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nande is offline nande
2013-10-05 , 14:13
Posts: 3 | Thanked: 0 times | Joined on Oct 2013 @ Espoo, Finland
#1
Hi!

There's this awesome crowdfunded project called Angel sensor. It's a wristband to check heart rate and other variables, the interface is just LEDs, sound and vibration (no display though). But I think it'd be great if it could communicate with something similar to sports tracker (which works fairly well in N9).

They'll support iOS and Android, but they promised it'll work with any PC or device with bluetooth 4.0.

I understood that N9 has bluetooth 4.0 but it's not enabled. The specs say it's BT2.1.

So, my questions are:
+ Is there any driver or trick to enable BT4.0 in Nokia N9?
+ Can the BT2.1 of the N9 communicate with the BT4.0 of the Angel sensor?

I'm aware it'll require sometime to actually code something cool out of it but there're endless possibilities (mostly related with sports and making pretty plots *-*). I've been just a user for quite a while and I'm very happy with the default apps and a couple extra ones, so I didn't have the need to go any further, I hope this will be fun
 
juiceme is offline juiceme
2013-10-05 , 19:53
Community Council | Posts: 4,920 | Thanked: 12,867 times | Joined on May 2012 @ Southerrn Finland
#2
Originally Posted by nande View Post
Hi!

There's this awesome crowdfunded project called Angel sensor. It's a wristband to check heart rate and other variables, the interface is just LEDs, sound and vibration (no display though). But I think it'd be great if it could communicate with something similar to sports tracker (which works fairly well in N9).

They'll support iOS and Android, but they promised it'll work with any PC or device with bluetooth 4.0.

I understood that N9 has bluetooth 4.0 but it's not enabled. The specs say it's BT2.1.
Well, BT specification is stacked like most communication protocol families; meaning that a higher version of the standard also supports the lower version standards.
Hence you could imagine that if a device supports 4.0 it will also co-work with 2.1.
However, this only applies to comunication master nodes. (like computers, mobile phones and tablets) Communication slave nodes can and often are implementing only part of the standard.

This is exactly case with battery-concious slave nodes, if specification says they implement BT4.0 it most certainly means they only implement the BT4.0LE ( = low energy ) standard. LE is significantly less-power-hungry than normal BT connection, allowing small devices with tiny batteries last for weeks/months usage.

The HW of N9 supports BT4.0LE, but drivers for it are missing in the default shape it comes in.


Originally Posted by nande View Post
So, my questions are:
+ Is there any driver or trick to enable BT4.0 in Nokia N9?
Could be
What is needed are basically 3 things;
  • It needs to be checked whether the FW blob supports the LE mode. (that's the binary file that's loaded to the chipset to make it work) If it does not, we'll need to get the binary from somewhere.
  • Kernel driver needs to be updated to latest BlueZ release.
  • User mode tools need to be updated


Originally Posted by nande View Post
+ Can the BT2.1 of the N9 communicate with the BT4.0 of the Angel sensor?
If the previous 3 things are set up correctly, sure.


Originally Posted by nande View Post
I'm aware it'll require sometime to actually code something cool out of it but there're endless possibilities (mostly related with sports and making pretty plots *-*). I've been just a user for quite a while and I'm very happy with the default apps and a couple extra ones, so I didn't have the need to go any further, I hope this will be fun
Well the rest is just application development, that's outside my domain really
 

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nande is offline nande
2013-10-06 , 08:21
Posts: 3 | Thanked: 0 times | Joined on Oct 2013 @ Espoo, Finland
#3
Hi!

First of all, thank you very much for such detailed answer
I got a few follow up questions:
Originally Posted by juiceme View Post
What is needed are basically 3 things;
  • It needs to be checked whether the FW blob supports the LE mode. (that's the binary file that's loaded to the chipset to make it work) If it does not, we'll need to get the binary from somewhere.
How can I check if it supports LE? Where in the system is the current binary? And if it doesn't support LE (and something tells me it doesn't) any idea where is that "somewhere" to get one that does?

Originally Posted by juiceme View Post
  • Kernel driver needs to be updated to latest BlueZ release.
This might be a silly question (probably all of them) but, does that mean that I'll need to flash my N9? Or is it possible to update BlueZ on the original installation?

Originally Posted by juiceme View Post
  • User mode tools need to be updated
How could they not be updated?

I feel I'm missing something important here

P.S: Have someone already tested BT4.0 with N9?
Last edited by nande; 2013-10-06 at 08:51.
 
nande is offline nande
2013-10-06 , 15:32
Posts: 3 | Thanked: 0 times | Joined on Oct 2013 @ Espoo, Finland
#4
Hi again,

Googling a bit I found that lizardo already did that one year ago o_o

https://github.com/lizardo/bluez-scripts

I personally haven't tried to follow the instructions yet (I'll need to make time and a back up before messing with my N9) but they look quite clear. Anyone got experience with it?

I'll pre-order that wristband since it seems it'll be possible to use it
 
juiceme is offline juiceme
2013-10-06 , 17:07
Community Council | Posts: 4,920 | Thanked: 12,867 times | Joined on May 2012 @ Southerrn Finland
#5
Yes, it looks like this is compatible with the LE mode.
I'll have to compile that and check how it works.

However, until the FW compatibility is checked, I cannot vouch for the working of it
 

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