BLE: additional features #5186

jimmo · 2019-10-06T03:23:25Z

peterhinch · 2019-10-06T11:33:54Z

As a total BLE n00b I'm looking forward to the docs and samples :)

jonsmirl · 2019-10-06T14:19:43Z

How about Unix BLE support? I'd like to have that so that I can use my desktop for development. Of course Unix BLE is way different but that would be hidden behind the API.

dmazzella · 2019-10-06T21:25:24Z

Is BLE support for STM32WB also planned?

dpgeorge · 2019-10-08T01:40:12Z

Extract bytes from UUID class (buffer protocol?) for appending to adv_data.

Should be easiest and most flexible to use the buffer protocol, then bytes(uuid) would give the bytes value.

dpgeorge · 2019-10-08T04:49:45Z

How about Unix BLE support?

This would be good but no progress has been made yet.

Is BLE support for STM32WB also planned?

Yes, but no timeline yet.

jonsmirl · 2019-10-09T13:09:27Z

From the PR request thread...

ble.gap_advertise(100,'Micropython')
You need to pass in an advertising packet, eg `b'\x02\x01\x02\x04\x09MPY'

There needs to a helper API for constructing advertising packets. Most people are not familiar with the BLE spec.

jonsmirl · 2019-10-14T02:01:50Z

I've been poking around looking at Unix support for Bluetooth. The easiest strategy looks to be using DBUS. Bluez always builds with dbus support so there is no getting rid of it. Buildroot contains the package 'dbus-python', http://dbus.freedesktop.org/releases/dbus-python So can micropython access this package? If it can, then an approach like Adafruit used should work. https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Python_BluefruitLE/blob/master/Adafruit_BluefruitLE/bluez_dbus/provider.py

Does not appear to be simple to get dbus-python working in micropython. Maybe python expert can comment on best way to achieve this?

Looks like an attempt to implement a moddbus.c is here....
https://github.com/turbinenreiter/micropython/blob/dbus2/extmod/moddbus.c
Branch DBUS2

dpgeorge · 2019-10-14T13:22:40Z

Is BLE support for STM32WB also planned?

See #5212 for a start on this.

dpgeorge · 2019-10-14T13:34:11Z

I've been poking around looking at Unix support for Bluetooth. The easiest strategy looks to be using DBUS.
...
Does not appear to be simple to get dbus-python working in micropython. Maybe python expert can comment on best way to achieve this?

Looks like an attempt to implement a moddbus.c is here

Thanks for looking into this, definitely a good thing to work on.

If Bluez is the way to go, then there are probably a few ways to interface with it:

using system calls to run bluetoothctl
using the ffi module to interface to libdbus.so
implementing a new C module to interface to dbus, like moddbus.c

2 and 3 are basically the same, just 2 is implementing it in pure Python, 3 in C.

jonsmirl · 2019-10-14T16:26:25Z

One goal of mine is to have API compatibility between my desktop and target systems (ESP32, Unix) to facilitate a common development environment. Desktop is running bluez and lots of stuff depends on that, so I don't see any obvious way to avoid it. Another reason for keeping Bluez is if the target system is implementing Bluetooth audio.

I have not used Python much, which is a better approach, ffi or C module? Has anyone already coded micropython DBUS support using ffi? What about running the micropython pre-processor over the libdbus header file?

All of this Bluez, dbus, glib, etc support is fairly large so I could also see someone porting code over from a microcontroller to directly access the BLE device. But doing that will lose the ability to run other Linux apps. I'm sure there are boards around running Linux that only have BLE hardware with custom drivers and no BlueZ. Of course these variations will be hidden below the common API.

ricou73 · 2019-10-15T16:06:10Z

currently i do some test on esp32-20191011-v1.11-422-g98c2eabaf.bin with an esp32-wroom.
My python code is very simple, unfortunatly this test show ony 2 ble device where my phone or a lopy4 found 6 ble device. Any clue about why scanning seem so poor on result ? (if i test in my office it's worst, showing only 5 device where nrf connect found 20 of them)

import bluetooth
import ubinascii
import time
bt = bluetooth.BLE()
bt.active(True)
devlist=list()
def bt_irq(evt,data):
	global devlist
	if(evt==16) :
		if not (str(ubinascii.hexlify(data[1])) in devlist):
			devlist.append(str(ubinascii.hexlify(data[1])))
	else:
		print("Evt:"+str(evt)+" DATA:"+str(data))
		EndOf=True
bt.irq(bt_irq)
bt.gap_scan(60000)
time.sleep(60)
print("End of scan")
print(devlist)

dmartauz · 2019-10-15T16:15:16Z

Try to specify scan interval and window - using the same value will start continuous scanning, e.g.:
bt.gap_scan(60000, 30000, 30000). Interval and window values are in microseconds.

