Simblee Low Latency Bluetooth LE IoT Module Loads Its App to Your Smartphone on Demand

RF Digital launched RFDuino Bluetooth Low Energy board in 2013/2014, and the company has now developed Simblee module, whose name is derived from “Simple”  and “BLE”, and offers low latency (3ms) and integrates a user application that’s automatically and temporary loaded to your smartphone or tablet upon connection. The module is also part of an add-on board (RFD77201) for RFDuino board. Simblee RFD77101 module specifications: MCU – ARM Cortex M0 micr-controller (Nordic nRF51822???) Memory/Storage – 24KB RAM and 128KB flash for user application Bluetooth Smart / LE Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Stack Simblee interference immunity 3ms latency (for connection); 10us accuracy (jitter) -93dBm receiver sensitivity -55dBm to +4dBm TX power Physical range adjustable from a few inches to hundreds of feet Integrated antenna, integrated shield I/Os 29 GPIOs (flexible pin configuration) 6x ADC inputs 4x PWM outputs 2x SPI master/slave, 2x I2C, 1 x UART Security – Built in AES […]

Bluetooth Versions Walkthrough, and Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy Development Resources

I’ve seen more and more Bluetooth 4.0 LE devices in the last few months including RFDuino, Wimoto Motes, TI SensorTag, and Scadanu Scout, so I thought it would be good to write a bit about Bluetooth. First, I’ll write about the different version of Bluetooth, since I was still confused with the practical implications between the versions, and then I’ll show some development kits and software resources to play around and/or develop Bluetooth 4.0 LE applications both on devices and hosts. Bluetooth Versions Bluetooth v1.0 and v1.0B The Bluetooth 1.0 Specification was released in 1999, and according to an entry in Wikipedia, 1.0 and 1.0B devices had many issues, mainly interoperability issues. You won’t find any Bluetooth 1.0 device today. Bluetooth v1.1 Bluetooth v1.1 was ratified as IEEE Standard 802.15.1-2002 in 2002. It fixed many issues found in the previous specifications, added the option to use non-encrypted channels, as well […]

$19 RFDuino is a Coin-sized Bluetooth Arduino-compatible Board

RFDuino is a tiny board, about the size of a coin, powered by Nordic nRF51822 Cortex M0 SoC including bluetooth 4.0 LE support, and software compatible with Arduino UNO and DUE board, so you can just use Arduino sketches with the board. Bluetooth allows it to communicate with your smartphone (iPhone for now, but Android support is coming) to control motors & relays, monitor sensors, turn LEDs on/off, and more. Key features of RFDuino board: MCU – Nordic nRF51822 Cortex M0 @ 16 MHz Memory –  16 KB on-chip SRAM Storage – 256 KB on-chip Flash Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy built in MCU GPIO – 7 pin software configurable as digital IO, analog ADC, SPI, I2C, UART and PWM.  The company currently offers several stackable shields for RFDuino including battery shields (1x AAA, 2x AAA, and CR2032 coin battery), a servo shield, a USB shield, a prototype shield […]

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