Moltosenso in Italy just released a new configuration utility for Digi International’s XBee radios.
The software is available in several different version and the basic version is Free. It is available for Mac OSX, Windows and Linux platforms, and did I say that basic version is free?
The basic version basically does what X-CTU™ does on a windows box.
Finally something to configure your Xbee Modules from Mac OSX!
According to their web site, Moltosenso Network Manager™ IRON Includes the following features:
- full support to any API Operation mode (with and without escaped characters);
- get/set of the parameters of Digi International® modules plugged to the PC, both in API and AT mode;
- get/set of the parameters of Digi International® modules remotely addressable;
- an effective graphic test for RSSI parameter, especially tailored for XBEE™ modules;
- firmware upload (local and – where available – remote) for many supported Digi International® modules.
Seeing is believing, so I went ahead and downloaded the Iron 1.0 – Free version on my MBP and it works like a charm!
Wahoo Fitness updated iOS Wahoo API version 2.2.3
The new version includes support for the upcoming BlueSC Bluetooth 4.0 Speed and Cadence sensor with integrated Odometer functionality, other changes in this version include:
- Support for BlueTooth 4.0 on the iPad 3 and future iOS devices!
- Improved support for simultaneous BlueTooth 4.0 connections across multiple Apps.
- Support for the Suunto Heart Rate Monitors (This requires either the Sensor Key or Case),
- and some minor tweaks and bug fixes related to BlueTooth 4.0 connectivity.
 |
| BT 4.0 Demo iOS App |
There is also a new iPhone demo app with Bluetooth Smart support, a great way to get started with development of iOS Bluetooth Smart applications!
You can find additional documentation on the Wahoo Fitness website, the full release notes and documentation are available here and get the new version of the API here!
Below are a few screenshots from the Wahoo Demo App, included in the API download, connected to a BlueGiga DKBLE112 Developer Board with a active BLE112 module. The Wahoo Demo App uses the Blue Tooth Smart Temperature Profile.
Check it all out and get started with BlueTooth Smart Development!
 |
| BT 4.0 Demo Connected to a BLE112 |
 |
| BlueGiga BLE112 Temperature Profile |
How to get started with Bluetooth Smart, BLE development for Apple iOS
In an earlier post I talked about the Bluegiga BLE112 Bluetooth® 4.0 single mode Development Kit I received, a great kit with a lot of documentation but unfortunately there is not a lot of information on how to build iOS applications.
This post is the start of my journey creating iOS Apps for the Bluegiga BLE112.
In order to deploy, even write and test iOS apps you need to register as a Developer on the the Apple Developers Website. https://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/
Once you have registered you are going to need Xcode, you can download it from the Mac OSX Store or from the Apple iOS Dev Center. Go ahead and install Xcode on your Mac!
At the moment the device emulator included with Xcode does not support Bluetooth so you will need either a new iPad (ipad3) or an iPhone 4S.
After installing Xcode the first thing you need is a new project. In Xcode click on File -> New -> Project to create it.I have included a bunch of screen shots to show you the different steps I went through getting started.For this first application you can just select the Single View Application and then click Next to continue.
The next step is to give your “Product” a name and enter a Company Identifier in most cases the reverse of your domain name is used here. This together will create the Bundle Identifier.
You can also enter a Class Prefix that will be prefixed to all classes created by xCode in this project.
After that you select the Device Family, using Universal will create the project for both iPad and iPhone as both the iPhone 4S and the Ipad3 support BLE you can select Universal unless you specifically want to exclude one of the two.
There are a few extra options you can set, for this initial project it doesn’t matter too much what you select. “Use storyboard” is a function in xCode to draw the user interface, this will enable or disable the use of it.
“Use Automatic Reference Counting”, sets automatic garbage collection to on or off, when set to “Off” you will have to allocate and discard all your objects yourself.
“Include Unit Tests”, selects if project should have unit testing code, code used for testing your code a best practice when writing apps.
Click on Next to go to the next step and select where you want to save your project and if you want to automatically have Xcode create a GIT repo for your project.
After finishing this step you now a brand new project but in order to write Bluetooth source code you will need to add the Bluetooth library dependancy.
Select the “Build Phases” tab, and press the “+” sign to add the required CoreBluetooth.framework.
