Cross-platform desktop app framework for BLE (without serial dongle)

[Cedric Honnet]

Hi everybody!

It seems that there is not a huge choice of cross-platform frameworks to develop desktop applications for BLE (without serial dongle).

 

Nordic Semi seems to suggest this JS approach:

https://github.com/NordicPlayground/nrf5-physical-web

 

Did anyone here find anything else simple? (with examples ideally ;p)

 

We're working on a project* that should be used by people from various backgrounds, it's not sufficient to rely on JS only...

There must be more choice! (Java, Python, etc.)

Thanks in advance!

Cedric ;)

 

 

* http://HiveTracker.github.io

[tesc]

Hi,

First of all, I think your project looks cool.

I see that the project on NordicPlayground on github that you linked to has not been updated for a couple of years, and it is just a small set of tools for experimenting with. It is not supposed to be a production quality framework for BLE desktop applications.

We do release some pc tools, such as nRF Connect for Desktop, nrfutil, etc, but common for those is that they all rely on an nRF DK or Dongle for providing BLE connectivity. For instance, nRF Connect for Destop uses pc-ble-driver and pc-ble-driver-js.

I am afraid I do not know what else is out there, but others from the DevZone community might.

Regards,
Terje

[Cedric Honnet]

Thanks for your answer!

If you confirm that Nordic doesn't provide any BLE framework for desktop, is there a way to submit a "suggestion ticket"?

(Forcing the user to buy a dongle doesn't make much sense for a device using a protocol supposed to work on most computers)

Thanks again ;)

[tesc]

Hi,

First of all I am sure there are tools out there for making BLE applications for the PC platform, and I encourage others to share knowledge on those solutions.

I can confirm we do not provide any BLE framework for desktop that accesses BLE through the OS APIs like we do for smartphones. Our PC tools are primarily for developing and testing products made with our SoCs. Generic BLE frameworks is not what we do.

BLE has not been widely supported on PC, at least until recently. So when we needed PC side tools for development and testing we chose to use our Dongles and DKs for connectivity, as that would be something you already got if developing for nRF SoCs.

Smartphones have BLE built-in, and most importantly it is the main platform for connecting to most BLE devices. Hence our tools and libraries running natively on Android and iOS.

Now that BLE is getting more wide-spread on PC we may choose to go in that direction there as well. There is certainly a benefit to not having to tie up a DK or Dongle for connectivity. You may consider your suggestion submitted.

Regards,
Terje