Overview

Designing Ezurio's (formerly Laird Connectivity) BL600 into your system has never been easier. Ezurio now introduces the Bx600 breakout board series, joining alongside the DVK-BL600 development kit. All allow you to connect to and program the BL600 from Windows, OSX, or Linux via UwTerminalX software. The Bx600 breakout boards provide a streamlined approach for simplified BL600 prototyping in as little as a tenth of the cost. They come in three packages: basic breakout board, board with coin cell attachment, and board with coin cell attachment and USB-to-UART adapter. The DVK-BL600 contains a wider variety of hardware components such as interfaces, sensors, LEDs, and power options.

The Right Hardware for your Design Requirement

Whether you need a simple prototype option or lots of sensors and interfaces for testing, Laird’s development options have you in mind. The Bx600 breakout boards are a cost-effective and direct: The BB600 has through holes for breadboarding; The BC600 includes a mounted coin cell power adapter for designing low-power solutions directly on the board; The BA600 bundles the coin cell adapter with a USB to UART adapter for power flexibility and PC testing with applications like vSP. The DVK-BL600 offers extensive onboard equipment to help you design for any application

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Cross-Platform Software Lets You Development Your Way

Laird’s new UwTerminalX software takes UwTerminal to the next level, bringing smartBASIC to all desktop environments. UwTerminalX (Windows / Linux / OSX) lets you control the BL600 in command mode and compile, load, and run smartBASIC scripts on the device. Companion apps for UwTerminalX include MultiDeviceLoader, which lets you deploy a script to as many as ten devices at once, and TermNotify, which enables connection alerts and status info from the OS system tray. All of this is hosted on GitHub, so you can modify the project to meet your needs.

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Personal Support from Design to Manufacture

Laird’s support team is always standing by to provide integration support, analysis, and troubleshooting for all currently supported hardware. Working in the same offices as Laird engineering, Embedded Wireless Support is your personal bridge to all of Laird’s software, experience, and expertise. Laird guarantees a fast response and is dedicated to seeing your product through design to manufacturing. And our online support center serves as an archive of many common questions, as well as hundreds of support documents and software files.

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Specifications

Bluetooth Version
v4.0 Single Mode
Chipset
Nordic nRF51822
BLE Services
Generic Access, Battery Service, Device Information Service, Heart Rate Service, Health Thermometer Service, Immediate Alert Service, Link Loss Service, Tx Power Service, Blood Pressure Service
Data Rate
1 Mbps (over the air)
Development Kit Contents
See Bx600 User Guide for details
Dimension (Height - mm)
3.8 mm
Dimension (Length - mm)
33 mm
Dimension (Width - mm)
22 mm
Frequency Range (Max)
2.480 GHz MHz
Frequency Range (Min)
2.402 GHz MHz
Logical Interfaces
Through-holes or USB-to-UART
Profiles
ANY Custom Service (plus Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, Health Thermometer, Proximity, and Find Me included in sample apps library)
Protocols
Any that can be implemented using smartBASIC
Receive Sensitivity
-91dBm (typical)
Transmit Power (Max)
4dBm
Part NumberAdditional DescriptionAntenna TypeBLE ServicesBluetooth VersionChipset (Wireless)ConnectorData RateDimension (Height - mm)Dimension (Length - mm)Dimension (Width - mm)Frequency Range (Max)Frequency Range (Min)Logical InterfacesOS/SoftwarePower ConsumptionPower Consumption (Rx)Power Consumption (Tx)Product TypeProtocolsRangeSoftwareSystem ArchitectureTechnologyTransmit Power (Max)Wireless Specification
BA600 Breakout BoardBA600 with USB-to-UART adapter
BA600
Not Recommended for New Design (NRND)
Buy Now
Breakout board with coin cell holder and USB-to-UART adapter. More flexible development with a PC, especially applications like vSP. Internal Any that can be implemented with smartBASIC v4.0 Single Mode Nordic nRF51822 UART Pins (includes USB-to-UART adapter) 1 Mbps (over the air) 3.8 mm33 mm22 mm2480 MHz2402 MHzUSB, GPIO, SPI, I2C, ADC, Serial Nordic SDK, smartBASIC From 600 nA to 11.6 mA 8.5 tp 8.9 mA 5 to 11.6 mA Development Kit Any that can be implemented using smartBASIC Up to 100 m UwTerminalX terminal software Hostless Bluetooth 4.0, Single Mode (BLE), Peripheral Mode +4 dBm Bluetooth v4.0 Peripheral Mode
BB600 Breakout Board
BB600
Not Recommended for New Design (NRND)
Buy Now
Basic breakout board and pin-based power supply. Access to I/O via through-holes. Most cost-efficient access to the full BL600 Internal Any that can be implemented with smartBASIC v4.0 Single Mode Nordic nRF51822 Through-holes 1 Mbps (over the air) 3.8 mm33 mm22 mm2480 MHz2402 MHzGPIO, SPI, I2C, ADC, Serial Nordic SDK, smartBASIC From 600 nA to 11.6 mA 8.5 tp 8.9 mA 5 to 11.6 mA Development Kit Any that can be implemented using smartBASIC Up to 100 m UwTerminalX terminal software Hostless Bluetooth 4.0, Single Mode (BLE), Peripheral Mode +4 dBm Bluetooth v4.0 Peripheral Mode
BC600 Breakout Board
BC600
Not Recommended for New Design (NRND)
Buy Now
Breakout board with coin cell holder attached. Allows flexibility of power and mobile deployment for prototyping low-power solutions. Internal Any that can be implemented with smartBASIC v4.0 Single Mode Nordic nRF51822 Through-holes 1 Mbps (over the air) 3.8 mm33 mm22 mm2480 MHz2402 MHzGPIO, SPI, I2C, ADC, Serial Nordic SDK, smartBASIC From 600 nA to 11.6 mA 8.5 tp 8.9 mA 5 to 11.6 mA Development Kit Any that can be implemented using smartBASIC Up to 100 m UwTerminalX terminal software Hostless Bluetooth 4.0, Single Mode (BLE), Peripheral Mode +4 dBm Bluetooth v4.0 Peripheral Mode

