BLE Library - Please add Major/Minor

[BladeRunner68]

I'm looking at using your BLE libs in the ESP32 for scanning and getting major and minor values from a BLE hydrometer (Tilt)

According to the Apple Ibeacon spec: "The UUID, major and minor values provide the identifying information for the iBeacon. "

https://developer.apple.com/ibeacon/Getting-Started-with-iBeacon.pdf

The makers of the Tilt hydrometer are using the Major and Minor fields to hold variable gravity and temperature values without having to connect directly to the BLE device (thus saving the device battery). This makes the values discoverable by a simple ble scan on a regular basis.

Any chance you can amend the libs to add getters for these values please?

[nkolban]

The good news is that the capability you seek is already available.

When you are being a BLE Client and performing a scan, for each received advert, you are given an instance of the "BLEAdvertisedDevice". This is the description of the device that is doing the advertising.

Now let us turn our attention to a device that IS advertising ... review the following:

• https://developer.apple.com/ibeacon/Getting-Started-with-iBeacon.pdf
• https://os.mbed.com/blog/entry/BLE-Beacons-URIBeacon-AltBeacons-iBeacon/

You will find that the "beacon" data is advertised in an ordinary BLE Advert and the data you are looking for is contained within the Manufacturer Data portion.

This means that when you get a BLEAdvertisedDevice you can perform code similar to the following:

struct {
  uint16_t manufacturerId;
  uint8_t subType;
  uint8_t subTypeLength;
  uint16_t uuid;
  uint16_t major;
  uint16_t minor;
  uint8_t power;
} beaconRecord;
...
struct beaconRecord *pBeaconRecord = (struct beaconRecord *)(myAdvertisedDevice->getManufacturerData().data());
printf("major: %d, minor: %d", pBeaconRecord ->major, pBeaconRecord ->minor);

Note that I coded this here in github so haven't tested it.

[nkolban]

See also #196

[nkolban]

A new class called BLEBeacon has been added ... see #196.

[qrpfun]

I was looking at you news BLEAdvertising.h under snippets and wondering if should I copy those under ESP_32_Arduino BLE without pain or better wait for an upgrade and a beacon example working under Arduino.

[chegewara]

What keeps you to not copy it? If it wont works for some reason then you can delete it. Only thing is, if you need to replace files with the same name then make backup.

[qrpfun]

You are absolutely right ..later I will do a it and will let you know if somethings brakes. But are not so clear right ways to use them .. let’s try Inviato da iPhone

…

Il giorno 17 dic 2017, alle ore 18:30, chegewara ***@***.***> ha scritto: What keeps you to not copy it? If it wont works for some reason then you can delete it. Only thing is, if you need to replace files with the same name then make backup. — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or mute the thread.

[qrpfun]

OK done
Copied BLEAdvertising.* and need to copy BLEUUID.* too for some dependencies.
Changed BLE_server examples to BLE_server_iBeacon according to #196 suggestions
Everything runs but no special data seen on iPhone (apps nRF Connect and LightBlue)
Here's nRF Connect snapshot https://www.dropbox.com/s/5iyt5u1zvvcm7gr/Foto%2017-12-17%2C%2020%2054%2037.png?dl=0

Any tips ?

Here is the code:

#include <BLEDevice.h>
#include <BLEUtils.h>
#include <BLEServer.h>

// See the following for generating UUIDs:
// https://www.uuidgenerator.net/

#define SERVICE_UUID        "4fafc201-1fb5-459e-8fcc-c5c9c331914b"
#define CHARACTERISTIC_UUID "beb5483e-36e1-4688-b7f5-ea07361b26a8"

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  Serial.println("Starting BLE work!");

  BLEDevice::init("MyESP32");
  BLEServer *pServer = BLEDevice::createServer();
  BLEService *pService = pServer->createService(SERVICE_UUID);
  BLECharacteristic *pCharacteristic = pService->createCharacteristic(
                                         CHARACTERISTIC_UUID,
                                         BLECharacteristic::PROPERTY_READ |
                                         BLECharacteristic::PROPERTY_WRITE
                                       );

  pCharacteristic->setValue("Hello World says Neil");
  pService->start();
  BLEAdvertising *pAdvertising = pServer->getAdvertising();
  
  Serial.println("Building up iBeacon advertising ..");
  BLEBeacon myBeacon;
  // Setting up according to https://os.mbed.com/blog/entry/BLE-Beacons-URIBeacon-AltBeacons-iBeacon/
  myBeacon.setManufacturerId(uint16_t (0x1AFF));
  myBeacon.setMajor(uint16_t (0x1234));
  myBeacon.setMinor(uint16_t (0x5678));
  myBeacon.setProximityUUID(uint16_t (0x004C));
  myBeacon.setSignalPower(0xC8);
  BLEAdvertisementData advertisementData;
  advertisementData.setFlags(ESP_BLE_ADV_FLAG_LIMIT_DISC | ESP_BLE_ADV_FLAG_GEN_DISC | ESP_BLE_ADV_FLAG_BREDR_NOT_SPT);
  // Build the iBeacon data structure and store it in std::string beaconData
  advertisementData.setManufacturerData(myBeacon.getData());
  pAdvertising->setAdvertisementData(advertisementData);
  pAdvertising->start();
  Serial.println("Characteristic defined! Now you can read it in your phone!");
}

void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
  delay(2000);
}

[chegewara]

@qrpfun Is it still not working for you?

[qrpfun]

@chegewara I did some other test but without any success, so then I give up taking care if some other updates should be useful to solve it. But not much time last weeks. Did you have any new idea about it ?

…

@qrpfun Is it still not working for you? — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or mute the thread.

[chegewara]

@qrpfun Im not sure if its still working, but at the publish time its been working
https://github.com/chegewara/esp32-tests-library/tree/master/ibeacon_test

If you will find any issues running it just let us know