BLEBee v2.0.0

Description

BLEBee v2.0.0 based on Bluegiga's BLE113 Module

The BLEBee is a Bluetooth Smart enabled XBEE form factor module based on Bluegiga’s BLE113 M256K module. The BLEBee can be used in hardware setups, where normally an XBEE module is used. Using a BLEBee an XBee socket enabled embedded system can communicate with desktop computers, smartphones, table computers and even other embedded systems providing Bluetooth Smart aka Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) or Bluetooth 4.0.

Features

• Based on Bluegiga's BLE113-M256K Bluetooth 4.0 single mode compliant module

• 
  Open Source Hardware- and Firmware

• 
  No Library necessary to operate the module on the target platform

• 
  Compatible with BLE enabled smartphones and tablets 

• 
  Baudrates 9600 (default), 14400, 19200, 28800, 38400, 57600 and 112500 can be changed using a characteristic

• 
  Assoc pin is controlled by the BLEBee to indicate a connection

• 
  Reset pin can be used to reset the BLEBee

• 
  Supports OTA firmware upgrades e.g. using BLEGUI2 tool from Bluegiga or M.Kroll's BLExplr iPhone App

Specification

Services and Characteristics:

Service

BLEBee Service v2.0.0: 067978AC-B59F-4EC9-9C09-2AB6E5BDAD0B

Characteristics

Bluetooth Device Address (Read): 067978AC-B69F-4EC9-9C09-2AB6E5BDAD0B 

Baudrate (read, write): 067978AC-B79F-4EC9-9C09-2AB6E5BDAD0B

Supported baudrate values are:

• 
  0x00 = 9600 Baud (default)

• 
  0x01 = 14400 Baud

• 
  0x02 = 19200 Baud

• 
  0x03 = 28800 Baud

• 
  0x04 = 38400 Baud

• 
  0x05 = 57600 Baud

• 
  0x06 = 112500 Baud

The baudrate setting is written to the internal storage of the BLE113 module, so the setting will persist even if you remove power from the module. During the next boot cycle after power cycling the module or resetting it, the baudrate setting is restored from flash. So there is no need to reconfigure the BLEBee every time you power the module.

Enable Connect LED (read, write): 067978AC-B89F-4EC9-9C09-2AB6E5BDAD0B

This new characteristic is used to change the bahavior of the blue LED on the BLEbee which indicates the connection status of the BLEBee.

Supported values are:

• 
  0x00 = LED is not used to indicate a connection (Default)

• 
  0xFF = LED is used to indicate a connection.

So don’t worry if the LED is not turned on while connected if you are using the BLEBee the first time. It is turned off by default. You need to change the characteristic first to 0xFF in order to use the LED. The setting is also persisted into the BLEBees flash memory, so the setting persists between power and reset cycles.

Data (Write, Indicate): 067978AC-B99F-4EC9-9C09-2AB6E5BDAD0B

The Data characteristic is new to the BLEBee v2.0.0. If you connect the BLEBee from e.g. an iOS Device and you enable indications on this characteristic, the iOS device will be indicated whenever the embedded device sends serial data to the BLEBee on the TX pin. If you write data from the iOS device to the BLEBee the data is send available on the RX pin of the BLEBee.

Service

BlueGiga OTA Service: 1d14d6ee-fd63-4fa1-bfa4-8f47b42119f0

This is the OTA service which is implemented on the BLEBee as Bluegiga describes it in the Application Note: Implementing OTA Firmware Upgrade

Characteristics

OTA Control Characteristic: f7bf3564-fb6d-4e53-88a4-5e37e0326063

The OTA control point characteristic is used to control the firmware upgrade process between the device that will be updated and the device that performs the update it is a write only attribute to the control can only made by the device that performs the update.

OTA Data Characteristic: 984227f3-34fc-4045-a5d0-2c581f81a153

The data cahracteristic is on the other hand used to transmit the data from the device that performs the update to the device that is being updated.

iPhone App

In order to access the features of the BLEBee such as controlling baud rate, the connection LED, the output channels and the serial port the iPhone App BLExplr is recommended: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blexplr/id524018027

Design Files and Firmware:

The Schematic, Boardfiles and Firmware sources and Arduino FIO sketches are available at the authors github repository 

Support

Please visit the authors BLEBee v2.0.0 Blog

or Dr. Michael Kroll’s Mobile Computing Forum about the BLEBee v2.0.0.

For any technical support or suggestion, please kindly go to our forum.