Last Update: Jan 1, 2018 This guide is outdated and has been superseded by the BLE Chipset Guide for 2019 and Beyond Overview Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) are rapidly making their way to all kinds of new products. Because they’re integrated into smartphones, they allow a user to talk to any enabled product easily without any
Apr 11, 2025
Update: We’ve update this in 2025 to reflect how the industry has shifted. Overview BLE Advertising is one of the most important aspects of Bluetooth Low Energy. Understanding how to properly use advertisements can help you lower your power consumption, speed up your connections, and improve reliability. BLE Advertisements is also key to beacons. We’re
Apr 11, 2025
What is Bluetooth Low Energy? Bluetooth Low Energy is a wireless protocol introduced in 2010 to enable quick and easy connection between devices and smartphones. It also allows creating device to device connections without smartphones, but has been used to connect appcessories to iPhones, for example. BLE can connect: Are Bluetooth Low Energy and Classic
Apr 11, 2025
Last Update: Jun 25, 2019 Overview Many new Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) chipsets have been released since our last review. Our previous discussion on selecting a Bluetooth chipset went over some of the second-generation devices, but today we’re going to go over the latest devices you should be designing with in 2019 and beyond. We’re going to
Apr 11, 2025
Overview We’ve been developing Bluetooth devices for a long time, and BLE products since the specification was released back in 2010. Over the years of developing devices we’ve managed to put together a list of items to consider and best practices These ideas, tips and tricks are battle tested and follow years of experience, both
Apr 11, 2025
One of the first decisions you’ll have to make when you start designing a Bluetooth product is whether you’ll use a module or a discrete Bluetooth chip. We won’t get into the details of which chip to choose since we have a great guide for selecting a Bluetooth chipset. So, we’ll assume that you’ve already chosen your device,
Apr 11, 2025
Let's demystify BLE MAC Addresses so we can use them properly when developing and launching a BLE product
Apr 11, 2025
Overview In our previous guide, we went over BLE advertising and how BLE advertising works in general. But we’ve still gotten many questions about how to do the Bluetooth LE advertising right for many use cases. This guide will cover creating BLE advertising packets in depth, to help you create better products. Advertising BLE Advertising and
Apr 11, 2025
At the heart of every Bluetooth device is a Bluetooth stack. The stack runs the radio and communications according to the protocol stack. But how is this stack used? How can you use it to build products? What do you need? We’re going to go over all the details to explain a Bluetooth stack and
Apr 11, 2025
Why Bluetooth Low Energy? Bluetooth Low Energy, also called BLE, was introduced in 2010 and ushered in a new age of connectivity, especially between smart devices and smartphones. BLE is a new wireless protocol that shares some features with Bluetooth Classic. It takes some of the same concepts pioneered by Bluetooth like simple connections and
Apr 11, 2025
Overview Bluetooth is a remarkably versatile wireless technology—powering everything from audio headsets and smartwatches to industrial sensors and medical wearables. But whether you’re syncing a fitness tracker or building a mesh network for asset tracking, wireless range is one of the most important design considerations. We’re going to give you the understanding of what impacts Bluetooth LE
Apr 11, 2025
Since BLE was designed from the ground up for low power battery devices, it’s common to see a wide range of batteries used in designs. Aside the popular Coin Cell batteries you will also see Alkaline, Lithium and many other chemistries. This guide is designed to give you a broad overview of the choices in
Apr 11, 2025
If you want to get started building Bluetooth projects then using Bluetooth with an Arduino is a great way to go. It’s much easier to use Arduino to connect sensors and get a project going. The Arduino example code is great for this. For the Bluetooth part you’ll find that there are a lot of Bluetooth
Apr 11, 2025
We all want our Bluetooth Smart device to work the first time. But the reality is that it can take a lot of effort to get everything working smoothly. BLE products usually have a lot of moving parts that create a challenge, among them: What makes BLE more challenging than other systems is that the
Apr 11, 2025
Overview The Raspberry Pi is a popular platform because of its low cost and high integration. In addition to Wi-Fi and Ethernet, this board also has integrated Bluetooth which support BLE. Over the years we’ve seen it used quite often to connect to BLE sensors and other devices. The Rapsberry Pi’s support for Bluetooth depends
Apr 11, 2025