Recently at the end of May this year, I started a new position as a Senior iOS Software Developer. This new position came with some new challenges and one of the first challenges was learning Bluetooth Low Energy. I haven’t done much development with peripherals so this was something new and exciting for me.

I have done a bunch of testing of BLE, but this wasn’t at the nuts and bolts level in which this new job was. So I dug right in. While I was waiting for my accounts to be created I found a Lynda course by Bear Cahill called iOS Core Bluetooth for Developers and started watching the modules and writing the code. But I ran into a major problem.

I didn’t have a sensor tag which was used throughout the course. I followed the steps the best I could. I ended trying to connect back to the laptop, but this was just silly and wasn’t giving me the values I wanted.

Next I connected to my bicycle’s power meter, but I didn’t want to write anything to it in fear I would screw something up. This was the same problem I had with connecting to the bicycle’s trainer. Other then that I didn’t have an Bluetooth Low Energy devices to connect to. So I splurged and bought a Launchpad Kit from Texas Instruments. I’m now waiting for it come in the mail.

While I’ve been waiting I’ve created a bunch of anki cards for how the Central and Peripheral work. This has really helped me get a grasp for how this communication is between them is done. I’ve looked for some more tutorials but really want to connect to a real device in which I’m not afraid I’m going to some how screw up. For example I found this tutorial on Ray Wenderlich called Core Bluetooth Tutorial for iOS, but unfortunately the heart rate monitor I use for running uses ANT+. Ow well. I hope the sensor tag shows up soon.

I recently watched the What’s New in Core Bluetooth WWDC video which I can hardly remember what I watched. Need to watch it again.

Wow, the Launchpad Kit already showed up. With the pandemic I was expecting weeks, not days. So now to continue the tutorial.