When is a custom GATT profile recommended?

[Mahesh Venkitachalam]

I am currently developing an IoT device using nRF8001 which needs to report gas concentration obtained from a sensor. I have looked through the standard GATT profiles, and I don't see anything I can use directly. I was curious if it's common practice for products to create their own custom GATT profiles.

[Dhruv Agarwal]

Hey I have worked on nRF51822, and yes you can easily create your own GATT profile. You can start by using code from existing standard GATT characteristic code. I have used mbed's APIs mbed-src,BLE_API, (there is one more for nrf51822, but you gotta find compatibility for your chip and board). A simple way to get idea would be reading this simple code.

github.com/.../BatteryService.h

I will put my sample code to use it on github and will update here asap if you want.

[Dhruv Agarwal]

Yes, the existing GATT profiles are some standard which can be used right away to production or to have some idea about how it's working. To build something not made before, you can always build on the top of it ( or by taking the idea on how it can be made). And yes it is quite common in industrial applications to have custom GATT services. which can be used by your application (mobile, or other devices).