Try eval with Android smartphone

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cross mob
Anonymous
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I tried to see my BCM920737TAG-03 (with BCM20737 and SDK 2.x) working, if my smartphone can see the BT LE eval board.

I do not have iPhone, I want to use my Galaxy S3 or S4.

Result:

It works, but: looks like Galaxy S3 cannot find, but Galaxy S4 can with right APP installed. And an APP has to be installed.

Prerequisites:

You have to have Android 4.3 or higher. At best Galaxy S4 (even S3 should support but it looks like BT LE is not supported there,

nothing found by app).

You have to install in addition to SDK as this PC app also an APP on your smartphone:

I have used "Bluetooth 4.0 Scanner", via PlayStore, searching for "Bluetooth LE scanner", the "Bluetooth LE Scanner" might work as well.
Regular BT Scan will not see anything (on regular Android system).

OK, here my steps:

1. Install the SDK:

    It comes with a lot of demo projects.

2. Prepare the Eval board:

    Make sure the SW2 is Up (VUSB) and SW3 Down (VREG).

    All DIP switches (HCI, SW4) are On.

    Plug in USB and you should see two new COM Ports in Device Manager, two "USB Serial Port"s, e.g COM17, COM18.

3. Start the WICED-Smart-SDK:

    It will come up with a readme. There are already several demo projects but pressing Build will not help or not do anything.

4. Go in SDK to "Trace" -> "Setup COM Port":
    be a bit patient, at the end it should display somewhere a new small window (hard to find).

    There, you have to select one of the USB Serial Ports. I have selected my first one (COM17).

5. In order to build and run one project on eval board:
    Do not use the menu sub-windows to build, any other Build or Run button. Instead:

    Click on the top level "WICED-Smart-SDK" node to select it.

    With the right mouse context menu you will see also "Make Targets" -> "Build".

    It will open a selection menu for all the available projects. Select one:

    I have tried "mybeacon-BCM920736TAG_Q32 download" and "proximity-BCM920737TAG_Q32 download".

    Click on "Build":
    It should compile the C-code and load the code image to eval board at the end. You can see on: no error and progress bar is there and
    final message "application running".

    Remark:
    If it does not load to eval board (you should not see successful messages and the progress bar):

    UART is not selected, not the right UART selected (see step 4.)
    or: press reset (SW5) on eval board first.
    BTW: if you want to do again, if you want to load another project - Reset (SW5) has to be pressed all the time again before!
    If eval board is still running - it does not load a new image.

6. Make sure you have installed the Android app (see above).

    "Bluetooth 4.0 Scanner" seems to be nice, following comments are related to it.

7. Start or open app on Android smartphone.

    Important:
    There is a selection for "Device Scan": Select there "Low Energy Scan", not the "Classic Scan" (it will not see BT LE devices !)

    Press "Start Scan"

    At the end it should display a device found, just something with "Empty LE name field" and "Vendor not found".

    If you click on the list entry, you will get a bit more information (text file).

    ATT: it looks to me, you have to enable GPS in smartphone. Even in-room - GPS has to be on, otherwise it will not scan.

Conclusion:

the three most important remarks are:

1) You need a BT LE, Bluetooth Smart app on your smartphone - regular BT scan will not see and cannot find.
    Maybe it depends on the phone you have (e.g. Galaxy S4 but not S3) and Android >= 4.3 is needed.

    Make sure to select the BT LE Scan "Low Energy Scan".

2) In SDK select the "Setup COM Port" under "Trace", otherwise generated demo project is not loaded.

3) Build the project by selecting the top node "WICED-Smart-SDK" and using the right mouse context menu "Make Targets" -> "Build",
    not other menu items to build or run.

OK, my smartphone has seen eval BT LE but nothing reasonable to do without to write a nice client running on Android phone.

(should I report here as well?   😉   I am thinking to use Nokia Qt Xcode (I like and know Qt).

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