Documentation

Name Part Type Last Updated
Application Note - BL600 Cable Replacement Mode.pdf All Application Note 10/06/2023
Using Notepad-plus-plus and Color Syntax Highlighting v1 1.pdf All Application Note 10/06/2023
Application Note - BL600 Using Textpad and Color Syntax Highlighting.pdf All Application Note 10/06/2023
Application Note - BL600 Using UART Efficiently to Extend Battery Life.pdf All Application Note 10/06/2023
Application Note - BL600 Whisper Mode.pdf All Application Note 10/06/2023
Application Note - BL600 and BL620 Memory Map Overview.pdf All Application Note 10/06/2023
Application Note - BL6x0 Over-the-Air Application Download.pdf All Application Note 10/06/2023
Application Note - Finding the BL600-Sx Revision Number.pdf All Application Note 10/06/2023
Application Note - Flash Cloning for the BL600.pdf All Application Note 10/06/2023
Application Note - Laird BL600 Range Testing.pdf All Application Note 10/06/2023
Application Note - Upgrading BL600 Firmware via UART.pdf All Application Note 10/06/2023
Application Note - Using SPI Interface in smartBASIC with DotStar.pdf All Application Note 01/17/2019
Application Note - iBeacon Sample App.pdf All Application Note 10/06/2023
Application Note - smartBASIC App Download Protocol over UART.pdf All Application Note 10/06/2023
Application Note - smartBASIC for BLE Modules.pdf All Application Note 01/17/2019
Batch Application Notes for iOS.pdf All Application Note 10/06/2023
OTA Application Notes for iOS.pdf All Application Note 10/06/2023
Application Note - Bluetooth Latency and Data.pdf All Application Note 01/17/2019
Serial Application Notes for iOS.pdf All Application Note 10/06/2023
Application Note - Using VSP with smartBASIC.pdf All Application Note 10/06/2023
Release Note - BL600 Firmware v1.8.88.0.pdf All Documentation 01/17/2019
User Guide - Bx600 Breakout Boards All Documentation 10/05/2022
User Guide - smartBASIC BL600 Extensions Release 1.8.88.0.pdf All Documentation 01/17/2019
Product Brief - BL600.pdf All Product Brief 09/05/2024
Product Brief - Bx600 Breakout Boards and DVK-BL600.pdf All Product Brief 09/09/2024
User Guide - StringPlayer.pdf All Documentation 01/17/2019
User Guide - smartBASIC Core Functionality v3.5 All Documentation 12/21/2022
Quick Start Guide - BL600-DVK Heart Rate.pdf All Instructional 01/17/2019
Application Note - Guidelines for Replacing Antennas v1.0 All Application Note 01/17/2019
EOL Notice - BLE - Sept 21 All Documentation 09/08/2021

FAQ

Using STTY with the USB-SWD

These instructions are intended for Linux or Macintosh OS. They may work using WSL, Cigwin, or other bash style terminals in Windows although this is untested. 

