Problem: Create IOS app for nRF51822 beacon kit

[Tesseract]

Hello, I am apple developer and using Swift. Actually I'm just intern student.

#1 My boss assign some task to me to CREATE IOS App to scan nRF51822 Bluetooth Smart Beacon Kit (www.nordicsemi.com/.../nRF51822-Bluetooth-Smart-Beacon-Kit). I try some source code from this iBeacon App Development with CoreLocation.This use only CoreLocation. Including another source code. But result is not found.

#2 I try to config this beacon kit by using nRF Beacons application. It found but not have advanced properties ,see here( upic.me/.../file_002.png ) It not found range too even my decive is at beacon see here ( upic.me/.../file_001.png , upic.me/.../file_000.png ) It suppose to found range and advanced properties

#My Question:

From #1

Is this the right way to use this source code to scan advertised package of nRF51822 Bluetooth Smart Beacon Kit? my goal is just to write some code that can find it.

From #2

Why it not found range and advanced properties ? I watch video www.youtube.com/watch . It found range and advanced properties. Or I have to update firmware to this beacon but how? I download nRF Toolbox application and try use DFU mode but I don't know which file that I have to use to update see here ( upic.me/.../file_000e.png ) I don't have another tool or kit except nRF51822 Bluetooth Smart Beacon Kit

Please help me solve it. I don't have much time for this task. Thank you :)))))))

[Stefan Birnir Sverrisson]

Hi

To be honest, the beacon kit is not the easiest one to manage or handle, especially with IOS, and it is thought of as reference design, not a development kit. For development, nRF51-DK is much more plug and play, and can advertise beacons as well. Beacon kit has a pretty steep learning curve if you want to do something more than just let it advertise the default onboard beacon. Anyhow, instead of scaring you more, I'll try to explain how you can make it work with IOS beacon app.

To modify the advanced properties of the beacon kit can be done in IOS beacon app, see the description on this thread. Perhaps it is better to start look at the lower section "Update beacon parameters from the IOS Beacon app"

You can program the Beacon kit directly with nRF51-DK development kit and an adapter cable, see description on this blog post. The beacon kit ships with onboard bootloader, but that bootloader is limited unfortunately to upload only a new application to the beacon kit. It can not upload a new softdevice to the beacon kit. The beacon kit has most likely softdevice 7.1.0 onboard, see beacon kit version table, which limits this device to contain applications that are compatible with softdevice S110 7.1.0, which is basically applications from nRF51 SDK 6.1.0 and nRF51 SDK 7.x.x, see the nRF51 compatibility matrix.

The onboard beacon firmware 1.1.1 is however compatible with softdevice S110 7.1.0 and you can open the beacon firmware 1.1.1 in Keil and modify it and upload it to the beacon kit via the onboard bootloader, or program it directly with a nRF51-DK + adapter capble if you have it. To upload a new application via the onboard bootloader is described here and here. In fact, to upload a new application via a bootloader, you need to bundle your application into so called zip file, which you then upload to the device via the beacon kit onboard bootloader.

If you want to make a custom beacon IOS app, perhaps a good start is to look at the source code for the nRFBeacon IOS app.

[Tesseract]

I learn from app source code. I just use CoreBluetooth to scan service and characteristic. This is my misunderstanding with this Beacon kit and IBeacon. Now, I can achieve my task.

Thank you very much :))))