Use nrf51 dk to connect to a bluetooth device

[jizh1000]

Hi,

I just got my nrf51 dk and my task is to connect it with a bluetooth device, say a bluetooth treadmill, and retrieve data from it. The bluetooth treadmill was designed to be connected from a mobile phone that has a bluetooth module. Assuming that I know the MAC address of bluetooth module of the treadmill and use it to connect to the treadmill, I wonder if there are any relevant examples in library that you would recommend me to read?

Thanks.

[michaeld]

I think this is not possible because the nRF51 device can only communicatie with the Bluetooth Smart/Low energy protocol. But if the treadmill is enabeld with this protocol then it might be possible yes.

[jizh1000]

Hi, Thank you for your answer. If nRF51 can sniff the communication packets between the treadmill and the phone using the sniff software. Does it mean that nRF51 can connect to the treadmill? Thanks.

[michaeld]

Only if the treadmill communicates with Blue Tooth Smart protocol and you can see the packets with the sniffer then if there isn't any security or brand specific protocol than you could connect to it.

[MartinBL]

Hi. What @michaeld said. You can use your nRF51 DK (or a smartphone) together with Master Control Panel (or sniffer software like Wireshark) and try to connect with the treadmill. If you can connect and read the services then you should be alright. But as @michaeld said the treadmill manufacturer might have used some security or proprietary protocol that will ruin your project. And the nRF51 is Bluetooth Low Energy (aka Bluetooth Smart, aka Bluetooth 4.x) only. You will not be able to connect to devices using older Bluetooth protocols.

[jizh1000]

Hi Martin, thank you for your answer. Now I am certain that the treadmill uses classic Bluetooth module.So Nrf 51 dk won't connect with it. But I have another idea to use a classic Bluetooth module. The question is, if I connect a classic Bluetooth module such as hc06 to the uart of nrf51dk, will the virtual com of uart also work at the same time with the classic Bluetooth module? since I need virtual com to transfer data to the host computer. I notice that the BLE on nrf51 dk can work with virtual com at the same time, how is this achieved?