BLE Extension: Call [BluetoothLE1] RegisterForStrings

[John Swallow]

Hello. Day 3 with the MIT Inventor App. Learning lots. Tried to search the above problem with no success. 

I am trying to register for strings with an Adafruit Feather BLE on the other end. The drop down Blocks menu on the left did not contain the RegisterForStrings block, so I tried to import it from another sketch (http://www.martyncurrey.com/arduino-hm-10-and-app-inventor-2/) via backpack function but error shows it is not defined. What am I missing? I am trying to build an app that receives data from the Adafruit Feather and then outputs the result. 

Help!

Thank you,

John

[John Swallow]

I believe I am on the trail to discovering the answer. The BLE Extension I downloaded shows (when I click the ? sign on the Designer page, Extension box, shows "Extension Version: 2". When I check the Martin Currey example, I see "Extension Version: 20170818".

Will report back, but I believe I just downloaded an old extension.

John

[John Swallow]

So the older extension was downloaded from http://appinventor.mit.edu/extensions/, which looks like it was for the now obsolete classic app inventor. I will search for where the new extensions are held.

[John Swallow]

Well, I found the good extension by clicking on a link on Martyn Currey's website (thank you!). It is the link titled "here". I can't seen where it comes from or where else to find the "20170818" extension. It has the exact same file name as the "Version 2" extension except that the "20170818" one shows a file size of 156 KB on my computer versus 158 KB for the "Version 2".

Over and out.

John

[gerrikoio]

These may help.

I have two "protips" or basic tutorials using Feather M0 Bluefruit LE and Feather 32u4 Bluefruit LE on hackster.io

https://www.hackster.io/gerrikoiot/ble-gp-o-controller-mit-app-inv-feather-m0-bluefruit-le-4fba5e

https://www.hackster.io/gerrikoiot/ble-led-controller-feather-32u4-bluefruit-le-mit-app-inv-75163d

[John Swallow]

Excellent! I just opened a hackster account and will look at your work. Thank you!

[Larry Deack]

Hi John,

 I'm using the BLE extension for my esp32.

 I am also using the hardware LED lib(no HLS yet but much better and a work in progress). Lots of new libs rewritten just for the esp32 now so check some out.

 gerrico did this AI/BLE/ESP32/Arduino iDE feather version and Timothy Woo at Hackster has a similar app ( I'm on hackster too) and he wants to take it further like using BLE to setup the WiFi for the ESP32. Neil Koban's lib has opened a very big door for the ESP32 (not to mention all his other work)

So far the BLE is playing nice with most libs I've tried but the hardware LED bitches about min out of scope if you add any of the BLE headers and I assume there are other collisions I have not found.

It might be nice to start a group for ESP32 and AI. I am not familiar with the Feather but generic ESP32 boards are proliferating at a crazy rate. Be sure to pull in all the new libs and boards. The esp32 has grown a lot in a very short time with some amazing libs coming soon.

 Be sure to read Neil Koban excellent explanation of the BLE lib if you have not already.

[John Swallow]

This is such great information. I'm going to order a few of the ESP32 boards and see what they're about.

I made great headway today and now have functioning prototype for my app. Thanks for the input everyone. How I wish I were 15 again.

[Larry Deack]

There are so many options and some very talented programmers are now pumping out new stuff for the ESP32. Check out the esp32 pico board and the other esp32 boards he designed with camera, oled and other designs around the ESP32. Share whatever you come up with. I'm a musician and there is an Audio lib that I have not tried yet but it looks like it can handle most sound formats (including MIDI) and send it to any i2c DAC so your projects can have high quality steaming audio. It is so fun to use BLE instead of WiFi to control projects while at the same time having access to Wifi for resources like streaming audio.