Bluetooth LE (BLE)

BLE

The P2, Photon 2, and Gen 3 devices (Argon, Boron, B-Series SoM, and Tracker SoM) support Bluetooth LE (BLE) in both peripheral and central modes. For more information about BLE, see the BLE Tutorial.

BLE is intended for low data rate sensor applications. Particle devices do not support Bluetooth A2DP and can't be used with Bluetooth headsets, speakers, and other audio devices. Particle devices do not support Bluetooth 5 mesh.

The BLE radio can use the built-in chip or trace antenna, or an external antenna if you have installed and configured one.

The B-Series SoM (system-on-a-module) requires the external BLE antenna connected to the BT connector. The SoMs do not have built-in antennas.

BLE is supported in Device OS 1.3.1 and later. BLE support was in beta test in Device OS 1.3.0. It is not available in earlier Device OS versions. Some differences between 1.3.0 and 1.3.1 include:

  • The number of connections from a central devices to peripherals is 3. It was 1 in 1.3.0.
  • The calls to get a characteristic now return a boolean value (true = success) and take the characteristic object as a parameter rather than returning the characteristic as in 1.3.0.
  • Limits for the number user characteristics is 20. In 1.3.0 it was 7.

Gen 2 Devices (E-Series, Electron, Photon, and P2; does not include E404X):

Gen 2 devices (Photon, P1, Electron, E-Series) do not support BLE.