Where the Sparkcore adds Wi-Fi to electronic projects, BLEduino adds Bluetooth 4.0! This nifty thumbnail-sized gadget is an Arduino-compatible development board featuring built-in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). BLEduino’s Arduino compatibility extends to both a hardware and software level, ensuring that anything that runs on an Arduino will run on BLEduino.
Works with all shields
BLEduino’s designers claim the device works on nearly all Arduino shields. Recall that boards need to support Old Arduino UNO pin layouts as well as the new Arduino Leonardo pin layout in order to achieve compatibility. So, while this is a very large boast in principal, BLEduino’s designer specifically created a “shield-shield” attachment to translate BLEduino’s pin layout into that of the Arduino. At the flip of a switch, one can easily jump between the old and new pin layout.
Incredibly easy to use
The designers of the BLEduino want minimize the coding involved to make the device as accessible as possible. To that end, a free iPhone app along with their pre-made Arduino sketches allow the user to select pre-determined modes of use. One can select LEDs for projects involving lighting LEDs, a game controller for activating the wireless controller you’ve built, or even an RC car if the project is a remote control toy vehicle.
Open source all the way
Customization is an important mantra embodied by the open-source movement and BLEduino fully embraces this notion. The BLEduino is entirely open source: hardware, IPhone app, schematics/PCBs, firmware and all. The IPhone app can be broken up into modules to simplify the source code for building your own app.
BLEduino is excellent for prototyping
Android support
All this talk about IPhone this and IPhone that must have you wondering why there’s no mention of Android. While Android is a much more development flexible platform than Apple’s mobile iOS, there is no Bluetooth 4.0 support for Android at the present time. Nevertheless, this feature is projected to follow suit with the next generation of the Android operating system. Once it goes live, a free BLEduino Android app will be released.
Cool stuff you can
Thanks to its Arduino Leonardo roots, BLEduino is incredibly flexible in purpose. BLEduino can be used with breadboards to light up LEDs and activate sensors and LCDs or even relays. It can also send commands via Bluetooth to robots and RC cars. Additionally, the device may act as a Bluetooth receiver for sending virtual commands to computer and it has the ability to emulate mouse and keyboard support; something rare amongst development boards.
Tech specs
• ATmega32u4 with a modified Leonardo bootloader.
• Supply voltage – 5 V
• Onboard 5-V regulator
• Onboard 3.3-V regulator
• GPIO Pins – 21
• PWM Channels – 6
• Analog input channels – 12
• Serial communication: UART, SPI, I2 C
• DC current per I/O Pin – 40 mA
• Flash memory – 32 bytes.
• 4 Kbytes used by bootloader.
• SRAM – 2.5 Kbyte
• EEPROM – 1 KB
• Clock Speed – 16 MHz
• LED’s for serial communication (RX, TX)
• LED for Bluetooth connectivity
• Bluetooth 4.0 (BLE) – nRF8001
• Dedicated controller for nRF8001
• Expected BLE Range – at least 80 ft (Currently testing)
For the full lowdown, visit BLEduino’s Kickstarter page.
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