BLE Board
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Contents
Bluetooth Low Energy Board
Introduction
The BLE Board is based on Anaren's BLE Module A20737. This is one of the easiest to work with Bluetooth Low Energy Modules I have ever worked with, so I made a simple board to make it that much easier to get up and running with Bluetooth Low Energy in your next project.
- Uses the A20737 Module
- FCC certified with PCB Antenna, so no RF design needed
- Powerful ARM Cortex M3 Processor there to run the BLE radio and plenty of room for custom code. Programmable through a simple Serial Interface - no expensive JTAG debuggers needed, just a USB to Serial Converter
- FREE! Web based software to program the module and create an App called Atmosphere
- Free Offline SDK (WICED) available as well HERE
- On board LED, Reset Button, and Recovery Button
- UART, SPI, I2C, GPIO all broken out.
- Bread Board friendly on 0.1" headers
- Detailed tutorials coming soon on BLE to iOS/Android, Device to Device communication, and Beacon Functionality - it's going to be a fun ride! In the mean time, Anaren has tons of information:
Pin Out
Purchase
The boards are available through MKLEC and work nicely with the USB to Serial Converter
Tutorials
Getting Started
Start Here! This video gives an overview of the board, software installation, how to create a simple program and load it into the board, and even a few things to watch out for:
Resources for Getting Started: Atmosphere Portal Where to Download the Programmer Utility FTDI Drivers The .ATMO file used in the video that you can import into atmosphere.
Projects
This is an older video I made to show how easy it is to get up and running with the module:
Here I hacked my Remote Starter on my car:
Resources for the Remote Starter Project The Bluetooth Low Energy Module Code The iOS code here Broadcom SDK (don't forget to sign up) The Make Target Path: BLEBOARD_TEST-BCM920737TAG_Q32 BT_DEVICE_ADDRESS=random download DS18B20 Temp Sensor Video Ray Wenderlich for iOS tutorials Best Udemy Teacher
Support
You can contact me for design services HERE
Anaren has a lot of information on their Wiki and datasheets: Main Wiki
And make sure to check out the Forum HERE
Known Issues and 'Gotchas'
Board doesn't retain program after power cycle Check out the last few minutes of the getting started video. Did you leave the programmer plugged in during your power cycle? If so, then the board will power up in a reset state. Just re-program the board and you're good to go, or remove the programmer, power in via the power pins and it will boot up and run your program normally.
