As a developer, you know that not all dev kits are equal. The features can make a huge difference in your development process. While most dev kits out there do their job just fine – i.e., allow you to convert an idea into a prototype with a decent effort, there are also poorly designed kits, which can turn your project into a nightmare. However, an excellent dev kit removes many headaches from your work, speeds up tracing and debugging, and provides interfaces for expansion.

But, how do you know you have met a great Bluetooth Dev Kit? Read this article to learn about five powerful features that can accelerate IoT prototyping and enable you to create epic IoT products rapidly! 

 

What's Rapid IoT Prototyping?

Rapid IoT prototyping sounds like yet another buzzword brewed inside the developer community. However, it is more than just a trendy buzzword. Rapid prototyping perfectly captures the way how IoT products are created today. Developers build multiple iterations of their software and hardware design quickly and get early user feedback. This allows them to adjust the design based on the real user-experience and finalize a convincing prototype rapidly.

There are two types of dev tools for rapid IoT prototyping. You can build a prototype on Arduino or Raspberry Pi and complete the project with another, more professional software and hardware platform. However, more advanced developers prefer to craft everything from scratch with dev kits based on commercial chipsets – they allow more room for customization, and the final build is closer to a real product rather than a hobbyist experiment.

So, what do you need from a dev kit to rapidly prototype an epic Bluetooth IoT product? Here's a rundown of five powerful Bluetooth Dev Kit features that speed up your development work!

Five Powerful Bluetooth Dev Kit Features for Rapid IoT Prototyping

1. Built-in Debugger   

You spend a significant share of your prototyping time debugging software and hardware. A debugger is perhaps the most critical component of a Bluetooth Dev Kit, yet many kits out in the market do not come with a debugger!

When choosing your next Bluetooth Dev Kit, make sure it hosts an on-board debugger to avoid having to buy a separate board. A debugger built on the board streamlines your dev work because you can simply flash the code and debug as it runs in the target processor. Also, on-board debuggers are typically compatible with the vendor's integrated development environment (IDE), giving you more advanced debugging capabilities.

All in all, a Bluetooth Dev Kit with a built-in debugger saves you from buying an extra board, minimizes the hassle, and speeds up development work and prototyping!

2. Bluetooth Traffic Tracer

Developing wireless products, including Bluetooth devices without a traffic tracer, is hard. You cannot see what is going on in the wireless link when you run into issues in the Bluetooth protocol level without a tracer – troubleshooting is pure guesswork.

A dev kit with a built-in packet tracing interface, on the other hand, allows you to capture the raw Bluetooth traffic flowing in the system and analyze it with a network analyzer tool. The analyzer decodes the data into a human-readable BLE protocol format, which makes debugging a breeze.

A packet tracer interface on a Bluetooth Dev Kit offers invaluable debug information about transmitted and received packets in wireless links, removes the guesswork from debugging, and speeds up prototyping significantly.

3. Virtual Com Port

When kicking off prototyping, the first thing you do is to set up a serial line between the target and PC to get data logging going and commands flowing back to the processor. This allows high-level debugging – you can find out which parts of the code are not working before making the first deep-dive.

Getting a Bluetooth Dev Kit with a built-in virtual com port will save you from buying an external board for UART to USB bridging, and, again, you can remove much hassle from your project and get your prototype off the dev board faster.

4. Generic BLE Mobile App Tester with OTA

Let's face it; nobody wants to buy a Bluetooth IoT product in 2021 without a smooth smartphone App and over-the-air (OTA) software update. Suppose you want to develop excellent smartphone connectivity and OTA capability for your product, a Bluetooth Dev Kit with support for a generic BLE mobile app tester with OTA should be on your shopping list. It will save development time significantly and helps you to launch a convincing, market-ready prototype rapidly.

5. Hardware Ecosystem Support

No developer wants to waste their precious time building every component from scratch, especially when many hardware ecosystems offer vast amounts of off-the-shelf components. However, with a dev kit, which lacks standard interfaces to hardware ecosystems, you can forget about rapid prototyping – you are doomed to spend ages tinkering everything ground-up by yourself or wiring up dodgy, no-name components without proper documentation.

