News

Work in Progress: MiKro 328 BLuE

Hello everyone well maybe it is time to tell you about the project that still keeps me busy. Of course I’m not a company behind all the developments so it takes a little more time 🙂 The initial idea was similar to what Punch Through Design finally delivered with their Bean. If you are not familiar with the Bean you can take a look at it here, but promise to come back after you visited the Bean description.

New HDK arrived: Bluegiga DKWF121

Hello everyone well it does not stop. There was another Development Kit delivered to my door last week. The Bluegiga DKWF121 Development Kit for their Wifi WK121 Module. I was thinking a long time to get a first hands-on on this Wifi module since a few peaople already asked my if I can help them during development of IoT devices using the WF121. No w I can. Hopefully I will get some spare time to play around with the demos provided in the SDK and give some feedback about how to use it.

BLEBee v2.0.0 prototype hardware and firmware finished. Works great !

Hello everyone, I was a little quiet lately. I was not sleeping but working on a few hardware designs and another iOS BLE application. After I created new versions of the BLE-Shield, the BLEBee is the another hardware that needs an update. The BLEBee v2.0.0 is now designed to use the BLE113-256k module which will enable OTA firmware updates without additional SPI flash. Moreover the power consumption will be slightly lower.

BLE-Shield v3.0.0 and BLE-Shield v3.0.0 LR (Long Range)

Hello everyone, Initially I wanted to show the BLE-Shield v3.0.0 and the BLE-Shield v3.0.0 LR (Long Range) at Maker Faire Rome 2014, but they didn’t make it in time for a presentation in rome. Now I was able to solder the BLE113 and BLE121LR module using a simple hot plate successfully. Since both modules are equipped with 256kb flash, there is no need for additional SPI Flash memory chips or a USB port to support upgrading the firmware.

Presenting new Hardware on Maker Faire Rome 2014

Hello everyone, I’m happy to announce that I will present some new MiKro-Labs branded designs together with BlueKitchen (http://www.bluekitchen-gmbh.com) at Maker Faire Rome 2014. I partnered up with Matthias Ringwald, the author of BTstack <(http://www.btstack.org>) to create some BLE Shields which are running his Low Energy part of BTstack. I have not dropped support for Bluegiga based shields. They were not yet finished in time. There is a BLE-Shield v3.0.0 based on a BLE113 and a v3.

The final hardware DropBeacon is available on github

Hello everyone, after I promised it to a few guys, the DropBeacon is now available on github. I added more details to the DropBeacon page on this blog: http://www.mkroll.mobi/?page_id=1693 You can find the Schematic and Board files as well as the BGScript Project to compile the firmware using Bluegiga’s SDK v1.2.2 on github: https://github.com/michaelkroll/DropBeaconThanks, Michael.

The MiKro - An Arduino UNO form factor based board using the ATmega 1284p micro controller

Hello everyone, some people have noticed on twitter that I was trying to compile the optiboot boot loader for the ATmega 1284p for the 5V/16MHz configuration. I finally succeeded and created the MiKro board which is described in a little more detail on it’s dedicated project page: http://www.mkroll.mobi/?page_id=1696 Although the the MiKro is work in progress the schematic, board and board definition files for the Arduino v1.0.5 IDE are already available on github: https://github.

"MiKro-Labs" ... new brand for my next hardware designs

Hello everyone, a few monhts ago I silently introduced the MiKro-Labs brand to the DKBLE11x OTA Add-On Module since I no longer wanted to print my complete name to the PCBs. In the meantime I created a nice looking logo and a the first hardware designs under the MiKro-Labs brand name. In order to list the hardware designs created with the MiKro-Labs Logo I added an additional section to my blog which is now reachable using the domain mikro-labs.

First look on BlueGiga's new DKBLE Development Kit

Hello BLE developers, today I received the new DKBLE Development Kit today and will give you a quick summary whats included and what I think is really cool in this version. The box is not very interesting, but as you can read on the sticker it is now the “DKBLE Development Kit” without additional module number. After opening the box, I was totally impressed. The contents of the box is listed below:

Finally the DropBeacon v1.0.1 iOS App is approved

Hello iBeacon enthusiasts, after a little struggle with the Apple Review Team, DropBeacon v1.0.1 was approved for the Apple App Store. You might have read the blog post at beekn.net about Apple locking down iBeacon: http://www.beekn.net/2014/05/apple-closed-system-apple-slowly-locking-ibeacon/. The DropBeacon update was affected by this as well. The updated to v1.0.1 has no longer a UUID editor included. Apple somehow forced me to remove the editor functionality to get the update approved. I asked them what about adding the three UUIDs which has beed added to the AirLocate sample provided by Apple at WWDC2013.