Connecting using Bluetooth Low Energy

From the main screen, click on Connect and then on Bluetooth Low Energy to enter the Bluetooth Low Energy connection screen.

Bluetooth Low Energy(BLE) is NOT simply Bluetooth Classic running on less power as the name might imply. They function differently and to use BLE as originally intended you will need to research elsewhere. However, serial UART communication can be emulated on BLE, thus we can still use BLE modules such as the HC-08 and BT-05 in our projects for serial communication.

1. Turn Bluetooth On

If Bluetooth is not already enabled on your device, you can enable/disable it with the Bluetooth icon on the top left of the connect screen (Android 11 and below). A pop up will probably appear to let you know that you want to turn Bluetooth on. If that doesn't work, you may need to turn it on via the settings on your device.

2. Discover

You need to make sure you turn on power to your circuit so that the LED on the Bluetooth module starts flashing. Click on Discover and give the Android a little time to search for Bluetooth devices. Any discovered devices will appear in the list below. Select the one that you want to use. The app will continue listening for more BLE devices until one is connected to, the screen exited, or discover is pressed again.

3. Connect

Select the device you want to connect to from the list of discovered devices and click connect. Be patient, sometimes connection is instantaneous, sometimes it takes a while. The status bar at the top will indicate once it is connected. If it immediately disconnects, try again.

If you want to disconnect (done on exiting app or initiating connecting to another device anyway), a button is available top right once connected.

Once connected, click back, or done to return to the main screen where the Run button should now be enabled and you can test out your project.