A Bluetooth Dev Kit equipped with the MikroBUS™ socket allows you to instantly expand your project with hundreds of auxiliary hardware components, a.k.a. Click boards developed by MikroE.

However, if you don't' find what you need from MikroE's portfolio, you have other options such as Qwiic®. The Qwiic connector is compatible with a range of boards provided by Sparkfun, Adafruit, and Seed Studio. Via the Qwiic interface, you can chain up add-on boards over the I2C interface and build up your dev kit with more functionalities (e.g., sensors, LCDs, and other peripherals) as if they were Lego bricks.

In Conclusion

The IoT revolution is like one big innovation contest – developers worldwide turn their wildest ideas into products. Only the fastest developers can win, and that's why rapid prototyping has become the most popular market entry strategy in IoT. As a developer, you want to get a head-start in this race and buy the dev kit with the best bang for your buck – such as Silicon Labs Explorer Kit, which provides you all the five power-features, and more, as the only Bluetooth Dev Kit in the $10 price range!

As a developer, you know that not all dev kits are equal. The features can make a huge difference in your development process. While most dev kits out there do their job just fine – i.e., allow you to convert an idea into a prototype with a decent effort, there are also poorly designed kits, which can turn your project into a nightmare. However, an excellent dev kit removes many headaches from your work, speeds up tracing and debugging, and provides interfaces for expansion.

But, how do you know you have met a great Bluetooth Dev Kit? Read this article to learn about five powerful features that can accelerate IoT prototyping and enable you to create epic IoT products rapidly! 

What's Rapid IoT Prototyping?

Rapid IoT prototyping sounds like yet another buzzword brewed inside the developer community. However, it is more than just a trendy buzzword. Rapid prototyping perfectly captures the way how IoT products are created today. Developers build multiple iterations of their software and hardware design quickly and get early user feedback. This allows them to adjust the design based on the real user-experience and finalize a convincing prototype rapidly.

There are two types of dev tools for rapid IoT prototyping. You can build a prototype on Arduino or Raspberry Pi and complete the project with another, more professional software and hardware platform. However, more advanced developers prefer to craft everything from scratch with dev kits based on commercial chipsets – they allow more room for customization, and the final build is closer to a real product rather than a hobbyist experiment.

So, what do you need from a dev kit to rapidly prototype an epic Bluetooth IoT product? Here's a rundown of five powerful Bluetooth Dev Kit features that speed up your development work!

Five Powerful Bluetooth Dev Kit Features for Rapid IoT Prototyping

1. Built-in Debugger   

You spend a significant share of your prototyping time debugging software and hardware. A debugger is perhaps the most critical component of a Bluetooth Dev Kit, yet many kits out in the market do not come with a debugger!

When choosing your next Bluetooth Dev Kit, make sure it hosts an on-board debugger to avoid having to buy a separate board. A debugger built on the board streamlines your dev work because you can simply flash the code and debug as it runs in the target processor. Also, on-board debuggers are typically compatible with the vendor's integrated development environment (IDE), giving you more advanced debugging capabilities.

All in all, a Bluetooth Dev Kit with a built-in debugger saves you from buying an extra board, minimizes the hassle, and speeds up development work and prototyping!

2. Bluetooth Traffic Tracer

Developing wireless products, including Bluetooth devices without a traffic tracer, is hard. You cannot see what is going on in the wireless link when you run into issues in the Bluetooth protocol level without a tracer – troubleshooting is pure guesswork.

A dev kit with a built-in packet tracing interface, on the other hand, allows you to capture the raw Bluetooth traffic flowing in the system and analyze it with a network analyzer tool. The analyzer decodes the data into a human-readable BLE protocol format, which makes debugging a breeze.

A packet tracer interface on a Bluetooth Dev Kit offers invaluable debug information about transmitted and received packets in wireless links, removes the guesswork from debugging, and speeds up prototyping significantly.

3. Virtual Com Port

When kicking off prototyping, the first thing you do is to set up a serial line between the target and PC to get data logging going and commands flowing back to the processor. This allows high-level debugging – you can find out which parts of the code are not working before making the first deep-dive.

