Adafruit Bluefruit LE nRF8001

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quade
 
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Adafruit Bluefruit LE nRF8001

Post by quade »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZQ5JJTwONc

#1 - Awesome!

#2 - Does this mean I'll be able to create my own iBeacon shortly?

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Adafruit Bluefruit LE nRF8001

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

1) Yeah, that's how we feel too. ;-)

2) I'll have to check on that. I don't think the current library lets you set the MSD explicitly, but that might just be because our BLE geniuses haven't had time to write/test that code yet.

adafruit
 
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Re: Adafruit Bluefruit LE nRF8001

Post by adafruit »

the nrf8001 can't do large-packet advertisements so it can't do iBeacon (iBeacon came out after the nrf8001!)

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ktownsend
 
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Re: Adafruit Bluefruit LE nRF8001

Post by ktownsend »

Hi Quade,

The nRF8001 was Nordic's first BLE chip and has some limitations around it. You have to configure the device for BLE using a stand-alone tool where you define your advertising payload, services and characteristics, etc., and then transfer this config data to the chip at startup. You can't create things dynamically. That's why we went with a UART setup at first since it felt like the most flexible way to work with this chip without making too many choices for people.

As was mentioned above, even if you try to make a different setup with the stand-alone tool, unfortunately the 8001 can't do iBeacon since the MSD field is too large for the upper advertising packet limit of the 8001. It wasn't on anyone's radar when this chip was designed.

We're really excited about BLE, though, and you can expect to see more from us in this direction.

K.

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quade
 
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Re: Adafruit Bluefruit LE nRF8001

Post by quade »

Thanks for the info. I'll put my iBeacon ideas on the back burner for now.

Hmmm...

If I have two Adafruit Bluefruit LE nRF8001 and two Arduinos, would I be able to link them together and pass data back and forth between them? I sort of assume I should be able to via the UART functionality.

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ktownsend
 
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Re: Adafruit Bluefruit LE nRF8001

Post by ktownsend »

No ... the nRF8001 is a BLE 'peripheral', and it needs to talk to a BLE 'central' device, which is usually your phone or tablet. The central device is what initiates all transactions and starts the connection to the peripheral device. Two peripherals can't talk to each other since they are both 'slave' devices. This changes a bit in Bluetooth 4.1 which is brand new, but the 8001 is a 4.0 only device.
Last edited by ktownsend on Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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quade
 
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Re: Adafruit Bluefruit LE nRF8001

Post by quade »

Okay. Thanks again for the timely responses.

(as always, 'cause, you guys are great!)

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zengirl2
 
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Re: Adafruit Bluefruit LE nRF8001

Post by zengirl2 »

I'm a newb with BLE, so my question is whether this Arduino project is possible:

Have Bluefruit LE access Iphone 4S to get data on OpenWeatherMap
Based on data, have Arduino turn on Neopixels

Also, do I need to create an app to makes sense of the data, or is just creating Arduino code to react to the data enough?
Also, is Trinket a possibility for this?

Thanks so much for the help!

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binoyxj
 
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Re: Adafruit Bluefruit LE nRF8001

Post by binoyxj »

Hi KTown,
Now that the nRF8002 IC with proximity feature is out there, are you testing it right now? Looking forward to an iBeacon module from Adafruit :)

djszk
 
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Re: Adafruit Bluefruit LE nRF8001

Post by djszk »

Yes, this an nRF8002-based solution would be great! It seems that with the input and output channels on the chip, combined with nRFStudio, we could use it as a standalone device for proximity or find me applications that include both input and output.

Something along the lines of http://www.jayconsystems.com/tutorial/nrf8002_ble/ but with integrated USB.

Or am I missing something?

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