If you’re new to Bluetooth® technology and are looking for some help to learn how to develop smartphone applications or device firmware which involves Bluetooth Low Energy, the Bluetooth Developer Starter Kit (BDSK) is the best place to start. A new version, v4.0 is now available and replaces and improves upon the previous version, v3.2. You can download the latest version here.
BDSK provides an introduction to the basic theory of Bluetooth Low Energy, as well as extensive, hands-on coding experience. The kit consists of several coding projects (known as “labs”) including one based on an Arduino 101 connected to an electronic circuit which you will build. To complete the Arduino lab, you need to acquire an Arduino 101 and a few electronics components if you don’t already own these items.
Following the instructions in the lab documentation, you then equip the Arduino with a custom Bluetooth profile that you will both design and code. Once you have the Arduino set up and working, you can move on to one of the other labs and develop a smartphone application with which to control the Arduino and its connected circuit.
What’s New in BDSK v4.0
The Arduino lab that was included in Version 3 of BDSK remains in BDSK v4.0. It provides experience designing and implementing Bluetooth Low Energy peripheral devices. Two smartphone labs that were featured in BDSK v3.x are also available on BDSK v4.0. Between them, these two labs take you through the steps required to develop a corresponding application for Android using Java or for iOS using Swift
Both of these smartphone labs produce what are generally termed “native applications.” Earlier this year, I wrote about hybrid mobile applications, which are developed using web technologies and provide a means by which one set of source code can be used to create an application which will run on more than one platform.
BDSK v4.0 adds a new lab, which will help you learn how to create hybrid mobile applications for both Android and iOS using the Apache Cordova SDK.
You can review my blog posts on the subject here:
Hybrid Mobile Applications – Part 1
Hybrid Mobile Applications – Part 2
BDSK v4.0 supercedes and replaces BDSK 3.x and adds a new lab, which will help you learn how to create hybrid mobile applications for both Android and iOS using the Apache Cordova SDK.
Over to you!
BDSK is an effective and enjoyable way to gain hands-on experience of Bluetooth® Low Energy software development. Download the Bluetooth Developer Starter Kit today and get coding with Bluetooth!
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