Getting Started with the BLE Board - EASY Bluetooth Low Energy

THIS IS OBSOLETE NOW
Overview, Software Installation, Test App, and Programming. Plus a few things to look out for.
This video is for the BLE Board. More information here: www.kevindarrah...
Information about the USB-Serial Converter here: www.kevindarrah...
The Atmosphere Portal is here: atmosphere.ana...
The programmer download section here: atmosphere.ana...
The Atmosphere Program can be imported from the .atmo in this zip file: www.kevindarrah...
Check out my Tindie store (trigBoard is available) www.tindie.com...
Thanks to all the Patrons for dropping a few bucks in the tip jar to help make these videos happen!
/ kdarrah
Twitter: / kdcircuits
For inquiries or design services:
www.kdcircuits...

[@Vhbaske]

Keep your good works on, Kevin!

[@cursoderobotica]

Hi Kevin!! Nice tutorial, step by step!! Just one question, when You explained about unplug the board from the usb-serial conector, You showed us that the code dissapear.. But If We power the board direct to the 3.3 v source, it doesn't happen.. Could you please tell us why that behavior?

[@Kevindarrah]

yes, when the board boots up, it checks to see if a programmer is out there, and if it is, then the board enters programming mode (reset), of not it boots up normally. Here is some information on Anaren's wiki: atmosphere.anaren.com/wiki/Frequently_Asked_Questions#Power_Cycle_.2F_Reset_of_the_MSBD_causes_the_module_to_not_run_the_previously_loaded_program._Is_this_an_expected_behavior.3F

[@FranzStrasse]

Wow. My mind boggles at how many person-hours went into creating the whole infrastructure for the Anaren chip. And $20 for the board is a steal when I think about all the work was done. Excellent tutorial, excellent gotcha section. Only one small critique: Your overhead camera has a very small depth of field when it's focused in on small stuff. When you pick up your board and wave it around it goes in and out of focus and weirds out my eyes. Maybe just point with a pointer or something. Keep up the good work.

[@shankarsshares533]

dear Kevin thanks for the wonderful video. One thing that I am curious is how did the ble stack go in to the chip? we only had a gpio toggle in our code.

[@richardcasey4146]

Can this board be programmed to act as a bluetooth keyboard? For example: reading digital input pins and sending out a desired "keystroke" to a device.

[@justmakeitdaniel7667]

Hi Kevin, I was on the Anaren Wiki site and they never mentioned needing a reset button. Can the device be programmed without pushing the reset button? Also when programming the module for the first time, do I need to do the routine of pressing both recovery and reset button or can I just hit program without pressing any buttons? I have the recovery button pulled high via resistor already.

[@Kevindarrah]

on my board you do need the reset button, but there may be a way to get the auto reset working out of the FTDI part, but with my USB-Serial converter, I couldn't get it to work. Recovery is only needed once

[@extraace]

Kevin, can a pair of these be used as a beacon and receiver? Actually I would need several beacons and receivers in various places. My intention is to use them in place of active RFID. So one board would activate a gpio pin once the beacon board comes in proximity. Phones wouldn't be involved only the modules. I couldn't find much on the Anaren site. Thanks.

[@Kevindarrah]

check out my site and send me an inquiry to discuss. You basically need one of these to act as the central that can listen for beacons. I believe it's possible, but you would have to develop everything within the SDK.

[@extraace]

+Kevin Darrah thanks for the reply. After more research, I think hc-05 modules may do what I need for the beacon portion and I will use yours for the phone interface side. Anaren atmosphere makes it pretty easy for that. I will get a quote from you if I have any snags or lack of time. I am in over my head with the amount of projects lately. Thanks again.

[@Kevindarrah]

extraace yea, for sure, let me know. Good luck with your project!

[@makethingsmove8275]

gonna buy one, does it ship worldwide ?

[@Kevindarrah]

I believe so

[@nickanzolas]

can't get the programmer for the btle chip

[@Ozziepeck11]

Why don't you have a Voltage regulation on the board?

[@Kevindarrah]

really wanted to keep the board as universal as possible, so you could use a coin cell directly if you want. Also, working on various power boards that this will work with to support lithium batteries, coin cells, maybe alkalines. etc...

[@berkcan3475]

such a disappointment they stopped supporting this module, it was amazing IMO

[@algre977]

Any alternative ?

[@berkcan3475]

@@algre977 Im using esp32 it has both bluetooth and wifi onboard so it helps to any connected project

[@algre977]

@@berkcan3475 can you use it as a low power receiver though ??

[@womplestilskin]

What's the highest pwm rate possible for led dimming?

[@Kevindarrah]

The carrier frequency? When I was PWM'ing an LED, I left it at the default frequency, which I believe was 500Hz. Anaren has some information up on the wiki about setting the PWM frequency in the GPIO section. When I get to that point with the tutorials, I'll be sure to test this out.

[@DavidLeeMenefee]

You really never show just what the other end of that USB cable is plugged into. It's so darn frustrating.

[@Kevindarrah]

Not sure I follow? The micro USB end of the cable plugs into the USB-Serial Converter board, then into the BLE board. Obviously the other end is plugged into a USB port on my mac.

[@DavidLeeMenefee]

OK I didn't see where the other end attached to. Thanks

[@WolfgangEgger]

Its sad, this seems to be proprietary. Why should I log in anywhere, if I want to program a microprocessor and why should I log in anywhere to create a mobile app? This seems to be not very useful .....

[@Kevindarrah]

hold up, you can easily get up and running with an offline SDK that is eclipse based and write your own native app with Xcode or Android Studio. That is why I love this part - options. You can use the online IDE if you want, or take things offline into your own controlled environment. You're not stuck one way or the other

[@WolfgangEgger]

ahh, ok, I hold up ;)

[@jpalm32]

WTF? No Vista support. Have A perfectly good computer 64 Bit, 8 GB memory use cad, PCB....and NOT upgradeable to 7, 8.1, or 10. How hard can it be. Still greaT vid!

[@Kevindarrah]

I would try the install anyhow, see if it works

[@jpalm32]

Works for me. Used some pretty heavy duty SW! NEVER crashed, after war with HP that is.

[@hermandarr6274]

way to much downloading and having to sign up...I'll just stick to your general electronics tutes

[@Kevindarrah]

yea, probably didn't need to show all of that, but it's not bad, just one utility to download and drivers if you need em, then an account creation. Not as bad as getting up with Atmel or Nordic

[@BloodstarDE]

To expensive....

[@signupisannoying]

Thanks for letting me know! Yah, $80.