You can search for or just select CoreBluetooth.framework from the list of dependencies.
Once you have that done you are ready to start coding on your first Bluetooth Smart iOS App!You also might want to checkout the
Wahoo API, which can be used with both BLE devices and, using the
Wahoo key for iPhone, also with ANT+ sensors.In order to use the API you first have to
registerwith Wahoo as a developer, they will send you a link to download the framework, which you add to your project by clicking on Add Other and browsing to the downloaded file.For more information on the Wahoo Framework checkout their
online documentation.
You can also download all the Wahoo API documentation and add them in Xcode. To do this go to Xcode -> Preferences -> Downloads -> Documentation and then click on “+” and enter the following URL in the Dialog box:
http://api.wahoofitness.com/wf_api/wf_api.xml
Finally, click on Add and then on “Install” behind Wahoo Fitness API (Wahoo Fitness).
If you want to make some quick headway with Bluetooth Smart development take a look at the Sample “WahooDemo” iPhone Application that Wahoo includes in their API download.
The WahooDemo iPhone App is pretty cool, so check it out!
First open the project in Xcode, run it on your iPhone 4S and in the Wahoo Demo menu select the Temperature Demo.
Next on your BLE112 evaluation board set the Display switch to “On”, turn on the board and it will start broadcasting the current temperature.
Now on your iPhone click on “connect” and it will start receiving info from the sensor!
Today I received the Bluegiga BLE112 Bluetooth® 4.0 single mode Development Kit from Symmetry Electronics, one of the distributors for Bluegiga in the US.
The Bluegiga BLE112 Bluetooth 4.0 module, based on the Texas Instruments CC2540, is a cost-effective, low-power, true system-on-chip (SoC) for Bluetooth low energy applications. It enables robust BLE master or slave nodes to be built with very low total bill-of-material costs.
The CC2540 combines an excellent RF transceiver with an industry-standard enhanced 8051 MCU, in-system programmable flash memory, 8-KB RAM, and many other powerful supporting features and peripherals
Bluegiga’s DKBLE112 Bluetooth low energy single mode Development Kit for the BLE112 Bluetooth low energy module includes two
BLE112 Single Mode Modules, a
BLED112 USB dongle, a firmware programming cable and a BLE112 evaluation board with cables and documentation.
The Bluegiga BLE112 module offers all Bluetooth low energy features, radio, stack, profiles and application space for customer applications and an external processor is not needed.
The module also provides flexible hardware interfaces to connect sensors, simple user interfaces and for testing purposes has a displays on the evaluation board.
I am excited to get start on some software development with these modules, check back soon for more!Next up is the first in a series I am planning on doing on my journey to build an iOS app to interact with the Bluegiga BLE112 modules.
Check it out and let me know what you think!
Before I get started on how to use Bluetooth Smart for sensor networks, I probably should give quick overview of Bluetooth Smart.
You might ask, what is Bluetooth Smart?
Bluetooth Smart is a part of the latest Bluetooth specification, Bluetooth 4.0. Unfortunately it took a while before Bluetooth Smart was named that so it is actually known under a couple of different names. Different manufacturers call it by different names; Bluetooth Low Power, Bluetooth Low Energy, Bluetooth 4.0, BLE, and now the official name Bluetooth Smart.
Why Bluetooth Smart?
Well, the advantages of Bluetooth Smart is that is it Low Power or Low Energy, it consume only a fraction of the power of classic Bluetooth 2.X products.
Why do I care?
When two Bluetooth Smart devices are paired, they use a lot less battery power because the connection is dormant unless critical data is being shared. With the older generation of Bluetooth, you had to turn off your hardware when it was not in use, but with the new Bluetooth Smart, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group estimates, devices can operate between 1 and 2 years on the same battery!
What is Bluetooth Smart Ready?
Bluetooth Smart Ready devices are primary devices such as smartphones, notebooks, and tablets, that can receive and share Bluetooth signals from accessories such as headphones, speakers, fitness accessories, and even some medical devices as heart rate monitors or bluetooth thermometers. You can think of Bluetooth Smart Ready devices as the central device, waiting to send and receive data from smaller devices around it.
What is Bluetooth Smart?