ricou73 · 2019-10-15T16:32:22Z

I guess i have to wait the next available binary build because on g98c2eabaf tag i have this error calling gap_scan
TypeError: function expected at most 2 arguments, got 4
(i saw the modification about gap_scan is commited on the 11 october). I will keep you informed

dmartauz · 2019-10-15T16:46:35Z

You can build the binary yourself:
https://github.com/micropython/micropython/blob/master/ports/esp32/README.md

jonsmirl · 2019-10-16T01:48:22Z

Another way to do Linux support is to access the functions via a socket like this code from the Bluez source illustrates, it is a test program. ./configure --enable-testing will build it. The test program creates a peripheral device that I was able to access on my phone.
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/bluetooth/bluez.git/tree/peripheral
As a bonus I believe this code can run either with or without the bluez stack running. This has potential to be much more memory efficient than the dbus approach since you can run it standalone is small systems.

Edit -- I see now that these commands are all available in ASCII form from bluetoothctl as mentioned earlier.

ricou73 · 2019-10-16T15:47:15Z

You can build the binary yourself:
https://github.com/micropython/micropython/blob/master/ports/esp32/README.md

I have tryed but miserably failed. I have and windows with msys2, xtensia and was able to build lopy4 custom firmware, but when i try micropython build i run into a lot of trouble.
the last was when i run make i have the following error (before that i have patched pyserial to successfull ompilation for esptool)

CC ../../extmod/modbtree.c
In file included from ../../extmod/modbtree.c:37:0:
../../lib/berkeley-db-1.xx/PORT/include/db.h:1:1: error: expected identifier or '(' before '.' token
../../include/db.h
^
In file included from ../../extmod/modbtree.c:38:0:
../../lib/berkeley-db-1.xx/PORT/include/../../btree/btree.h:89:3: error: data definition has no type or storage class [-Werror]
} PAGE;
^
../../lib/berkeley-db-1.xx/PORT/include/../../btree/btree.h:89:3: error: type defaults to 'int' in declaration of 'PAGE' [-Werror=implicit-int]
../../lib/berkeley-db-1.xx/PORT/include/../../btree/btree.h:126:2: error: unknown type name 'u_int32_t'
u_int32_t ksize; /* key size */
^

I have no idea to what i have to do for to correcting this, .

jonsmirl · 2019-10-16T15:53:01Z

The littlevgl port should work for esp32 and BT. Set it to use the IDF 4 commit tag it will list for you.
https://github.com/littlevgl/lv_micropython

It is working for me

diginfo · 2019-10-18T08:26:22Z

Is this a bug ??

import ubinascii
import bluetooth as bt
addr=ubinascii.unhexlify(b'cdd751150f7e')
bt.BLE.gap_connect(0,addr)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: argument has wrong type

dpgeorge · 2019-10-18T08:33:53Z

bt.BLE.gap_connect(0,addr)

That should be: bt.BLE().gap_connect(...). But it also needs bt.BLE().active(1) to start it.

diginfo · 2019-10-18T08:40:25Z

Oops, that's embarrassing, sorrie about that

jonsmirl · 2019-10-18T23:07:11Z

New idea on how to do Unix support... How about writing a transport driver for the Nimble Host piece that calls the Linux kernel BT API? Both of these APIs are HCI based. The Linux side needs to go through the kernel so that it won't disrupt other uses of the adapter like Bluetooth Audio.

I am not familiar enough yet with the two APIs to understand what is involved. Anyone have more experience in this area? One issue is that both stacks implement L2CAP.

Edit: Nimble people informed me it has already been ported.
https://github.com/apache/mynewt-nimble/tree/master/porting/examples/linux

Can one of the micropython nimble experts look into enabling this? The downside is that it has to have exclusive use of the bluetooth device. For my use case I also need bluetooth audio running so that means I have to keep working on a DBUS/glib solution.

dpgeorge · 2019-10-21T01:50:11Z

How about writing a transport driver for the Nimble Host piece that calls the Linux kernel BT API?
...
Nimble people informed me it has already been ported.

