Bluetooth is an extremely popular technology found in today’s embedded products. Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) in particular has emerged as one of the most popular choices for Indesign’s clients due to low power requirements. Bluetooth LE has evolved in recent years to not only communicate data to other Bluetooth devices but to also be used as a device positioning and locating technology.
Building a Strong Foundation for Bluetooth Projects
At Indesign, LLC, all projects begin with gathering the requirements of the device to clearly define the scope of the project. For Bluetooth devices specifically, it’s especially important to choose the correct hardware based on requirements such as data rates, range, and power consumption. Our engineering team has expertise in developing BLE applications for a wide range of microcontrollers, such as Nordic, ST, Microchip, NXP, SiLabs, and more. Hardware choices have just as much impact on electrical engineers as they do firmware engineers. For projects with tight schedules, choosing microcontrollers and/or radios that have great support and mature software development kits (SDKs) can accelerate a firmware engineer’s release schedule as well.
Crafting Custom and Efficient BLE Solutions with Standard and Custom Services
In my most recent experience working on a BLE enabled product, we developed a custom service with several characteristics to allow a mobile device (e.g. a phone) to control the embedded product. We created characteristics and data structures inside that service for the major control areas of the product. This required creation of our own custom UUID(s) for the Bluetooth service. There are several websites that help with this and because of the number of bits in a UUID, it is rare that you would ever generate one that is the same as someone else’s. This isn’t always necessary, as Bluetooth has many standard services developed by their Special Interest Group (SIG).
- For example, if your product is going to require accurate timing and/or synchronization across multiple devices, there is already a Device Time Service defined to allow access to a device’s real-time clock (RTC).
It’s best to leverage as many of these standard services as possible on the embedded device because they speed up the development process. This is especially true when a second developer is working in parallel on the mobile device/app side of things, as it’s much easier for them to implement a known standard service versus a new custom service.
- For example, we leveraged the standard Battery Service to allow a mobile app to display our device’s battery fuel gauge to a user.
Streamlining Bluetooth Development with Different Techniques
As a firmware engineer, my preferred development technique was Test-Driven Development (TDD). With Bluetooth projects, this can seem difficult if you don’t have the necessary tools in place to test your firmware from another Bluetooth device. I’ve personally found that Nordic’s nRF Connect mobile app is a great tool for this kind of work. I utilized it to save my writes/reads to characteristics so that I could execute tests incrementally as I implemented features.
Another important aspect of Bluetooth development is advertisement data – particularly the manufacturer-specific data AD type. In some circumstances, your device may want to share unique data prior to another device establishing a connection with it. In this case you would leverage the advertisement and then add manufacturer-specific data to it.
Empowering Your Embedded Products with Bluetooth Expertise
Bluetooth technology has revolutionized the way embedded devices connect and communicate, offering unmatched versatility and low-power options like Bluetooth Low Energy. At Indesign, we combine a proven development process, a deep understanding of BLE technology, and hands-on experience with a wide array of microcontrollers to deliver robust Bluetooth-enabled solutions tailored to your needs. Whether leveraging standard services to accelerate development or crafting custom solutions to meet unique requirements, our team is equipped to help you navigate every step of the journey.
Ready to elevate your embedded products with Bluetooth technology? Contact us today at (317) 377-5450 for a personalized consultation and discover how Indesign can help you achieve engineering excellence. We also specialize in electrical, RF/wireless, embedded software, and mechanical design!