Sentrius™ BT610 I/O Sensor

Yes! Provided the sensor is already loaded with the Canvas Software Suite firmware it is possible to update the firmware using the Canvas Hub Applet from Xbit for desktop or Xbit mobile applications.

The binary firmware file (.bin) will need to be saved to the file system of the device running the XBit application to enable OTA loading. 

If the device is not running any Python scripts, then it will advertise by default as Canvasxx, where the xx may differ between canvas enabled devices. Otherwise, it will advertise as per the script loaded to the device.

NOTE: If the device is running a Python script then the BLE advertisement MUST be connectable, in order to it with the Canvas Hub application for OTA loading.

The Canvas Firmware runs on Zephyr RTOS which natively provides a bunch of useful subsystem for development purposes. One of those is a command line interface which allows - for devices product that supports its firmware - convenient device management features like configuration, monitoring or quick access to debugging tools.

The command line interface is usually accessible via UART. Access to the sensor debug UART on the BT610 is facilitated by a 6 pin header, J1, with pinout as follows :

To access J1 port directly from your PC, we'd suggest to use a UART to USB kind of cable.

Once you get connected to it, you'll have access to a similar menu via whatever terminal software that supports serial communication :

Canvas Gateway&Sensor firmware is a mature and fully supported platform by Ezurio. Even if you don't intend to use any Device Management features, we would suggest to use the Canvas Firmware as the starting point of your development as it contains few telemetry capabilities (MQTT and BLE Ads) allowing easy deployment and management of compatible wireless sensor networks with a few simple configuration steps. Products compatible with Canvas Firmware are BT610, Pinnacle 100 and MG100. 

You'll find BT610 Pressure, Thermistor and Ultrasonic Sensors documentation attached to this FAQ.

The temperature is measured by a thermistor which is located at the tip of the exposed metal probe end.  

These instructions are intended for Linux or Macintosh OS. They may work using WSL, Cigwin, or other bash style terminals in Windows although this is untested. 

It may be desired to communicate with a device attached to the USB-SWD without terminal emulation, I.E. Picocom, Screen, Putty.  This can be useful for writing bash scripts, or if you're using Zephyr's "west flash" and would like a quick way to check your output. 

1. Verify you have the program "stty" available using the command "which stty", if this does not return a value you will need to install it.  Fortunately "stty" generally comes standard with Linux and MacOS.  
2. Identify your serial device.  This can be done using the command "dmesg -w" then connecting the USB-SWD.  You will see output like this (In Linux).

3. (Optional) Assign the device name to a variable, for example "DEVICE=/dev/ttyACM0".
4. Configure "stty" to talk with the device "stty -F $DEVICE 115200 -echo -echoe -echok"
5. To see output from the device execute "cat $DEVICE &".  This will send serial communication from the device to Linux's standard output.  The "&" is to run this program in the background.
6. Now press the reset button on the USB-SWD, you should see the output from your device.  In this example the Zephyr "Hello World" example has been flashed to a BT510. 

7. (Optional) if you would like to send commands back to the device you can use "echo" or add an argument to your shell, "foo() { echo -n -e "$1\r" > $DEVICE; }".  Now commands can be issued directly from the command line, for example "foo "my_command"" will send the string "my_command" to the device. 

The answer to this question will depend on the chosen BT610 firmware options. When you opt for the BT610 you have a bunch of different choice :

- Make use of BT610 default Legacy Firmware developed by us (not recommended for new design).

- Leverage our value added Canvas Sensor Firmware as starting point for your development to make it fit your specific application.  

- Develop your own firmware from scratch from the BT610 Zephyr board.

As you go down the list you'll get more flexibility. 

Our BT610 Legacy Firmware include a panel of different preconfigured probes like Thermistors, AC Current, Ultrasonic and Pressure sensors. Unfortunately it is not possible to combine different sensor types as it is with the default Legacy Firmware.

Developing your own firmware via the Canvas Sensor Firmware or the BT610 Zephyr page will always allow you more flexibility in probe choice, configuration and association.

It's important to keep in mind that BT610 is running on a single battery and is intended to run for years before replacing it. Customers need to take into consideration power supply constraints when opting for a given probes settings. 

You'll find BT610 default battery shipping documentation attached to this FAQ.

You'll find all BT610 AC Current Sensors documentation attached to this FAQ.

All Ezurio Nordic-based Bluetooth modules, which include the BL65x series and BL5340 modules, can be flashed with any SEGGER J-Link device which supports working with Cortex-M based devices. Here is a sample list of J-Links which will work with the Nordic based modules as of the time this FAQ was written:

SEGGER J-Link Probes and Flashers for Nordic based products: 

J-Link PRO 
J-Link ULTRA+ 
J-Link PLUS 
J-Link BASE 
J-Link EDU (Student Only Use)
J-Link for Cortex-M 
Flasher PRO
Flasher ARM 
Flasher Portable

*Note: All Ezurio Bluetooth IoT products based on Nordic's nRF52 series can also be programed with these J-Link devices, such as the BT510, BT610 and the MG100.