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Texas Instruments BLE Stack 1.3 Released

Guru 57865 points
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: CC2540, CC2541, CC2541DK-MINI, TPS62730, BLE-STACK

The Texas Instruments Bluetooth® low energy (BLE) software development kit includes all necessary software to get started on the development of single-mode BLE applications using the CC2540/41 system-on-chip. It includes object code with the latest BLE protocol stack supporting multiple connections, sample projects and applications covering an extensive set of profiles with source code, and BTool, a Windows PC application for testing BLE applications. In addition to the software, the kit contains documentation, including a developer’s guide, sample applications guide, and BLE API guide.

Download SW at ti.com/ble-stack

CC2540/41 Bluetooth Low Energy Software Development Kit

Release Notes

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Version 1.3
Dec 12, 2012

Notices:

- This version of the Texas Instruments BLE stack and software features several
changes, enhancements, and bug fixes from v1.2.1. Details of these can be found
below.

Changes and Enhancements:

- A new sample project, SensorTag, has been added. This application runs on the
CC2541 Sensor Tag board, which is included as part of the CC2541DK-SENSOR
development kit. The application includes custom services for an accelerometer,
barometer, gyro, humidity sensor, IR temperature sensor, and magnetometer.

- A new Boot Image Manager (BIM) is included. This allows one CC2540 or CC2541
device to contain two separate software images (an "A" image and a "B" image)
stored in flash. Upon power-up, the BIM selects which image to boot into. This
can be based on criteria such as the state of a GPIO pin, or based on a
selection from the previously running application upon reset.

- A new Over-the-air firmware download (OAD) feature is included. The feature
allows a peer device (which could be a central BT Smart device such as a
smartphone) to push a new firmware image onto a peripheral device and update
the firmware. This feature uses the BIM, in which case the downloaded image
gets stored in the opposite flash location as the currently running image.
For example, if the "A" image is the current image and is used to perform the
download, then the downloaded image becomes the "B" image. Upon reset, the "B"
image with the updated firmware would be loaded. The OAD feature optionally
allows for the firmware image to be signed (using AES). Both the SensorTag and
SimpleBLEPeripheral projects include configurations for using the OAD feature.
A central "OADManager" application is also included, demonstrating a central
implementation for sending a new firmware image to an OAD target device.

- The physical HCI interface used by the network processor (HostTestRelease) has
been enhanced to work while power management is enabled on the CC254x device.
The UART interface, when using RTS and CTS lines, can be used by an
external application processor to wake-up the CC254x network processor. When
the network processor has completed all processing, it will go into deep
sleep. In addition to UART, an SPI interface has been added as an option for
the physical HCI interface. It also supports power management by means of
the MRDY and SRDY lines.

- The CC2541 configuration of the KeyFobDemo project has been modified to
support the new CC2541 keyfob hardware, contained in the CC2541DK-MINI kit.
The accelerometer has been changed, and a TPS62730 DC/DC converter has been
added.

- The structure of all projects have been changed to include a Transport Layer
("TL") library and network processor interface "NPI" source code. This new
architecture allows for non-network processor applications to have slightly
reduced code size by removing unnecessary stack components.

- An API has been provided allowing the device name and appearance
characteristics in the GAP service to be modified by the application layer.

- KeyFobDemo project now includes visual feedback from LED to indicate when
device has powered up and when device is advertising.

- The HID-over-GATT Pofile (HOGP) implementation has been updated to now
queue up HID report and send notifications upon reconnection to a HID host.

- A new implementation of the HID service has been included, which supports
a combined keyboard, mouse, and consumer class device in its HID report
descriptor.

- The API for sending L2CAP Connection Parameter Update Requests from the GAP
Peripheral Role Profile has been updated to take both the requested minimum
and maximum connection intervals as parameters.

- BTool has been enhanced with a new GATT explorer table, displaying discovered
attributes, handles, and values. An XML file is included which allows the
user to define descriptions of characteristics based on their UUIDs.

- HCI UART interface baud rate has been changed from 57600 to 115200.

Bug Fixes:

- When power management is used with long connection intervals (>2s), the
CC254x remains sleeping properly without unnecessary wake-ups.

- When slave latency is used, peripheral devices now properly wake-up before
the next connection event when a data packet is queued

- Various bug fixes on the GlucoseSensor and GlucoseCollector projects to
improve compliance with profile and service specifications.

- HID-over-GATT Pofile (HOGP) implementation has been updated to provide
better interoperability with HID hosts.

Known Issues:

- Use of the NV memory (to save application data or BLE Host bonding
information) during a BLE connection may cause an unexpected disconnect.
The likelihood of this happening increases with frequent usage, especially
when using short connection intervals. The cause is related to the NV wear
algorithm which at some point may cause an NV page erase which can disrupt
system real-time processing. It is therefore recommended that the NV memory
be used sparingly, or only when a connection is not active.

- HCI packet size of 128 bytes or more will be disregarded by the stack, and as such,
no HCI event will be returned.