Yes, this would be a good solution because 1) it's the simplest way to get the bluetooth module working on Linux; 2) it will provide a way to test our nimble bindings.

The downside is that it has to have exclusive use of the bluetooth device.

Right, so it might also be a good idea to provide a dbus/other solution as an alternative on Linux.

jonsmirl · 2019-10-21T01:53:38Z

Quick solution for desktop is to just plug in an extra USB BT adapter. BlueZ can have one and micropython development can use the other.

diginfo · 2019-11-07T06:01:52Z

Can you please add the ability to:

Get a list of connection handles
Get the RSSI of a connected device

Many Thanks

dmazzella · 2019-11-11T22:40:23Z

@jimmo @dpgeorge some progress on

Pairing & bonding support.

?

Cubic-Rambo · 2019-11-13T01:37:10Z

How to make the nRF52 board support the ubluetooth library？

playxz · 2019-11-20T08:05:43Z

@jimmo @dpgeorge some progress on

Pairing & bonding support.

?

Any news?

playxz · 2019-11-20T08:05:58Z

What about descriptors?
How can I create them?
May I have some examples?

Thx

pacmac · 2019-12-21T10:51:32Z

Is "Get the RSSI of a connected device" anywhere in the pipeline :-)

dmazzella · 2020-01-22T09:49:04Z

@jimmo @dpgeorge some progress on

Pairing & bonding support.

?

news on this?

FynnHR · 2020-02-06T12:11:26Z

Does pairing and bonding support also includes Passkey authorization?

pacmac · 2020-02-18T08:34:10Z

Is "Get the RSSI of a connected device" anywhere in the pipeline ??

This would be useful :-)

Internally change the representation of UUIDs to LE uint8* to simplify this. This allows UUIDs to be easily used in BLE payloads (such as advertising). Ref: micropython#5186

Walkline80 · 2020-03-25T13:28:36Z

Waiting for pairing & bonding support

Internally change the representation of UUIDs to LE uint8* to simplify this. This allows UUIDs to be easily used in BLE payloads (such as advertising). Ref: micropython#5186

dpgeorge · 2020-04-29T07:10:52Z

I've been poking around looking at Unix support for Bluetooth.

The bluetooth module is now supported on unix builds, via btstack. See 7563d58

Walkline80 · 2020-05-08T07:43:34Z

According to NimBLE Host GAP Reference, I'm trying to add pairing & bonding function, and its worked for me, but there's no way to auto reconnect....

Still waiting and hoping for pairing & bonding support

dmazzella · 2020-10-17T20:19:37Z

Updates on pairing & bonding support?

street-grease-coder · 2021-01-05T02:42:00Z

bump @pairing/bonding

jimmo · 2021-01-05T04:54:51Z

Updates on pairing & bonding support?
bump @pairing/bonding

@dmazzella @street-grease-coder

This was implemented in #6662 and will be in the 1.14 release for STM32 (e.g. PYBD and WB55).

However it's not supported on ESP32 due to the need for synchronous event handlers. Looking for a volunteer to sort out the necessary plumbing on ESP32. Se notes in #6594 and #6651

kt-work · 2021-02-23T14:26:34Z

Is there any chance to get an event on completed advertisment transmission, that can be evaluated by the handler that has been passed to BLE.irq()?

jimmo · 2021-02-24T03:25:26Z

Is there any chance to get an event on completed advertisment transmission, that can be evaluated by the handler that has been passed to BLE.irq()?

@kt-work I'm not sure whether this is supported by either NimBLE or BlueKitchen (or any HCI controller?)... can you provide a link to documentation for another BLE implementation that supports this and I can look into it.

I'm guessing you're looking at implementing some sort of data-over-advertising (e.g. mesh?). I had a look at NimBLE's mesh implementation and it works by starting advertising and sleeping for a number of intervals (i.e. it will always send more than one beacon).

kt-work · 2021-02-24T07:33:03Z

Hi Jim, I'm trying to introduce a sequence number into advertisements for an end of line test. In the past I did work on a meshing implementation based on a feature like this. The device was a BCM20736. Broadcom/Cypress/Infineon provides an SDK called WICED SDK that contains an application framework lets call it, that supports a callback for finished advertisements. It is quite possible that it will be impossible to implement if it is not supported on the HCI layer of the STM32WB55. I also considered starting advertising and stopping it to modify the next advertisement. This might work if I can be certain that advertising starts right after the call to start advertising or after a fixed amount of time. If you could look into that it would help me too. Best Regards, Kilian Timmler Am Mi., 24. Feb. 2021 um 04:25 Uhr schrieb Jim Mussared < notifications@github.com>:

