Bluetooth app development/debug on a PC

trudelta 4 days ago

I am looking to develop an app using bluetooth that communicates directly from the watch to the external bluetooth device. If running the simulator, will it use the PC's bluetooth interface to communicate to the device? Or does all testing need to be done on an actual watch?

Are there any code/project examples of this? BTW, I will not be using ANT.

jim_m_58 3 days ago

See https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/w/wiki/19/getting-started-with-connect-iq-ble-development

and https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/core-topics/bluetooth-low-energy/#gettingstartedwithconnectiqbledevelopment

and here's the video from when this was announced https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/b/news-announcements/posts/adding-bluetooth-connectivity-to-your-connect-iq-projects

You need Nordic HW, flashed with a specific hex file to use the sim. Last I checked the nRF52840 dongle was about $15US..

There are two samples in SDK that use the Nordic Thingy52 as a sensor.

Here's a blog post I did a few years back about using BLE with a raspberry Pi https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/b/news-announcements/posts/would-you-like-some-raspberry-pi-with-your-connect-iq

jim_m_58 3 days ago

Also before you start trying to develop something for a sensor, you can use blescan https://apps.garmin.com/apps/9bcc8b66-8385-4afb-b93e-f69e01422284 to see exactly what can be seen with BLE and CIQ. You may not see your sensor at all, in most cases you won't see an advertised device name, and with some, may not see a UUID. You can see more with something like rRFConnect, but if you can't see it with CIQ, that's what's important