Getting a Bluetooth Dev Kit with a built-in virtual com port will save you from buying an external board for UART to USB bridging, and, again, you can remove much hassle from your project and get your prototype off the dev board faster.

4. Generic BLE Mobile App Tester with OTA

Let's face it; nobody wants to buy a Bluetooth IoT product in 2021 without a smooth smartphone App and over-the-air (OTA) software update. Suppose you want to develop excellent smartphone connectivity and OTA capability for your product, a Bluetooth Dev Kit with support for a generic BLE mobile app tester with OTA should be on your shopping list. It will save development time significantly and helps you to launch a convincing, market-ready prototype rapidly.

5. Hardware Ecosystem Support

No developer wants to waste their precious time building every component from scratch, especially when many hardware ecosystems offer vast amounts of off-the-shelf components. However, with a dev kit, which lacks standard interfaces to hardware ecosystems, you can forget about rapid prototyping – you are doomed to spend ages tinkering everything ground-up by yourself or wiring up dodgy, no-name components without proper documentation.

A Bluetooth Dev Kit equipped with the MikroBUS™ socket allows you to instantly expand your project with hundreds of auxiliary hardware components, a.k.a. Click boards developed by MikroE.

However, if you don't' find what you need from MikroE's portfolio, you have other options such as Qwiic®. The Qwiic connector is compatible with a range of boards provided by Sparkfun, Adafruit, and Seed Studio. Via the Qwiic interface, you can chain up add-on boards over the I2C interface and build up your dev kit with more functionalities (e.g., sensors, LCDs, and other peripherals) as if they were Lego bricks.

In Conclusion

The IoT revolution is like one big innovation contest – developers worldwide turn their wildest ideas into products. Only the fastest developers can win, and that's why rapid prototyping has become the most popular market entry strategy in IoT. As a developer, you want to get a head-start in this race and buy the dev kit with the best bang for your buck – such as Silicon Labs Explorer Kit, which provides you all the five power-features, and more, as the only Bluetooth Dev Kit in the $10 price range!

As a developer, you know that not all dev kits are equal. The features can make a huge difference in your development process. While most dev kits out there do their job just fine – i.e., allow you to convert an idea into a prototype with a decent effort, there are also poorly designed kits, which can turn your project into a nightmare. However, an excellent dev kit removes many headaches from your work, speeds up tracing and debugging, and provides interfaces for expansion.

But, how do you know you have met a great Bluetooth Dev Kit? Read this article to learn about five powerful features that can accelerate IoT prototyping and enable you to create epic IoT products rapidly! 

 

What's Rapid IoT Prototyping?

Rapid IoT prototyping sounds like yet another buzzword brewed inside the developer community. However, it is more than just a trendy buzzword. Rapid prototyping perfectly captures the way how IoT products are created today. Developers build multiple iterations of their software and hardware design quickly and get early user feedback. This allows them to adjust the design based on the real user-experience and finalize a convincing prototype rapidly.

There are two types of dev tools for rapid IoT prototyping. You can build a prototype on Arduino or Raspberry Pi and complete the project with another, more professional software and hardware platform. However, more advanced developers prefer to craft everything from scratch with dev kits based on commercial chipsets – they allow more room for customization, and the final build is closer to a real product rather than a hobbyist experiment.

So, what do you need from a dev kit to rapidly prototype an epic Bluetooth IoT product? Here's a rundown of five powerful Bluetooth Dev Kit features that speed up your development work!

 

Five Powerful Bluetooth Dev Kit Features for Rapid IoT Prototyping

1. Built-in Debugger   

You spend a significant share of your prototyping time debugging software and hardware. A debugger is perhaps the most critical component of a Bluetooth Dev Kit, yet many kits out in the market do not come with a debugger!

When choosing your next Bluetooth Dev Kit, make sure it hosts an on-board debugger to avoid having to buy a separate board. A debugger built on the board streamlines your dev work because you can simply flash the code and debug as it runs in the target processor. Also, on-board debuggers are typically compatible with the vendor's integrated development environment (IDE), giving you more advanced debugging capabilities.

All in all, a Bluetooth Dev Kit with a built-in debugger saves you from buying an extra board, minimizes the hassle, and speeds up development work and prototyping!

