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How to listen to bluetooth boards?

obones

Hello,

I have quite a few ESP32 based custom devices that are connected to WiFi and this works just fine.

However, I also have sitting on my desk a few boards that are only capable of communicating via Bluetooth (BLE) and I'm not sure how I would connect to them to retrieve whatever data they have to transmit.

For instance, one of them has an accelerometer that I could use to sense vibrations on a water pipe to infer water consumption. It could store a set of values for a given amount of past time and then send that history data to the reading device when it is being asked to do so.

With WiFi, I can write a web server that exposes an endpoint to which the device would connect to post its data. Or even have it directly use the MQTT protocol and be done with it.

But with Bluetooth, I'm not sure what I should come up with. Something that would go BLE --> MQTT would be ideal of course, but if it goes BLE -> WiFi -> MQTT, it's also fine as maybe I could piggyback it on an existing ESP32 based board.

Any ideas are most welcome.

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  • 0

    What you are looking for is a BLE Gateway. You can build one with one of your ESp32 boards. BLE devices can't communicate directly to an MQTT server.
    BLE Salve devices ( BLE GATT servers - Sensors with BLE ) -> BLE Master device ( BLE GATT client, In this case it's the gateway).-> Internet through WiFi or Ethernet connection.

    Eg: https://github.com/oh2mp/esp32_ble2mqtt

    Note: This just came up in a google search. I haven't tested it by myself.

    My suggested gateway setup:

    • ESP32 as BLE GATT Client
    • Set WiFi STA mode - Configure Static IP Adress
    • Establish a connection between your MQTT Broker and the gateway.
    • Host a webpage for configuring the BLE Profiles and Characteristics, MQTT Topics etc.
    • Read/Notify sensor data ( Through BLE), Format it ( Probably in JSON) and forward it to your MQTT Broker
Reply
  • 0

    What you are looking for is a BLE Gateway. You can build one with one of your ESp32 boards. BLE devices can't communicate directly to an MQTT server.
    BLE Salve devices ( BLE GATT servers - Sensors with BLE ) -> BLE Master device ( BLE GATT client, In this case it's the gateway).-> Internet through WiFi or Ethernet connection.

    Eg: https://github.com/oh2mp/esp32_ble2mqtt

    Note: This just came up in a google search. I haven't tested it by myself.

    My suggested gateway setup:

    • ESP32 as BLE GATT Client
    • Set WiFi STA mode - Configure Static IP Adress
    • Establish a connection between your MQTT Broker and the gateway.
    • Host a webpage for configuring the BLE Profiles and Characteristics, MQTT Topics etc.
    • Read/Notify sensor data ( Through BLE), Format it ( Probably in JSON) and forward it to your MQTT Broker
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