Alternatives to Bluetooth Developer Studio

[ilw]

Are there any recommended alternatives (& nordic plugins) to the discontinued Bluetooth Developer Studio? I'm looking for a tool to make the process of creating custom GATT profiles/services easier. Or does anyone have a download link for Bluetootth Developer Studio they can share?

Thanks!

[Bjørn Kvaale]

I would download Segger Embedded Studio, which is free for Nordic SDK users. Then, I would take a look at this getting started tutorial, as well as this custom service tutorial.

[sherif]

This is not the reply one is expecting. BDS has nice gui interface that is easy to use to develop the Gatt sevices even for TI chips. Nordic has also a plugin and it is much better than manual mistakes.

[howard n2wx]

Is BDS viable? It's abandonware without source code.  I'm not thrilled with SES but at least it's maintained and it's not another in a long line of clunky Eclipse gcc wrappers (I'm looking at you, MCUXpresso/KDS/etc)

And what's up with all of these Eclipse IDEs anyway? You look the wrong way at an Eclipse work directory and the entire project has to be reimported to a new work directory with the loss of all of the settings.

[Bjørn Kvaale]

We maintain SES & make improvements if necessary. I have not tried BDS, so I cannot comment. Regarding SES, if you run into any issues, support engineers at Nordic have extensive knowledge & will most likely be able to help. Keil is another option, but it can get quite expensive.

[ilw]

As sherif is alluding to, Segger Embedded Studio (SES) is entirely complementary to Bluetooth Developer Studio (BDS) - there is almost no overlap in functionality.  We used BDS (+the nordic plugin) as a code generator and profile/service planning tool whereas SES is an IDE.

The Bluetooth SIG have killed off a useful & free tool and I still can't find any information on what the commercial or free alternative to it is. They could've made it open source abandonware, but I'm guessing its been sold off