Adafruit Bluefruit LE Connect for iOS and Android User manual

Bluefruit LE Connect for iOS and Android

Created by Collin Cunningham

Last updated on 2021-01-04 03:49:13 PM EST

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Guide Contents

Guide Contents Installation and Setup Enable Bluetooth Enable Location Services Scan for Devices iPhone iPad

Multiple UART Mode

Connect Troubleshooting Features Available Modes: Info UART Terminal Main Window Echo ASCII / HEX Copy & Clear Sending Strings

Multiple UART Mode

MQTT Configuration Usage

Received Data Written Data Output Data

Plotter Main Plotter View Formatting AutoScroll and Plot Width Controller Format for Sent Data Checksum Sensors Control Pad Color Picker AHRS/Calibration Process Testing Updates Updating Firmware Custom Firmware Image Transfer

Data Format

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Choose Image Bit Depth Resolution Transfer Mode Rotate & Send

Pin I/O Wiring Options

Arduino with Bluefruit LE Shield Bluefruit Micro or Feather 32u4 Bluefruit Feather M0 Bluefruit LE Bluefruit LE SPI Friend

Bluefruit LE UART Friend Flora BLE Library and Config Before loading Firmata BLE... Install Libraries Open Sketch and Configure Bluefruit LE Config Firmata Debug Config Available Pins Config Upload and test Usage Initial Query Digital Input Digital Output PWM Output Analog Input Troubleshooting

Cycle Bluetooth Cycle Power Clear Bluetooth Cache

Installation and Setup

The Bluefruit LE Connect app provides iOS & Android devices with a variety of tools to communicate with

Bluefruit LE devices. These tools cover basic communication and info reporting as well as more project

specific uses such as Arduino Pin Control and a Color Picker.

The iOS app is a free download from Apple's App Store (https://adafru.it/ddu). It requires iOS 11.3 or later

and works on iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches.

The Android app is a free download from the Google Play Store (https://adafru.it/f4G). It requires Android

4.4 or later.

The app is compatible with these BLE devices from Adafruit, and possibly more:

Bluefruit LE nRF8001 Breakout (http://adafru.it/1697)

Bluefruit LE Friend (http://adafru.it/2267)

Flora Wearable Bluefruit LE Module (http://adafru.it/2487)

Adafruit Bluefruit LE SPI Friend (http://adafru.it/2633)

Adafruit Bluefruit LE Micro (http://adafru.it/2661)

Adafruit Feather 32u4 Bluefruit LE (https://adafru.it/keO)

Adafruit Feather M0 Bluefruit LE (https://adafru.it/t6a)

Adafruit Feather nRF52 Bluefruit LE - nRF52832 (https://adafru.it/vAx)

Adafruit Feather nRF52840 Express (https://adafru.it/DLQ)

First off - install the app from one of the App stores listed above if you haven't already.

Enable Bluetooth

If Bluetooth is disabled on your device, enable it by going to Settings->Bluetooth on your iOS device, or

the analogous setting on your Android device.

Enable Location Services

If you plan to use the app to send location/GPS data to Bluefruit LE, enable Location Services. Enable it on

iOS using Settings->Privacy->Location Services.

Scan for Devices

On launch, the app will automatically begin to scan for nearby Bluetooth LE devices. Devices are

presented in a table view in the order in which they were discovered.

 Don't forget to turn on Bluetooth on your device! Airplane Mode turns off BLE.

iPhone

The following images depict the app when used on the iPhone. The Android app looks similar.

The device list will display all BLE devices discovered by the app (not just Bluefruit hardware) - so you may

see a quite a few "" entries for devices that don't advertise their name, as seen above.

To refresh the list and start a new scan, simply swipe down on the current list.

Each device's signal strength is displayed in the left side of its row.

If you tap on the device entry (not on Connect), you'll see more detail about a particular device:

iPad

The following images depict the app when used on the iPad

Tap the middle of a device's table row to reveal its relevant advertisement data.

Any device listed with a "Connect" button at the right can be accessed in Info mode.

Any device listed as "UART Capable" can be used with all modes - Info, UART, Pin I/O, & Controller.

 To use the Bluefruit Connect app with your device it must be "UART capable"! All Adafruit BLE

devices implement the UART interface, but other devices may not

Multiple UART Mode

The Multiple UART feature allows to monitor incoming data from, and send data to multiple devices

simultaneously.

To use it:

Activate the Multiple UART Mode switch

Tap Connect next to each device you'd like to include

Tap the Start button below the Multiple UART mode to begin.

Once connected, you can choose UART or Plotter module to view incoming data from all connected

peripherals. In the UART module, you can send data to one or all connected devices at once.