These are the peripherals connect to your Bluetooth Smart Ready devices. Bluetooth Smart devices can be paired with Smart Ready devices even when they’re not used for hours or days at a time and thanks to Bluetooth Smart focus on wake and sleep modes, Bluetooth Smart devices that are not being used will remain in sleep mode. The devices will wake up from the sleep mode in an instant, automatically pair with the Bluetooth Smart Ready device and will be instantly ready to share data.
For example, a wireless thermometer in your pool can remain paired with your pool guys iPhone for days but not won’t wake up until your pool guy shows up for the weekly pool maintenance. A heart monitor, for instance, could be worn for hours but would only send data to a Smart Ready Tablet when a heart rate reaches a certain number of beats per minute during exercise.
Do we still need our existing Bluetooth Devices?
Newer iPhones and Android devices, laptops and iPad’s with Bluetooth Smart Ready radios built in will work with older Bluetooth peripherals. basically, if you have a Bluetooth Smart Ready iPhone 4S or iPad3, you can still use it to stream Itunes to your Bluetooth 3.0 wireless speakers or headphones. No need to throw away those speakers or headsets.
But Bluetooth Smart devices, on the other hand, only work with their Bluetooth Smart Ready buddies. So to take advantage of Bluetooth 4.0’s new Low Energy features, you will need a new Bluetooth Smart Ready iPhone, Macbook Air and Ipad3 and of course the Bluetooth Smart Device.
What Devices are Available for Bluetooth 4.0?
As of right now, there is the Apple MacBook Air and the newer Mac Mini as the only Bluetooth Smart Ready computers, but you can already purchase BLE dongles to make any device Bluetooth Smart Ready. Available smartphones are the Motorola Droid RAZR and the Apple iPhone 4S and available tables the new iPad (iPad3).
Will Bluetooth 4.0 replace ANT+
While ANT+ today has a decent number of Sony Ericcson and HTC phones that have ANT+ chips in them to support ANT+ accessories, the expectation is that the number of devices that support Bluetooth 4.0 will rapidly rise and quickly eclipsing ANT+ enabled cell phones.
Amid the various upgrades announced for Apple’s new iPad was a hot new wireless technology. You might think I’m referring to the tablet’s 4G LTE mobile broadband support, but I’m not. I’m talking about the far less sexy, but no less important, inclusion of Bluetooth 4.0, making iPad the first Bluetooth Smart Ready tablet.
Back in October the Bluetooth SIG rebranded Bluetooth 4.0 as Bluetooth Smart and Bluetooth Smart Ready, promoting various devices that would included this new generation Bluetooth, such as Apple’s Mac Mini and the MacBook Pro. Besides these there is also a smart watch from Casio and the Motorola’s DROID RAZR. The latest device to get the Bluetooth Smart Ready label is the new Apple iPad (iPad3), this also makes it the first tablet to include Bluetooth Smart.
Why is this important you might ask, well for a number of reasons! Bluetooth Smart has a drastically reduced power consumption mode which makes it suitable for devices such as watches and remotes. The range is also improved over the older Bluetooth standards. In theory devices could communicate with each other up to 200 feet.
At the moment Bluetooth Smart can already be found in various other Apple devices, including the iPhone 4S, and now the new iPad. Potential uses could include streaming AirPlay over Bluetooth 4.0, which would allow Apple AirPlay devices to play nice when there isn’t a WiFi network available. The increased range, combined with low latency, means it’s feasible from a technical standpoint.
Even if you think a little smaller, the lower power consumption needs of Bluetooth Smart means that headsets or keyboards would require substantially less power, and thus recharges. Apple also provide the appropriate iOS APIs needed to gain access to Bluetooth data for developers working on accessories. Very exciting to see what all will come out of this!
TI Just released their new second Bluetooth Lower Energy single-mode SoC IC, the CC2541. ICs and EMKs, the modules that plug into the CC2540 Development Kit are now also available.
The CC2541 is similar to existing TI CC2540, but there are some differences:
- Optimized TX power consumption. CC2541 draws 18.2 mA @ 0 dBm (14.3 mA when using TPS62730), compared to 27 mA @ 0 dBm for CC2540. Due to this optimization, maximum output power is 0 dBm for CC2541, compared with +4 dBm for CC2540.
