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Light Blue Bean!
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In my last post, I said that I was going to switch all of our individual fragments of sensors to one that is ‘Bluetooth Sensors.’ Since then, I have finished that and redesigned even more of Field Day.

After I finished switching all the fragments to one, I dove into working on BLE connection with the Light Blue Bean (LBB). Unfortunately, the LBB does not do Bluetooth the same way the Red Bear Labs shield does. The LBB uses something called ‘Scratch Characteristics.’ These are built-in 5 characteristics that can be written and read from the client (in this case, Field Day) and the server (the LBB). These characteristics have set UUIDs, so that means I can’t use the custom UUIDs I set for the RBL’s sensor. After browsing some of the android SDK code from Punchthrough (the people that made the LBB), I was able to determine the UUIDs that are used for the characteristics. Since Field Day is going to have to determine what kind of device it is connected to, I redesigned it so that the fragment is cleaner and doesn’t do any of that work. There are separate classes for a Bluetooth Sensor, GATT Client, and Bluetooth Service. The Service talks to the Sensor and the Sensor talks to the GATT client and determines what type of device it is connected to by checking the UUIDs. All the Fragment does now is say when it wants to write a message or read a message.

Punchthrough has sample code available for arduino and reading and writing the scratch characteristics. The examples along with the SDK has proven helpful when rewriting the android code to accommodate for the Bean. Unfortunately, not many people have used the Bean with Android. All of the examples are with iOS. Field Day is able to read scratch characteristics just fine from the Bean, but is currently unable to write to any characteristics. One huge problem with the bean is that everything is Bluetooth. It’s not like arduino where you plug in the device to your computer to upload code and power it on. This means that the Bean can only be connected to one thing at a time and thus, is really hard to debug. Typically when debugging arduino devices, I’m able to plug the device into my computer and watch the Serial monitor for debugging code I’ve added in. With the Bean, I cannot. It’s blind debugging and it sucks. I’m still working on figuring out how to write a characteristic and have the bean read that characteristic, but I think I’m getting closer. I hope to finish that this week.

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The Bean arrives!
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Last week, the bean arrived! We got four beans in the mail, which came with a ‘Maker Kit.’ The Maker Kit really just contained some headers, a buzzer, and your basic accessories. I was able to connect to all four of the Beans through my computer and my phone! It’s pretty cool that you can connect and upload code right from your phone. The ‘Bean Loader’ computer application integrates with Arduino really well. You write the code in the Arduino IDE, and just send it to the Bean through the Bean Loader. I followed this guide OSX Starting Guide to get started using the bean with my laptop. This is the guide I followed for iOS Guide for setting it up on my iPhone.

Unlike most Arduino board, the Bean has no headers already soldered in. We don’t want to solder right away. We still need to make a prototype and test that it works. So, what I did was set up a little prototyping configuration using a breadboard and some wires. You can see it below — it’s a light sensor. The LED on the Bean gets brighter as it detects more light and dimmer as it detects less light. I was able to get this running with the Bean Example Projects page.

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I’ve been looking through different websites like MakerShed, SparkFun, and Adafruit for different ambiance type sensors. There are many options to choose from, that have a wide range in prices. What sensors to get, we should probably decide as a group. Also, the Bean has a built-in Temperature sensor that we need to test, and perhaps we could cross that off the list of sensors to buy.

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LightBlue Bean for Ambiance <3
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After our meeting last Monday, we have decided to step away from Yoctopuce devices for any platform, but specifically the ambiance platform. Although, the Yoctopuce devices are nice, and have the ‘plug and play’ option, they are expensive and complex (in terms of debugging) compared to other options.

We are moving to Arduino-like design for the Ambiance platform. After some research, I found a device called the LightBlue Bean (see below). The LightBlue Bean is a very small device that is configured entirely through Bluetooth Low Energy. You can even upload code on the go with an Android or IPhone application, which is exactly what we need. The Bean has the same chipset as an Arduino, and even has a built in Temperature sensor. A key characteristic of the LightBlue Bean is the on-board battery. In the past, we’ve struggled with our sensor platforms drawing too much energy from our Nexii. We would have to pack extra charged battery packs, which would take up space in the limited space we have for our day. When you’re climbing a volcano or a glacier, it’s ideal to carry the least amount of weight as possible.

We’ve ordered about 4 of the LightBlue Beans and they should get here sometime this week. Once they arrive, we’ll play with them and attach sensors to see how well they work. Can’t wait to play with them!