WHAT IS BLE (BLUETOOTH SMART)?
Bluetooth® Smart, or BLE, is the intelligent, power-friendly version of Bluetooth wireless technology. While the power-efficiency of Bluetooth Smart makes it perfect for devices needing to run off a tiny battery for long periods, the magic of Bluetooth Smart is its ability to work with an application on the smartphone or tablet you already own. Bluetooth Smart makes it easy for developers and OEMs to create solutions that will work with the billions of Bluetooth enabled products already in the market today.
Bluetooth Smart, (also known as LE, BLE, Bluetooth 4.0, or Bluetooth Low Energy), is an intelligent, battery-friendly, version of the Classic Bluetooth Wireless Technology.
While the use of Classic Bluetooth still remains the best option for some applications, there are many applications in which Bluetooth Smart would be the wisest choice. A few of these benefits:
Lower implementation costs Multi-vendor interoperability Enhanced range Much improved pairing speedSerialio.com Bluetooth Smart Devices:
idChamp RS3 HSE idChamp RS3 LE Scanfob® NFC-BB2e Scanfob® Ultra-BB2eSerialio.com BLE-SMART devices connect fast. For example using an idChamp RS3, compared to connecting in Bluetooth keyboard mode on iOS, discovery and connection has been measured 30 times faster. idChamp RS3 readers are available in a version with the ability to post tag ID to two separate devices simultaneously. e.g. to an iPhone and Android device.
Our Bluetooth Smart Readers work on iOS, Android, and Windows (providing host device has compliant hardware and software), offering a much wider range of support.
Bluetooth Smart offers 2-way communication – this means readers like the idChamp RS3 can be setup wirelessly using a setup app on Android. It also means easier and faster connections – no more need for pairing codes, toggling keyboards, or experiencing long wait times to connect.
Furthermore, Apps using Serialio.com BLE-SMART devices work without Apple MFi (Made for iOS) Program, eliminating cost, delays, and other associated headaches.
Bluetooth 4.0 Becomes ‘Smart’: What It Means For You
Bluetooth 4.0, which can be found inside the iPhone 4S and the latest MacBook Air and Mac Mini, is being rebranded by the group that controls the technology. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group announced that Bluetooth 4.0 devices would be called Bluetooth Smart Ready and Bluetooth Smart, in order to differentiate the type of products featuring the technology.
What is Bluetooth 4.0?
Bluetooth 4.0 is the latest version of the wireless technology found in many electronic devices and peripherals today, including smartphones, tablets. The updated 4.0 version is only found in the iPhone 4S and the latest MacBook Air and Mac Mini, with more manufacturers expected to jump on board in the coming months. The improvements brought by Bluetooth 4.0 include drastically reduced power consumption via a low pulsing method that keeps devices connected without the need of a continuous information stream.
What is Bluetooth Smart?
Bluetooth Smart will represent a new breed of Bluetooth 4.0 peripherals: sensor-type devices like heart-rate monitors or pedometers that run on small batteries and are designed to collect specific pieces of information. These Bluetooth Smart devices include a single Bluetooth 4.0 radio that will connect only to Bluetooth Smart Ready devices.
What is Bluetooth Smart Ready?
Bluetooth Smart Ready will refer to devices that use a dual-mode radios, which can handle both the 4.0 technology, as well as classic Bluetooth abilities, such as transferring files, or connecting to a hands-free device. So, for example, the iPhone 4S, a Bluetooth Smart Ready smartphone, can connect to the Bluetooth Smart heart rate monitor with Bluetooth 4.0, but it will also work with classic Bluetooth devices, such as hands-free kits or your car’s stereo.
Here’s an overview of the new Bluetooth 4.0 compatibility scheme.
What is bluetooth smart support
It was referred to as Bluetooth 4.0 / Bluetooth Low energy BTLE, but now it’s Bluetooth Smart – What is Bluetooth Smart Technology?
Bluetooth Smart wireless technology is the ultra-power efficient, application-friendly version of Bluetooth transforming the wireless industry. This technology introduces new opportunities in industry verticals from consumer electronics, medical devices and home automation to retail and wearables. While the power-efficiency of Bluetooth Smart makes it perfect for devices needing to run off tiny batteries for long periods, the magic of Bluetooth Smart is its ability to work with a wide variety of applications on smartphones or tablets consumers already own.