…

Is there any chance to get an event on completed advertisment transmission, that can be evaluated by the handler that has been passed to BLE.irq()? @kt-work <https://github.com/kt-work> I'm not sure whether this is supported by either NimBLE or BlueKitchen (or any HCI controller?)... can you provide a link to documentation for another BLE implementation that supports this and I can look into it. I'm guessing you're looking at implementing some sort of data-over-advertising (e.g. mesh?). I had a look at NimBLE's mesh implementation and it works by starting advertising and sleeping for a number of intervals (i.e. it will always send more than one beacon). — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#5186 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AOAX3XBQOXRHCV3APSZ74UDTARWTJANCNFSM4I52JO2A> .

martinlombana · 2021-03-08T21:00:07Z

Hi! @jimmo, when can we expect to have bonding capabilities for the ESP32 port? Thanks!

street-grease-coder · 2021-03-08T22:34:54Z

Hi! @jimmo, when can we expect to have bonding capabilities for the ESP32 port? Thanks!

Hey, I don't think this is how open source works. They're already doing an amazing job. The way to accelerate this is by contributing, not by asking for deadlines that people can't keep because many are doing it in their free time and the process is usually nonlinear

martinlombana · 2021-03-08T22:41:55Z

Hi! @jimmo, when can we expect to have bonding capabilities for the ESP32 port? Thanks!

Hey, I don't think this is how open source works. They're already doing an amazing job. The way to accelerate this is by contributing, not by asking for deadlines that people can't keep because many are doing it in their free time and the process is usually nonlinear

Hey yourself! Yes, That is why I supported @jimmo and started paying 3 days ago. Using micropython, asking questions in order to develop my knoledge further, even though I am very new in micropython and low-level stuff, and hopefully, in the near future, start contributing to this community as well.

I am not pressuring anyone. As a matter of fact my question was just a question. You might have imprinted a tone that was not even there to begin with. I re-read my question 10 times, with an open mind, in case there was something I was not seing. It was just a request for information, as I know he is actively developing A LOT of things, for which I am very grateful. Not pressuring anyone here. I am not like that.

Cheers,

street-grease-coder · 2021-03-08T22:59:18Z

You should add how future readers can support Jimmo, I'd be in on that :) The rest is not my place to say - and further I'm also a newbie here

leycec · 2021-12-08T06:31:53Z

We'd all love to see bonding-on-ESP32, of course – but there appear to be soft blockers in the ESP32 SDK API that sadly complicate this:

However it's not supported on ESP32 due to the need for synchronous event handlers. Looking for a volunteer to sort out the necessary plumbing on ESP32. See notes in #6594 and #6651

Ideally, Espressif themselves would either financially sponsor or supply in-house PR manpower for this community effort that economically benefits them. That isn't happening, so... here we are.

Meanwhile, I'm just delighted that the workhorse AIOBLE framework continues to receive timely commits. Keep up all the incumbent greatness, @jimmo. You're a living embedded systems legend.

leycec · 2021-12-31T06:38:35Z

NRF5x BLE support would be phenomenal as well.

Indeed, this would probably make a great first issue for someone with enthusiasm! ^{so, not me} Why? Because Adafruit have already done the hard work by adding full support for BLE (including pairing and bonding, crucially) to CircuitPython's existing NRF5x port. Unsurprisingly, the Adapter.c and Connection.c files in the low-level _bleio C extension subdirectory of that port are where all of the good stuff pertaining to pairing happen; likewise, the bonding.c file manages bonding.

So that's a mostly solved problem. Phew! 😅

puppet13th · 2023-06-27T11:12:58Z

@dpgeorge @jimmo any new about implementing BLE.config() to set ble txpower. on wemos c3 mini v1.0, ble was unuseable because of antenna/hardware design. The wifi part can be workaround using lower txpower.
I have tried to hardcoded ble txpower using these instruction from the old forum and it works well. BLE connection was stable, but i have not test impact on the range though.

ble scan result comparison:

DEVICE1	-40	lolin_c3_mini_stock
DEVICE1	-48	lolin_c3_mini_0dbm
DEVICE1	-55	ai_thinker_c3
DEVICE1	-56	ai_thinker_c3_3dbm
DEVICE1	-60	lolin_c3_mini_3dbm
		