2. Bluetooth Traffic Tracer

Developing wireless products, including Bluetooth devices without a traffic tracer, is hard. You cannot see what is going on in the wireless link when you run into issues in the Bluetooth protocol level without a tracer – troubleshooting is pure guesswork.

A dev kit with a built-in packet tracing interface, on the other hand, allows you to capture the raw Bluetooth traffic flowing in the system and analyze it with a network analyzer tool. The analyzer decodes the data into a human-readable BLE protocol format, which makes debugging a breeze.

A packet tracer interface on a Bluetooth Dev Kit offers invaluable debug information about transmitted and received packets in wireless links, removes the guesswork from debugging, and speeds up prototyping significantly.

3. Virtual Com Port

When kicking off prototyping, the first thing you do is to set up a serial line between the target and PC to get data logging going and commands flowing back to the processor. This allows high-level debugging – you can find out which parts of the code are not working before making the first deep-dive.

Getting a Bluetooth Dev Kit with a built-in virtual com port will save you from buying an external board for UART to USB bridging, and, again, you can remove much hassle from your project and get your prototype off the dev board faster.

4. Generic BLE Mobile App Tester with OTA

Let's face it; nobody wants to buy a Bluetooth IoT product in 2021 without a smooth smartphone App and over-the-air (OTA) software update. Suppose you want to develop excellent smartphone connectivity and OTA capability for your product, a Bluetooth Dev Kit with support for a generic BLE mobile app tester with OTA should be on your shopping list. It will save development time significantly and helps you to launch a convincing, market-ready prototype rapidly.

5. Hardware Ecosystem Support

No developer wants to waste their precious time building every component from scratch, especially when many hardware ecosystems offer vast amounts of off-the-shelf components. However, with a dev kit, which lacks standard interfaces to hardware ecosystems, you can forget about rapid prototyping – you are doomed to spend ages tinkering everything ground-up by yourself or wiring up dodgy, no-name components without proper documentation.

A Bluetooth Dev Kit equipped with the MikroBUS™ socket allows you to instantly expand your project with hundreds of auxiliary hardware components, a.k.a. Click boards developed by MikroE.

However, if you don't' find what you need from MikroE's portfolio, you have other options such as Qwiic®. The Qwiic connector is compatible with a range of boards provided by Sparkfun, Adafruit, and Seed Studio. Via the Qwiic interface, you can chain up add-on boards over the I2C interface and build up your dev kit with more functionalities (e.g., sensors, LCDs, and other peripherals) as if they were Lego bricks.

 

In Conclusion

The IoT revolution is like one big innovation contest – developers worldwide turn their wildest ideas into products. Only the fastest developers can win, and that's why rapid prototyping has become the most popular market entry strategy in IoT. As a developer, you want to get a head-start in this race and buy the dev kit with the best bang for your buck – such as Silicon Labs Explorer Kit, which provides you all the five power-features, and more, as the only Bluetooth Dev Kit in the $10 price range!

Yes: https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/user-guides/ug266-gecko-bootloader-user-guide.pdf

Yes: https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/user-guides/ug266-gecko-bootloader-user-guide.pdf

The issue is that you don't have a bootloader on your device and that is a requirement for running the application. You need to create a bootloader suitable for your application (depending on how you wish to update the firmware on the field) and flash that into your module, then the application should run fine.

You shouldn't have to but on your project you have Read property as True. If you put that to false and you are still getting the read requests then that is a bug, let us know if that is the case.

I think the issue is that you are only handling the write requests but you're not handling the read requests. The mobile app might be reading the characteristic and since you are not handling that you get the GATT timeout after 30 seconds.

It depends on how your application is handling that, there is no specific sequence. Each over the air packet will only have one ATT operation, but you can have multiple ATT operations in the same connection interval.

Can you explain why this is important for your application? The best way to know for sure is to use PTI and network analyzer to look at the data and see how the operations are being interleaved.

Have you tried with a GATT client other than Microsoft Bluetooth LE Explorer? Try with a smartphone and EFR Connect and see if the results is the same. If it is then please upload a simple project that shows the issue and steps on how to replicate.