Bluetooth Smart is developer-friendly, inexpensive and offers flexible development architecture. All major operating systems natively support Bluetooth Smart making it easy for developers to create apps that link with everyday objects like heart-rate monitors, toothbrushes, and even shoes. With Bluetooth Smart, developers are only limited by their imaginations.
Our nRF8001 Breakout allows you to establish an easy to use wireless link between your Arduino and any compatible iOS or Android (4.3+) device. It works by simulating a UART device beneath the surface, sending ASCII data back and forth between the devices, letting you decide what data to send and what to do with it on either end of the connection.
Unlike classic Bluetooth, BLE has no big contracts to sign and no major hoops that you have to jump through to create iOS peripherals that you can legally design and distribute in the App Store, which makes it a great choice compared to classic Bluetooth which had (and still has) a lot of restrictions around it on the iOS platform.
And now that Android also officially supports Bluetooth Low Energy (as of Android 4.3), it’s also — finally! — a universal communication channel covering the main mobile operating systems people are using today.
We can get you started super fast with this BLE module which can act like an ‘every day’ UART data link. Send and receive data up to 10 meters away, from your Arduino to an iOS device. We’ve even made it easy to get started with our very own BLE connect app that has a “serial console” for sending/receiving data and also an ‘arduino pin i/o control station” to let you set pins on your Arduino to inputs or outputs, high or low logic or even PWM output, as well as read button presses and analog inputs. You can start prototyping your accessory and then use our open source Objective C code to base your new app on!
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), sometimes referred to as “Bluetooth Smart”, is a light-weight subset of classic Bluetooth and was introduced as part of the Bluetooth 4.0 core specification. While there is some overlap with classic Bluetooth, BLE actually has a completely different lineage and was started by Nokia as an in-house project called ‘Wibree’ before being adopted by the Bluetooth SIG.
There are plenty of wireless protocols out there for engineers and product designers, but what makes BLE so interesting is that it’s almost certainly the easiest way to design something that can talk to any modern mobile platform out there (iOS, Android, Windows phones, etc.), and particularly in the case of Apple devices it’s the only HW design option that doesn’t require you to jump through endless hoops to be able to legally market your product for iOS devices.
This guide will give you a quick overview of BLE, specifically how data is organized in Bluetooth Low Energy, and how devices advertise their presence so that you can connect to them and start passing data back and forth.
NEW PRODUCT – Bluefruit LE – Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE 4.0) – nRF8001 Breakout [v1.0] :Our Adafruit Bluefruit LE (Bluetooth Low Energy) nRF8001 Breakout allows you to establish an easy to use wireless link between your Arduino and any compatible iOS or Android (4.3+) device. It works by simulating a UART device beneath the surface, sending ASCII data back and forth between the devices, letting you decide what data to send and what to do with it on either end of the connection.
Unlike classic Bluetooth, BLE has no big contracts to sign and no major hoops that you have to jump through to create iOS peripherals that you can legally design and distribute in the App Store, which makes it a great choice compared to classic Bluetooth which had (and still has) a lot of restrictions around it on the iOS platform.
And now that Android also officially supports Bluetooth Low Energy (as of Android 4.3), it’s also — finally! — a universal communication channel covering the main mobile operating systems people are using today.
We can get you started super fast with this BLE module which can act like an ‘every day’ UART data link (with an RX and TX characteristic). Send and receive data up to 10 meters away, from your Arduino to an iOS device. We’ve even made it easy to get started with our very own BLE connect app that has a “serial console” for sending/receiving data and also an ‘arduino pin i/o control station” to let you set pins on your Arduino to inputs or outputs, high or low logic or even PWM output, as well as read button presses and analog inputs. You can start prototyping your accessory and then use our open source Objective C code to base your new app on!
The nRF8001 is nice in that it is just a BLE ‘peripheral’ (client) front-end, so you can use any micrcontroller with SPI to drive it. We have example C++ code for Arduino, which you can port to any other microcontroller, but some microcontroller is required – it is not a stand-alone module!
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