tiny devices of the Internet of Things are positioned well to capitalize on the benefits of this efficient wireless technology. BLE beacons are popular within segments such as wearables, smart buildings, and smart retail.

Tutorial Hardware and Software Checklist:

• FREE mbed.org account
• Computer (Windows, Mac OSX, Linux)
• Nordic Semiconductor nRF51-DK
• Evothings Studio installed on your computer
• Mobile phone or device running Evothings Client
• MicroUSB communications cable

When you are ready to get started, check out the full instruction article here on hackster.io

Also, we used this same technology in our demo at the Design Automation Conference (DAC) 2016, check out this blog to find out how to replicate our interactive BLE beacon demo.