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?

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

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!