It may be desired to communicate with a device attached to the USB-SWD without terminal emulation, I.E. Picocom, Screen, Putty.  This can be useful for writing bash scripts, or if you're using Zephyr's "west flash" and would like a quick way to check your output. 

  1. Verify you have the program "stty" available using the command "which stty", if this does not return a value you will need to install it.  Fortunately "stty" generally comes standard with Linux and MacOS.  
  2. Identify your serial device.  This can be done using the command "dmesg -w" then connecting the USB-SWD.  You will see output like this (In Linux).
  3. (Optional) Assign the device name to a variable, for example "DEVICE=/dev/ttyACM0".
  4. Configure "stty" to talk with the device "stty -F $DEVICE 115200 -echo -echoe -echok"
  5. To see output from the device execute "cat $DEVICE &".  This will send serial communication from the device to Linux's standard output.  The "&" is to run this program in the background.
  6. Now press the reset button on the USB-SWD, you should see the output from your device.  In this example the Zephyr "Hello World" example has been flashed to a BT510. 
  7. (Optional) if you would like to send commands back to the device you can use "echo" or add an argument to your shell, "foo() { echo -n -e "$1\r" > $DEVICE; }".  Now commands can be issued directly from the command line, for example "foo "my_command"" will send the string "my_command" to the device. 

Where can I download UwTerminal as referenced in the BT900 or BL600 User Guides?

The BT900 and BL600 documents refer to the UwTerminal utility which was the primary utility when these documents were written. This utility is still available in the firmware zip files when they are downloaded from the BT900 Product Page or BL600 Product Page .

However, UwTerminalX is the new improved version of UwTerminal offering additional features not available in predecessor UwTerminal. We recommend working with UwTerminalX as it will support all the features mentioned in the BT900 documentation and offer the additional features, such as access to online Xcompilers.

The latest release of UwTerminalX can be downloaded from our GitHub Repository: UwTerminalX/releases


 

What could be causing additional power draw when in standby doze state?

There are several functions within an application that can increase current consumption above the measurement indicated in the Datasheet for standby doze, low power mode.

  • Timers
  • GPIOs held in an asserted state
  • LEDs
  • Nested functions - which keep the module from entering the standby doze state
  • UART (when open)

 

How can I connect a Bluetooth Low Energy Device to a PC?

Bluetooth Low Energy uses Services as opposed to the set of standardized profiles that exists for Classic Bluetooth. While some Bluetooth Low Energy services have been standardized by the Bluetooth SIG, the development of custom services is allowed to meet custom application requirements.
 
Because Bluetooth Low Energy uses a completely different protocol than Classic Bluetooth and supports custom services, Bluetooth Low Energy devices cannot connect to a computer through the typical Bluetooth configuration of a computer. Therefore, connecting to a PC requires writing and running a Bluetooth Low Energy Central Role/Client application to collect the data sent from the Bluetooth Low Energy peripheral modules. Application development for PCs and Mobile devices is outside the scope of our support. Alternatively, a BL654 USB dongle could be used as a BLE Central Role device, to collect the BLE data and pass it to the PC over a COM Port. However, you would still need an application to view and process the data received over that COM Port.
 
We generally recommend customers who are new to Bluetooth Low Energy obtain a copy of Getting Started with Bluetooth Low Energy to help them understand the Bluetooth Low Energy protocol and the GATT table. There are also many resources available online which explain this. 

When Bluetooth Low Energy was first introduced and we launched our BL6xx product line (predecessors to the BL65x series) we produced the BL600 and BL620 smartBASIC Application Walkthrough document, which provides an overview of how Bluetooth Low Energy works and how a GATT table is constructed. 

Is there protection from Hacking when using smartBASIC modules?

Our Bluetooth 5.0 smartBASIC modules (BL652, BL653, BL654) have the capability of supporting LE Secure Connections Pairing as well as encryption. LE Secure Connection is an enhanced security feature introduced in Bluetooth v4.2. It uses a Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) compliant algorithm called Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman (ECDH) for key generation. 
 
LE Secure Connections, supports four association models: 

  • Just Works
  • Numeric Comparison (Only for LE Secure Connections)
  • Passkey Entry
  • Out of Band (OOB)

Additional information about LE Secure Connections and the models can be found here: www.bluetooth.com.
 