DEVICE2	-49	lolin_c3_mini_stock
DEVICE2	-57	ai_thinker_c3
DEVICE2	-58	ai_thinker_c3_3dbm
DEVICE2	-60	lolin_c3_mini_3dbm
DEVICE2	-61	lolin_c3_mini_0dbm
		
DEVICE3	-39	lolin_c3_mini_0dbm
DEVICE3	-42	ai_thinker_c3
DEVICE3	-50	lolin_c3_mini_3dbm
DEVICE3	-54	ai_thinker_c3_3dbm
DEVICE3	-59	lolin_c3_mini_stock
		
DEVICE4	-62	lolin_c3_mini_stock
DEVICE4	-64	lolin_c3_mini_0dbm
DEVICE4	-66	lolin_c3_mini_3dbm
DEVICE4	-74	ai_thinker_c3
DEVICE4	-76	ai_thinker_c3_3dbm

This was referenced Oct 7, 2019

esp32: BLE support using Nimble #5171

Merged

Common BLE API #5051

Merged

dpgeorge added enhancement extmod labels Oct 8, 2019

dpgeorge changed the title ~~BLE: Outstanding work~~ BLE: additional features Oct 8, 2019

dpgeorge pinned this issue Oct 8, 2019

jimmo mentioned this issue Mar 5, 2020

Is esp32 ble irq() missing resp_data receiving event? #5716

Closed

jonathanhogg mentioned this issue Jul 31, 2020

extmod/modbluetooth: Add support for active scanning. #6300

Closed

dpgeorge unpinned this issue Feb 2, 2022

BLE: additional features #5186

BLE: additional features #5186

Comments

jimmo commented Oct 6, 2019 • edited by dpgeorge

peterhinch commented Oct 6, 2019

jonsmirl commented Oct 6, 2019 • edited

dmazzella commented Oct 6, 2019

dpgeorge commented Oct 8, 2019

dpgeorge commented Oct 8, 2019

jonsmirl commented Oct 9, 2019

jonsmirl commented Oct 14, 2019 • edited

dpgeorge commented Oct 14, 2019

dpgeorge commented Oct 14, 2019

jonsmirl commented Oct 14, 2019 • edited

ricou73 commented Oct 15, 2019

dmartauz commented Oct 15, 2019 • edited

ricou73 commented Oct 15, 2019

dmartauz commented Oct 15, 2019

jonsmirl commented Oct 16, 2019 • edited

ricou73 commented Oct 16, 2019

jonsmirl commented Oct 16, 2019 • edited

diginfo commented Oct 18, 2019

dpgeorge commented Oct 18, 2019

diginfo commented Oct 18, 2019

jonsmirl commented Oct 18, 2019 • edited

dpgeorge commented Oct 21, 2019

jonsmirl commented Oct 21, 2019

diginfo commented Nov 7, 2019

dmazzella commented Nov 11, 2019

Cubic-Rambo commented Nov 13, 2019

playxz commented Nov 20, 2019

playxz commented Nov 20, 2019

pacmac commented Dec 21, 2019

dmazzella commented Jan 22, 2020

FynnHR commented Feb 6, 2020

pacmac commented Feb 18, 2020

Walkline80 commented Mar 25, 2020

dpgeorge commented Apr 29, 2020

Walkline80 commented May 8, 2020

dmazzella commented Oct 17, 2020

street-grease-coder commented Jan 5, 2021

jimmo commented Jan 5, 2021

kt-work commented Feb 23, 2021

jimmo commented Feb 24, 2021

kt-work commented Feb 24, 2021 via email • edited

martinlombana commented Mar 8, 2021

street-grease-coder commented Mar 8, 2021

martinlombana commented Mar 8, 2021 • edited

street-grease-coder commented Mar 8, 2021

leycec commented Dec 8, 2021

leycec commented Dec 31, 2021

puppet13th commented Jun 27, 2023

jimmo commented Oct 6, 2019 •

edited by dpgeorge

jonsmirl commented Oct 6, 2019 •

edited

jonsmirl commented Oct 14, 2019 •

edited

jonsmirl commented Oct 14, 2019 •

edited

dmartauz commented Oct 15, 2019 •

edited

jonsmirl commented Oct 16, 2019 •

edited

jonsmirl commented Oct 16, 2019 •

edited

jonsmirl commented Oct 18, 2019 •

edited

kt-work commented Feb 24, 2021 via email •

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martinlombana commented Mar 8, 2021 •

edited