Sensor Tag Released

Very nice... that will lead to some very interesting development!

What are S2 and S3 - the schematic says PUSH-BUTTON-CARBON?

Thanks, Ben

Hi Nick,

The order link in your post seems to be broken. :)

This link should work better:

https://estore.ti.com/Product3.aspx?ProductId=3192

S2 and S3 are regular push buttons. There is a carbon overlay and metal domes on top of the buttons to give the user a good "click" feeling

If i purchase the Bluetooth SensorTag what APIs will there be available to me? Will it be just the iOS API? From what i can gather TI already has already made and tested an Android equivalent. Will I be able to obtain that as well? 

Best regards,

JC

Is the source to the SensorTag app available?

Anyone?  Src for SensorTag app....

When will the device monitor software be released?  I found a lot of references to it and Ble Stack 1.30 when researching the SensorTag, but all of the download links are broken.

The Device Monitor download link can be found on this Device monitor user guide 

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/BLE_Device_Monitor_User_Guide

Can I only see the source code generator in the app once the sensor is attached?

Yes, the SensorTag must be connected to enable the sensors and export source code

Hattori Hanzõ said:

Yes, the SensorTag must be connected to enable the sensors and export source code

Thought so... is there any chance of a copy of the SensorTag app code?  Or is this restricted?

Will Invensense MotionFusion be supported?  In other words, will I be able to get inertial motion in the form of quaternions?

MotionFusion is currently not supported, but technically there are nothing preventing the SensorTag from supporting it if the MotionFusion algorithms can be used with Bluetooth low energy communication

Looks really great!

I was just wondering if it is possible to change the frame rate of sensors like the accelerometer or the gyroscope without having to flash a different firmware?

Also, has anyone successfully gotten the SensorTag to work under Linux?

Is the LED service available during normal operation mode or only in the test mode? 

Thanks, Fred

Nick L said:

The SensorTag is now released. This is a $25 development kit and reference design for Bluetooth low energy sensor applications. This is the first Bluetooth low energy development kit focusing on wireless sensor applications and it is the only development kit targeting smartphone app developers.

• NO embedded software design knowledge required
• NO embedded compiler required
• iOS sample apps are included to demonstrate use of the sensors(Android sample apps are coming when Android releases an Bluetooth 4.0 API)

The SensorTag includes the following sensors

• Contactless IR temperature sensor (Texas Instruments TMP006)
• Humidity Sensor (Sensirion SHT21)
• Gyroscope (Invensense IMU-3000)
• Accelerometer (Kionix KTXJ9)
• Magnetometer (Freescale MAG3110)
• Barometric pressure sensor (Epcos T5400)

For more information, please see:

http://www.ti.com/sensortag

 

SensorTag Wiki:

www.ti.com/SensorTag-wiki

 

Order the SensorTag here.

Best Regards

the order link is still broken

the order link is still broken

Hi Jan,

I tested the link a couple of times and I had no problem. Could you try it again.

Best Regards

It works for me too (all the links, including the one in the original message).

Maybe it's a geographic issue. Does the TI store present different content in different regions maybe?

Hi,

The links works now, but they all gone and I cannot order.

Thanks

Jan

Hi Nick,

Is there any sendor tag with "Bluetooth" instead of BLE,because BLE's suppport in android is very less.

Niceday,

Senthil kumar 

Hi Senthil,

senthil kumar69729 said:

Is there any sendor tag with "Bluetooth" instead of BLE,because BLE's suppport in android is very less.

Not that I know of. Either way, we'll hopefully see BLE support in Google Android sooner than later. Let's hope for 2013Q1.

Best Regards 

From what I can tell the source code download on the wiki does not match the SensorTag (just updated) in the app store.  Also, is there going to be a version (iOS 6) that uses storyboards?

Thanks,

Tony

Hi Tony,

No, the app on the wiki (currently down due to some legal concerns regarding distribution of apps) is just a sample app.

There may be a storyboard version available as a sample. However, our app consultant finds it easier to make apps compatible with several devices without storyboard.

Best regards,
Aslak 

The source code is under:

Connected Devices->Profiles->Generate Source Code

??

where is the source code again?

under what?

under the app/ti page?

10x in advance!

It is in the SensorTag app and u need a connected device.  However I am pretty sure it is not all of the source code.  Hopefully the TI legal department will get their act together and get it released on the wiki.  

Regards,

Tony

After connecting several times the sensor tag stops responding. It only responds again after 24 hours without power. Is this a software or hardware bug?! The system stops responding to the lateral button push. Did any one experience this problem?

Is there a way to upgrade a SensorTag with the 1.2 firmware to 1.3? 

Yup. If you want to do it OTA you can using their iPhone app. You need to install the same firmware as A & B copies.

Otherwise you can use the CCDebugger.

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Bluetooth_SensorTag?INTC=SensorTag&HQS=SensorTag-wiki#CC2541DK-Sensor_Firmware

Over the Air Download 
For the latest release of the SensorTag Firmware can be uploaded through the SensorTag app or by using the BLE device monitor using Over-the-Air-Download (OAD). OAD is a supported in the TI BLE stack version 1.3. Read more about OAD in the User Guide

Not sure I can. I thought OTA only worked if I already have the 1.3 firmware installed. I have an earlier version of the SensorTag with the 1.2 firmware.

