About¶

The main design goal of this API is something that's easy to understand and doesn't require end users to spend too much time in the core Bluetooth 4.0 specs themselves. Some familiarity with BLE is necessary, particularly the way data is structured and transmitted, but ideally you'll be able to cover common use cases with a few lines of code and without too much additional reading.

Status Update: 4 April 2014

• An initial version the of the BLE API has been published for the nRF51822 SoC.

Hardware Requirements¶

• There are some platforms with BLE radios

Getting Started¶

A community member has contributed a great getting started guide for BLE on mbed. Also there is a great post on getting started compiling the BLE API with ARM-GCC.

Beacon/Advertising Example¶

Beacon is an advertising-only solution that makes use of a special field in the main advertising packet called Manufacturer Specific Data. It works by inserting a custom payload in the Manufacturer Specific Data field identifying our primary location (a store, office building, etc.) via a 128-bit UUID, and individual nodes in that location via two 16-bit values. Explaining the iBeacon payload is beyond the scope of this tutorial, but a sample payload is provided below.

[Repo not found]

Heart Rate Service Example¶

The heart rate monitor example shows how to create a simple GATT service and update the value of a GATT characteristic in that service.

GATT Services are encapsulated in the GattService class, and GATT Characteristics in the GattCharacteristic class.

Note: For information on officially adopted Bluetooth Low Energy Services and Characteristics, consult the Bluetooth Definition Browser

Repository: BLE_HeartRate