Sending bulk sensor data to PC via BLE, would BLE UART be the best way?

[sxd248]

Hey! I am very new to the NRF52 environment, and have just started tinkering with the BLE capabilities. For my project I need to send 5 Kbytes of sensor data as fast as possible to a pc which would later process this data. Looking around in this forum I see that I essentially have two options, create a custom service or use the BLE UART capabilities to send the data to another NRF52 and send it to the PC via UART. Is their any general recommendation on which route I should take, particularly for speed? Thank you for your time!

[awneil]

sxd248 said:

I am very new to the NRF52 environment,

Do you have experience with any other microcontroller(s)?

Or BLE in general?

sxd248 said:

I need to send 5 Kbytes of sensor data as fast as possible

Note that BLE is not designed for high speed or high volume data transfer.

If those are your key requirements, are you sure that BLE is the best approach for your solution?

sxd248 said:

use the BLE UART capabilities to send the data to another NRF52

You don't necessarily need another nRF52.

The whole point of things like BLE is that they are Standard - so not dependent on any particular underlying hardware.

Windows-10 has native BLE support.

sxd248 said:

and send it to the PC via UART

with an nRF52840, you could use USB.

[sxd248]

The famous cat replies to my question! Yeah I have a little experience with microcontrollers, but BLE is completely new territory for me. If I am understanding your response correctly, this is more of a BLE question rather than an NRF52 question? If so, theoretically, should I be able to create a custom service/characteristic and as long as I follow the BLE guidelines, I should be able to whip up a program in my pc(say in python) and read/process the incoming bytes via BLE? I was thinking of using the notification function to send the data(changes in sensor values), but was unsure if that would be less efficient than another way. Sorry for the barrage of questions, and thank you for your time!

[awneil]

sxd248 said:

should I be able to create a custom service/characteristic

Yes. Here's some tutorials showing how to do exactly that:

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/nordic/short-range-guides/b/bluetooth-low-energy/posts/ble-services-a-beginners-tutorial

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/nordic/short-range-guides/b/bluetooth-low-energy/posts/ble-characteristics-a-beginners-tutorial