In the app, under profiles you should see a TI OAD profile. If you don't (& are connected to the sensor tag) then OTA is not supported.

As expected, I don't see a TI OAD profile. Is there a recommended way to upgrade my SensorTag without having to buy a CCDebugger? I'm in San Francisco; perhaps a visit to a local TI office here to get an update from one of your application engineers?

For folks who are interested, I've just published my first stable release of iOS code that talks with a Ti SensorTag. Feel free to take a look at 

http://kickingvegas.github.com/YmsCoreBluetooth/.

Please provide any feedback about the source code on the issue tracker on GitHub.

-Charles

On disconnection why does the LED on the SensorTag keep blinking? What is the time period at which the SensorTag auto shuts off?

didDisconnectPeripheral:

CoreBluetooth[WARNING] <CBConcretePeripheral: 0x1f026990 UUID = <CFUUID 0x1f0331b0> 135BC565-3115-273A-72FA-59092BBC2A13, Name = "TI BLE Sensor Tag", IsConnected = NO> is not connected

When the LED is blinking the device is advertising. If you push the side button, it will disconnect (if connected) and try to pair (advertise) for the next 30 or so seconds.

Refer to the SensorTag User Gude.

When it disconnects I see the blinking to occur for several minutes. Is any one else seeing this? Also, since the LED is hidden under the rubber casing, the user won't know that the sensor is on and advertising.

Looks like after a disconnect via the iPhone the user needs to press the side button to shut the advertising.

Can TI make a hole in the casing so that the LED is visible?

Hi Soch,

Soch said:

When it disconnects I see the blinking to occur for several minutes. Is any one else seeing this?

Yes, it's part of the use case. 

Soch said:

Also, since the LED is hidden under the rubber casing, the user won't know that the sensor is on and advertising.

Actually, there's a "plastic optic channel" for the LED light to be transmitted out to the visible area. However, the LED is not that highly illuminating as the plastic designer had in mind so it's hard to see if you do not look very close. Note that the weak light ensures lower power consumption ;)

Soch said:

Looks like after a disconnect via the iPhone the user needs to press the side button to shut the advertising.

Yes, and again, it's part of the use case. You can change this in the sensor tag source code if you are into embedded development.

Best Regards

Thanks for the details, Joakim.

Yes, I see the plastic optic channel. Now that the LED brightness has been reduced for power consumption, can TI punch a hole on top of the LED so that users know that it's blinking?

The users don't know that the LED is blinking & the SensorTag is spending battery for advertisement.

I am assuming that once the SensorTag disconnects from iPhone & starts advertising, there is no way for the iPhone to tell the SensorTag to stop advertising.

What is the auto-shutoff period after the advertisement starts ( It's not shutting within 30 secs)?

Here's what I did to my SensorTag -> see the attached image.

Hi,

GammaPoint said:

can TI punch a hole on top of the LED so that users know that it's blinking?

I'll notify the design team. Nice modification you got there :)

GammaPoint said:

I am assuming that once the SensorTag disconnects from iPhone & starts advertising, there is no way for the iPhone to tell the SensorTag to stop advertising.

You are correct on that matter.

GammaPoint said:

What is the auto-shutoff period after the advertisement starts ( It's not shutting within 30 secs)?

I believe the Sensor Tag firmware uses Limited Discoverable Mode which means that it will advertise for 180 seconds.

Best Regards

Yes, it is 180 seconds.  I noticed the same thing and was confused because the comments in the code suggest 30 seconds.  

-Tony

Hi Tony,

I believe the 180 seconds is part of an recent Core Specification Errata, which could explain the 30 seconds we had implemented previously (And the miss to update comment upon change).

Best Regards

Can the data from the sensors on the SensorTag be accessed using the Bluetooth Serial Port Profile?
I'm interested in hooking up the Sensortag to a laptop with a Bluetooth dongle.

Hi Vinod,

Currently, there's no SPP for Bluetooth low energy as far as I know. You could use the CC2540USB Dongle to obtain sensor data on your PC but then you would have to do it manually by BTool (included in the BLE stack) or the Device Monitor. The other way could be to write your own PC application to interface to the CC2540USB Dongle running the stack, a good starting point would be to hack the source code of HealthGUIDemo (based on BTool).

You cannot use a standard Bluetooth Classic dongle as it is not directly compatible with Bluetooth low energy.

Best Regards

I used gatttool on Linux successfully to read out information from the SensorTag. However, if I wait too long between readings I run into a timeout and I have to push the connect button on the Tag again. Is there a way to permanently connect?

Hi ... when is source code coming for IOS? On the wiki page it is blank .. I've been waiting since the sensortag's release.

Is it possible to connect several sensors (5-6) only using one smartphone? We'd like to put 5-6 sensors in different parts of the body and we'd want to use only one mobile to recive the information.

In the other hand, is there any document which has all the sensors specs?

thanks