Connect

Tap the Connect button on the UART capable list entry you wish to use and choose a connection mode

from the menu that appears.

Troubleshooting

If you’re having trouble finding your Bluefruit device in the scanned peripherals list, ensure the board is

powered and not paired with any other BLE devices. If the problem persists, it could be due to caching

issues in the iOS or Android operating system. For a fix, try the following:

Cycle Bluetooth - Turn your mobile device’s Bluetooth radio off and on again in the Settings app.

Relaunch App - Quit the Bluetooth LE Connect app and restart it. (instructions

for iOS (https://adafru.it/DMn) & Android (https://adafru.it/DMo))

Cycle Power - Restart your mobile device by powering it off and restarting.

Doing one or both of the above solves most peripheral scanning issues. If you're still having trouble, try

searching the Adafruit Support forum (https://adafru.it/DMl) for your issue.

Features

Even though the Bluefruit Connect app only uses UART as the

transport

for sending and receiving data

to/from your BLE device, it has multiple interaction modes

Each of these modes can do different things and let you interact in a unique way.

Don't forget! All of these modes use the UART Service, but present the data in a different way. On the

hardware side, your firmware will have to know what it is expecting and sometimes may need to parse the

data coming back from the app.

For example, if using the Color Picker, the app will send the color data in a mini packet. If using the button

controller, you'll get button presses/releases in packets instead.

Available Modes:

Info (https://adafru.it/BYg)

UART Terminal Mode (https://adafru.it/xSF)

MQTT (https://adafru.it/yb7)

Plotter (https://adafru.it/xTa)

Controller (https://adafru.it/iCI) (Data Streaming (https://adafru.it/DN9), Control

Pad (https://adafru.it/DN9), and Color Picker (https://adafru.it/DN9))

AHRS/Calibration (https://adafru.it/Gge)

Updates (https://adafru.it/BYh)

Image Transfer (https://adafru.it/Gjc)

Info

Connecting to a peripheral in Info mode will display its Generic Attribute Profile ( GATT) in the form of a

table.

This mode is available for all connectable BLE devices and can be helpful for learning,

troubleshooting, and general curious snooping.

Tapping on a service row will reveal that service's included characteristics.

To learn more about Bluetooth Services & Characteristics, be sure to check out the Introduction to

Bluetooth Low Energy guide (https://adafru.it/iCp).

UART Terminal

The UART Terminal mode provides a classic 'serial terminal' interface for sending and receiving strings

from a Bluefruit LE device.

It's perfect for sending and receiving data without any interpretation.

Note: This mode can be used in conjunction with Bluefruit LE Friend's Command

mode (https://adafru.it/iCO) to configure or get additional info about the device.

Main Window

The main log window is in the middle, and will display data both received and, if Echo is on, sent.

Echo

Toggle the Echo switch in the settings the upper right to also display outgoing data sent from the app.

Data received from the remote BLE device appears in red.

Data sent from the app appears in blue.

ASCII / HEX

The display format of the log window can be controlled using the ASCII/Hex switch in settings in the

upper right.

ASCII will do its best to translate the data to 8-bit human-viewable text characters.

Hex will give you 0xnn formatted bytes, still color coded.

Copy & Clear

Tapping Copy will copy all text from the log window to the iOS clipboard.

Tapping Clear will delete all text from the window.

Sending Strings

Tap the text field at the bottom of the screen to bring up the keyboard and begin composing a new

string to send.

Newline characters can be added using the return key.

Press the Send button to send the string over UART to your Bluefruit LE device.

To hide the keyboard, simply tap the log window while the keyboard is shown.

Multiple UART Mode

When connected to more than one Bluefruit LE device in Multiple UART mode, you'll see an All button to

the right of the Send button. Tap the All button to choose which specific devices you wish to send your

inputted string to.

MQTT

MQTT stands for Message Queue Telemetry Transport. It's a protocol designed for low-bandwidth, high

latency networks. You can learn more about it here. (https://adafru.it/yqD)

The Bluefruit LE Connect App allows you to send and receive data using the MQTT protocol. This may be

useful for making sensor readings from a Bluefruit device viewable on the web.

Configuration

You will need an adafruit.io (https://adafru.it/fJs) account in order to log and collect your data. You can

make one here (https://adafru.it/eZ8).

To learn more about adafruit.io, check out the guide for it here (https://adafru.it/JWd).

Once you have your Adafruit IO account set up, connect to your device using the Bluefruit LE Connect

app. Tap the UART mode.

In the UART module, tap the MQTT button at the top of the screen.

Adafruit Bluefruit LE Connect for iOS and Android User manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual