New BL600 Series Firmware Provides Two New Features

Published on July 29, 2013

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A new release of production firmware for Laird’s BL600 Series of innovative, single-mode Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is now available. The new release implements two key new features to the BL600:

Custom Services: Custom services allows you to freely send user defined data without needing to follow SIG adopted services and characteristics but still taking advantage of BLE’s Generic Attribute Profile. Any BLE services and characteristics can now be added at run-time using new smartBASIC functions. This means Custom and any future Bluetooth SIG adopted services do not require new firmware from Laird to implement.

vSP – virtual Serial Port: The managed virtual Serial Port service allows bi-directional data exchange between the BL600 module and a Central mode device. This managed service has ring buffers for both RX and TX which sit on top of the service characteristics and is available in both command and run mode.

A sample smartBASIC application has been developed along with a comprehensive application note showing its operation with Laird’s latest iOS application ‘BL600 Serial’ available on iTunes.

All DVK part numbers can be easily upgraded to the latest firmware using the supplied documentation and associated tools. The firmware release coincides with a new production shipment of the BL600 modules and these have the new firmware pre-loaded, which is denoted by a top level part number revision change to -02 (example – BL600-SA-02 on the product label).

The new firmware release has led to updates to the following documents and links in the Documentation tab on the BL600 product page.

Anyone requiring a log in for the Secure Download Center, simply needs to request them here.