Our Bluetooth 4.0 smartBASIC modules (BT900 /BL600 /BL620) support Simple Secure Pairing and Encryption 
Additional information about Simple Secure Pairing can be found here:
lairdconnect.com/resources/newsroom/secure-ble-pairing-iot
lairdconnect.com/resources/white-papers/ble-and-lairds-bl6x0-series-bt900-modules-guide-security-and-privacy
 
We recommend reviewing the Pairing, Bonding and Security Manager functions in the BL6xx/BT900 smartBASIC Extensions User Guides. The full security of the Bluetooth/Bluetooth Low Energy connection will depend largely on how the smartBASIC application is written, and what the input/output capabilities are of the devices that are connecting. If either device will not have any input/output capabilities then pairing will have to default to Just Works, which is the least secure pairing method. However there are additional layers of security that can be added to increase protection from hacking when the Just Works pairing model is used.

With Bluetooth Low Energy, to further secure the connection, it is recommended that the metadata for the characteristic attributes are configured for Encryption with man-in-the-middle protection for characteristic value access. This will prevent anyone from accessing data on the module without proper encryption keys. (See BleAttrMetadataEx in the BL6xx/BT900 smartBASIC Extensions User Guides.) Additionally, when using Just Works pairing, or any time additional security is required, we recommend adding a challenge/response question to the application layer, with a timer, which expects the connecting device to respond to the challenge question in a specified period of time after a connection has occurred. If the correct response is not received within that time period the application would force a disconnection. Finally, whisper mode pairing can be used during the pairing process as an additional layer of security. This is accomplished by reducing the Tx power while pairing using BleTxPwrWhilePairing as per the BL6xx/BT900 smartBASIC Extensions User Guide, which will reduce the radius which a hacker would need to breach in order to capture or spoof the encryption procedure.

Online Xcompiler is not accessible is there a way to Xcompile a smartBASIC Application locally when using UwTerminalX?

If you are having issues using the Online Xcompilers it could be related to security settings in your system which may be blocking access to the Online Xcompilers. If you are not able to resolve this it is possible to Xcompile locally by following the steps below:

  1. Disable (uncheck) the Online XCompilers on the Config Tab in UwTerminalX as shown below:
  2. Locate the Xcomp_mmmmm_xxxx_xxxx.exe file in the firmware zip folder (downloaded from module's Product Page) for the version of firmware loaded to the module.
    Note: the Xcomp version MUST match the firmware version loaded to the module or the application will not compile.
    mmmmm = module
    xxxx_xxxx =Xcomp version
  3. Copy or Move the Xcomp_mmmmm_xxxx_xxxx.exe to the same folder the smartBASIC application is stored in as shown below:

You should now be able to Xcompile the application using UwTerminalX by right-clicking in the terminal and selecting one of the Xcompile options :

  • Xcompile
  • Xcompile+Load
  • Xcompile+Load+Run

Select the application from the folder where the Xcomp file is located. UwTerminalX will now look for the local Xcompiler in the application folder.

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  • Product & Industrial Design

Talk to an Expert

Buy Now

Distributor Part In Stock Region Buy
Mouser BA600 10 North America Buy Now
Mouser BA600 10 North America Buy Now
Avnet BA600 0 North America Buy Now
Avnet BB600 0 North America Buy Now
Mouser BB600 0 North America Buy Now
Mouser BB600 0 North America Buy Now
Avnet BC600 0 North America Buy Now
Mouser BC600 0 North America Buy Now
Mouser BC600 0 North America Buy Now

Distributors

Distributor Phone Number Region Website
Arrow Electronics 1-855-326-4757
+44 2039 365486
APAC, North America, South America, EMEA Website
Avnet 1-480-643-2000
+44 1628 512900
APAC, North America, South America, EMEA Website
Braemac Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia +61 2 9550 6600
+64 9 477 2148
APAC Website
Cal-Chip Connect 1-215-942-8900
North America Website
DigiKey 1-800-344-4539
North America, South America, APAC, EMEA Website
EBV Elektronik EMEA Website
Farlink Technology China, Hong Kong +86 13266922199
APAC Website
Farnell 1-800-936-198
+44 3447 11 11 22
EMEA Website
Future Electronics 1-800-675-1619
1-514-428-8470
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Glyn +49-6126-590-0
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Hy-Line Germany Only +49 89 614 503 0
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Jetronic China, Hong Kong and Taiwan 852-27636806 
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Laird Connectivity 1-847-839-6925
+44 1628 858941
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Martinsson +46 8 7440300
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+44 1494 427500
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+44 3457-201201
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Symmetry Electronics 1-866-506-8829
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WPG +44 1628 958460
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