BLE connectivity issue with some devices

[Brinto James]

I am using the u-blox NINA-B410 in BLE Central mode to scan for nearby devices. It only detects BLE-advertising peripherals (phones running BLE advertiser mode, BLE watches, etc.).

However, no Bluetooth speakers appear in the scan, including models like Zebronics ZEB-COUNTY, boAt Stone, JBL Go, etc. These speakers seem to use Classic Bluetooth (A2DP) and do not broadcast BLE advertisements, so the NINA-B410 cannot detect or pair with them.

I need a speaker or audio device that does broadcast BLE legacy advertising (ADV_IND) so it can be detected and paired with the NINA-B410.

Can you suggest any speaker model or audio module that supports BLE advertising and is compatible with BLE Central devices like the NINA-B410?

Thanks.

[Turbo J]

No Nordic hardware is capable of talking to BT classic stuff AFAIK, and other hardware would be off topic here. Shopping questions tend to attract too much SPAM.

There is a whole generation of audio devices (like headsets) that use BT classic for audio and BT LE for control (volume etc). Thus its not easy to spot a BT LE audio capable device even when the manufacturer has documented specs properly.

NINA-B410 uses NRF52833 MCU, which I would not consider powerful enough for BT LE audio applications. The recommendations from Nordic that I read here usually boil down to "use NRF5340 MCU" - that one has a more powerful core with lots of Flash and RAM.

[SwRa]

Hi Brinto,

 As Turbo J mentioned, no Nordic hardware is capable of talking to BT Classic devices. Most of the consumer speakers you listed (Zebronics, boAt, JBL Go, etc.) are Bluetooth Classic (A2DP) devices and typically do not use BLE advertising, so a BLE‑only central cannot see or connect to them. Nordic strongly positions its LE Audio solutions (nRF5340, nRF54H20, etc.) for Bluetooth LE Audio speakers, earbuds, headsets and dongles, all based on BLE. Refer the discussion here:  Stream audio to bluetooth speaker from nrf5340 Audio DK 

Regards,

Swathy