- There is also a minor improvement in RX current; 17.9 mA versus 19.6 mA (14.7 mA versus 15.8 mA when using TPS62730).
- The USB interface has been removed on CC2541. It has been replaced by a hardware I2C interface.
- In addition to Bluetooth low energy/Bluetooth Smart, CC2541 supports proprietary radio communication at 2 Mbps, 1 Mbps, 500 kbps and 250 kbps.
- The CC2541 can be configured to be over-the-air compatible with CC2500/CC2510/CC2511 at 500 kbps and 250 kbps and with the 2.4 GHz RFICs from Nordic Semiconductor at 2 Mbps, 1 Mbps or 250 kbps the CC2540 only supported BLE.
- As long as you don’t use USB or I2C, the CC2540 and CC2541 are 100% pin-compatible, including using the same values for the RF matching components, so it is easy to move back and forth between the two.
- On the software side, the modules are 100% compatible, as the BLE stack masks some minor differences in the radio interface. The latest version of the BLE stack has full support for both CC2540 and CC2541.
If you are unsure whether to use CC2540 or CC2541, here are some points to consider:
- If you’re concerned with active power consumption, use CC2541, as it will save you 30% in TX and around 10% in RX.
- If you need +4 dBm output power, you should choose the CC2540.
- If you need a USB interface, you should choose the CC2540.
- If you need I2C, you should choose the CC2541.
- If you want to communicate using a proprietary protocol, you should choose the CC2541.
- If none of the above apply, it doesn’t matter which one you choose.
- If cost is important, CC2541 is priced slightly lower than CC2540.
There is an upwards trend in multi-channel communications, cloud based, telephony applications build by both startups and larger enterprises that incorporate voice, SMS, IM, and social networks to communicate with their users.
So during the
SoCal Code Camp in LA on January 28th and 29th 2012 we will demonstrate how you can quickly and easily add multi-channel communications to your applications to send and receive SMS text messages as well as place and receive VoIP, SIP-based, phone calls using the Voxeo’s Tropo API and Phono. In addition we will touch on using the Phono Mobile SDK and Phonegap to create native communication applications on IOS, Android, WP7 and other Mobile Device platforms.
Topics:
- What is Cloud Telephony
- Using Tropo and phono to build Cloud Based Telephony applications
- The different Tropo language options
- Available Tropo methods
- A DTMF and Speech Recognition with Tropo primer
- Lets build a Tropo Demo App together
- Using the PHPFog Cloud Platform for PHP
- Using Phono to make phone calls from your browser
- Using the Phono Mobile SDK and Phonegap to build, native, Mobile Device Apps
- Wrap up
More information on Tropo can be found on the
Tropo Website. Check the
Phono website for more information on Phono and the Phono Mobile SDK and information on Phonegap can be found on the
Phonegap website. To find out more about this FREE event and to sign up for the SoCal Code Camp you can visit their
website.
The presentation for the SoCalCodeCamp presentation is below!
We build Squariz as a demo for an upcoming presentation, Squariz is a Foursquare friend finder by phone application with voice recognition powered by Tropo build using the YII MVC Framework and the Twitter Bootstrap toolkit!
This Application is designed to give you a way to find the last know location of one of your friends by phone using Speech Recognition. We are using Tropo for all the voice call handling and speech recognition and the Foursquare API to locate your friends.
Please note that this app was written in only a few hours as a quick demo, so there may be bugs, and it’s just a starting point that could be developed further.
Requirements
Setup
As you know from previous post we really like MVC so we build the whole thing using the Yii MVC Framework. Yii is a high-performance PHP framework best for developing Web 2.0 applications. Yii comes with rich features: MVC, DAO/ActiveRecord, I18N/L10N, caching, authentication and role-based access control, scaffolding, testing, etc. It can reduce your development time significantly.
So to make it a little more interesting we decided to also use Bootstrap from Twitter. Bootstrap is a toolkit from Twitter designed to kickstart development of webapps and sites. It includes base CSS and HTML for typography, forms, buttons, tables, grids, navigation, and more. A little late we figured out Yii now also has a Yii Twitter Bootstrap extension a Yii integration for Twitter’s web development toolkit.
