Does anyone have experience with application builders for BLE coprocessors?
Background: what I need seems, on the surface, to be exceptionally simple. In a new product/PCB, I would like to use a Bluetooth module, in coprocessor mode - that is, not as the primary MCU - to act as a wireless “serial port” to connect mobile devices, such as a phone.
When starting my search for an appropriate module, I figured it would be drop-dead simple - basically a half-step up from an Adafruit BlueFruit demo. I expected to pick a Nordic chip, load some stock (or nearly stock) firmware, or maybe even flip a bootstrap pin on the module to use it in this least-common-denominator mode. Instead, what I found is that, while there is plenty of documentation on APIs and other misc, what’s out there always seems to be quite vague - never leaving to any specific use cases.
At this point, I’d be happy with a BLE Hello World.
Ultimately, I had to make a hardware selection before I was able to prototype any firmware on any of the modules under consideration. I ended up going with one from the STM BlueNRG-2 series.
Yet, months later, I’m still not able to get a toehold on the software/firmware part - and software is usually my strong suit. Even after contacting STM directly for support, I still have not encountered any explanation as to how to start building the simple serial-to-BLE serial application - or any BLE application - that will run on the BlueNRG. I suspect that there is a Windows(?) tool to help build up a skeleton, similar to CubeMX for the STM32. Nordic has a tool that does something similar, but it’s not complete either. Despite a multiple, concerted attempts, I’ve yet to locate such a tool.
So, I’m really crossing my fingers here: has anyone built firmware for one of STM’s Bluetooth modules? And/or, does anyone know of a practical document that explains how to get started?
In lieu of that, I think I would even consider going to bat for swapping out the STM module for a Nordic one, if that finally gets the ball rolling.
Thanks in advance.