Requirements to connect by smartphone to nrf51822

[Dmitri]

Hi,

I am very new to BlueTooth technology. Currently i'm testing the nRF51822 evaluation kit to see if the BLE module can be used for a specific project. I've tried several Keil example project templates as pointed out in the evaluation kit documentation. The question that popped up during testing is why can't a smartphone find the advertisements sent by the evaluation board in the heart rate monitor template, for example(tested several phones including Lumia 720, nexus 5 and galaxy S4).

Initial examination of the code didn't find any restrictions as to why the dongle sees the broadcast, but a smartphone scan cannot. Am i misunderstanding some principle on which Bluetooth software stack works? Does the phone require custom software with a reference to the nRF51822 device?

[Hung Bui]

Hi Dmitri,

You should be able to scan for the device when it is advertising (broadcasting) without any further requirement. Could you explain how did you scan for BLE device on Nexus 5 and Galaxy S4 ? The Bluetooth setting inside Android Setting menu would not show the BLE devices around. It's the app who scan and connect to a BLE device.

For Android, our suggestion is to use the Nordic Semi Master Control Panel that you can download from Google play.

On Windows Phone, it wasn't support BLE until recently, I actually haven't got much experienced on this platform and not sure how to scan for BLE device. We will try to get hold of a Lumia phone and let you know.