PHPFog
If you don’t have one, create an account on PHPFog and create a new PHP App and set the CNAME for the app. Then grab the source code for this app from GitHub, you will have to make few small modification to the code to make things work with your Foursquare App so on to FourSquare first.
FourSquare
Setup a new application on Foursquare, this application will be used to retrieve your friends latest checkin information. If you don’t have one yet set up a Foursquare developers account first.
When setting up the application you will be asked for a “Download/welcome URL” enter http://XXXXX.phpfogapp.com/ and for a “Call back URL” enter http://XXXXX.phpfogapp.com/index.php?r=site/auth replace the XXXXX with the corresponding CNAME value you setup on PHPFog.
Now for a code update, in config/main.php you need to update the lines:
‘clientId’=>’FOURSQUARECLIENTIDGOESHERE’,
‘clientSecret’=>’FOURSQUARECLIENTSECRETGOESHERE’,
with the clientID and clientSecret from your Foursquare app.
While you are at it, also set the ‘canonicalDomain’ under ‘params’ and the’connectionString’, the ‘username’ and ‘password’ under ‘db’, these are required and you can find the database information in the PHPfog App Panel under database. Optionally set the ‘FromName’ and ‘From’ in the ‘mailer’ section.
Tropo
Next you will have to create a new application on Tropo, point it to a new WebAPI application and set the URL that powers your new Voice application and the SMS application to: http://XXXXX.phpfogapp.com/index.php?r=tropo/incoming, again replacing XXXXX with the CNAME your set for your app on PHPFog.
You can add a local phone number or just use Skype or connect to the app via SIP or Phono. You might want to update the phone phone number/skype number in /view/email/registration.php with your numbers.
Now that the Tropo step is done, check out the other files in views/site you might want to update some of those but it’s not needed.
That should be about it, call or SMS your app and see if it works!
(C) 2012, Cas Hoefman, licensed under MIT License
Today we attended the LADOTNET TROPO Hackathon 2011 in Burbank, CA. It was a very long but very exciting day!
The Development Team from Outlook Amusements took third place, a $75 Fry’s gift card, their application “SantaHack” schedules a call from Santa. First an outbound call is made to Santa and then a second call is made to the person receiving the call from Santa, the two calls are then bridged together. This application was build using the Tropo WebAPI in C#.
The team at Disruptive brought home the Amazon Kindle Fires, Mike and John started the day with brainstorming what their application would have to do; they decided to build a “Santa Book Application”. Users of the application would enter their phone number and the name and the phone number of someone else into a webpage, the application would then make an outbound call to the other person, ask them a couple of questions, a survey, to figure out if they had been naughty or nice and ask them what they wanted for Christmas. After that the application would call the users phone number to let them know if the other person had been naughty or nice and what they wanted for Christmas.
The decision was made to build the application in PHP, host it on PHPFog and use RightNow CX to create the survey, store the survey results and report on the Survey results. The Tropo WebAPI was going to be used to make the phone calls.
Mike worked on the front end of the application and the integration with RightNow CX while John worked on the IVR pieces of the application.
Using the RightNow CX Desktop Mike put together a web survey, to be used by John’s IVR, to survey the caller, determine if they are naughty or nice and ask them what they want for Christmas.
After almost a full day of work Mike and John had a working application, if you are curious about it you can try it out here and at the end of the day they were awarded the second price in the competition; a pair of Kindle Fires!
First price went to the QA team from Outlook Amusements, the Apple iPad 2 provided by RightNow Technologies, Marco and Deepti build a “Search Gift Application”. Build in Ruby a user accesses a webpage to provide their phone number, then receives a call and the IVR application, after asking several questions would first determine the callers location using the Google Location API and then using the Google Shopping API would find several fitting gifts. Also build using the Tropo Web API, the application uses TTS to play back the information on the gifts found!
A honorary mention was made for Tim Strimple from Stay Healthy who, using Tropo Scripting, build a SMS Answer application that integrates with Wolfram Alpha. You can try the service by texting your question to (661) 206-2681, Tropo provided Tim with $50 in Tropo credits.
Congrats to all the winner!
Disruptive Technologies are innovations disrupting an existing market in unexpected ways, typically by lowering price or a by focusing on different consumers.
