Bluetooth LE Console

Bluetooth® LE Console (located in scripts/shell/ble_console) is a desktop application that can be used to communicate with an nRF device over Bluetooth® Low Energy using the Nordic UART Service (NUS) shell transport.

The application supports Linux only and cannot be run on Windows. You should run it on a natively installed Linux. If you use a virtual machine instead, you might see problems with the Bluetooth LE connection.

Requirements

• Bluetooth LE compliant receiver or dongle

• Linux host with BlueZ driver

• Bluetooth: NUS shell transport for communication on the target device

Dependencies

Make sure to install the following Python dependencies:

sudo apt install python-gtk2
sudo apt install python-vte
sudo apt install python-dbus

BlueZ configuration

Bluetooth LE Console requires the Bluetooth daemon to be run in experimental mode.

If you want the Bluetooth daemon to start in experimental mode by default, complete the following steps:

1. Open the file /etc/systemd/system/bluetooth.service for editing:

   nano /etc/systemd/system/bluetooth.service
   

2. Add -E after ExecStart=/usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd. The resulting line should look like this:

   ExecStart=/usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd -E
   

3. Save the file and exit the editor.

4. Restart the service:

   sudo service bluetooth restart
   

If you are using a using virtual machine, the Bluetooth service must probably be restarted after every machine start. To do so, run the following command:

sudo service bluetooth restart

Pairing with the device

After configuring the Bluetooth daemon, you can pair with the device using the Bluetooth tools provided by your Linux vendor. For example, in Ubuntu simply go to Settings > Bluetooth.

After pairing successfully, you can start using Bluetooth LE Console.