When running the Virtual Serial Port (VSP) application, why does my PC recognize the BL600 but does not recognize the services available?

The Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) concept of “Custom Services and Profiles” means that a developer can customize their product and applications so they are proprietary. In addition, BLE was not originally intended for streaming serial data, rather it was meant to send small packets of sensor data periodically. The BT SIG has not officially adopted a Serial Port service/profile as with Classic BT, so any implementation of VSP or other serial data service or profile will be proprietary to the manufacturer of the silicon or module you are using.

Ezurio has provided VSP for our customers that want to use BLE for simple cable replacement as long as their application data rate does not exceed 10kbps. Ezurio has also defined the VSP Profile which defines how the Peripheral device (BL600) will communicate with the Central device (smartphone/tablet/PC/MAC).

In order to communicate between the BL600 running VSP and a PC (or other Central role device), the PC will need to have an application running on it that recognizes and communicates with the VSP Service on the BL600. For example, a Windows 7 PC does not support BT4.0 / BT4.1 so you would need a BT4.0 USB dongle that incorporates the full BT4.0 stack on the dongle and an application that runs on Windows 7 and fulfills the requirements of a Central role device for Ezurio's (formerly Laird Connectivity) VSP Profile.

Information regarding Ezurio's VSP Profile can be found in the smartBASIC User Guide, which explains what is required when developing a Central Role VSP application.