BlueGiga BLE development tools

Question

I'm looking at trying out the BlueGiga BLE112 kit to do some BLE development for iOS.

I am switching from the TI CC2540 keyfob kits because my IAR Embedded Workbench eval-license expired (30 days) and that software is $2500+ for licensing.

I'd like to know what the tools are for writing code for the BLE112; the website mentions "BG Script" and "BG Profile Toolkit", but I can't find any info on what the environment/licensing is for either of these tools. It also mentions writing C code for an "8051" (not sure what this is). What environment/compiler do I need to write that code? Also, what are the license terms?

Meddlesome

Answer 1

You should be able to find more information on the support section of the Bluegiga web site. Once you register you have access to more documentation and to the software and tools provided by Bluegiga.

BGScript is a scripting language which executes on the BLE112 chip (which has some IOs and ADCs in addition to the BLE radio).

In more complex situations, the BLE112 can be connected to a microcontroller via serial lines. The serial protocol is a proprietary protocol (BGAPI) which allows accessing all the features of the chip (BLE, IOs, ADC,...). Bluegiga provides a good documentation of this protocol and a C implementation of it (it is reasonably compact and implemented in standard C so it should run in a wide variety of environments). For our application we have developed a JAVA implementation which also works fine.

BLE112 Documentation and Software

Narbada

Not sure about the license but the tools, code of the api and samples are provided for free on the support web site. There is no license headers or license files with the code/tools. My guess (and this is only my guess) is that we can do what we need with it, they are probably focusing on selling the chips. If you want to be sure their support via email is quite responsive. – Narbada

I have recently acquired one but can't figure out how the heck to compile the code writen in BGScript – Dillard

Answer 2

this might be a little late, but I've noticed that a lot of people have trouble with some of BlueGiga's API (specifically the UART and I2C interface in their 1.1 API).

I've written some posts here that cover some of the intricacies of using those two APIs: http://sureshjoshi.com/development/ble112-how-to-use-i2c/ and http://sureshjoshi.com/development/ble112-uart-watermarks-example/

Happy Bluetoothing!

Appendix

This question is about tools, not the API. – Rhineland

While we appreciate the links to your detailed posts, we prefer answers here to stand on their own without requiring having to visit another site. Could you summarize the relevant material from your posts that answers this specific question? – Phlegmy

By the way, I've done quite a bit of BGScript work lately, so it's good to see some more resources out there about this. The material you've posted here might be more applicable to this question: #13761490 , but again you're going to want to make the answers stand alone and not require people to have to visit your site. We have a real problem with external sites going down or moving, making link-only answers useless when they do. – Phlegmy

@Sjoshi: Seems like there is really far less application note kind of things present over the internet in regards with BlueGiga, that too with BGAPI. Consider ansering this neatly written question here? #21884450 – Grunion

Answer 3

If you download the file I've linked to at http://forum.mkroll.mobi/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=495 , you'll see a build.bat file that invokes the compiler. That should help.

Brag