BlueBasic: BASIC for Bluetooth

Just wanted to add a final log to this project. It's been a while since I've spent any time on this. In the last 10 months I've moved away from working with the TI chips and instead are using the Nordic nRF51/2 chips. The motivation was partly because they had a more modern processor and software stack (although TI did release their new stuff) but mostly because I could use free and open tools. It's a cold day in hell when I think Eclipse is better than the alternative, but it was.

For everyone who's still interested in this work, please take it and do with it as you will. I'm happy to answer questions but because I no longer have access to the IDE, there's not much else I can do for you.

Shortly after I started this project someone asked if I was going to make hardware available. To be honest that was not the original goal; I was just doing this to play with bluetooth and to make it easier for others to tinker too. But then, after thinking about it for a bit, it did seem like a good idea to make cheap hardware available. After all, using Blue Basic doesn't stop you having to buy hardware to run the code, and you still need to buy the CC Debugger tool to flash the chips. But how cheap? I just finished the first prototype run of boards. Including US postage and packing, the total cost per board is $7. I think that's pretty cheap. There's no profit of course, but that's not the point of doing this. Now I just need to work out how to actually sell them.

I love it when a plan comes together. Here are the first two production "Petra" boards, assembled using the SMT50 pick and place machine. I have a lot more to make, but these are testing well.

And after much mucking about with naming guidelines, the Blue Basic Console finally lands in the OSX App Store. Find it here:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bluebasic/id926657840?mt=12

Look what arrived by DHL the other day:

Hidden in the plastic wrap are 100 CC2540 modules. Now I just need to mount them on the prototype boards with the boost converter and I'll be ready to start spreading some low energy love (this would be the worst chat-up line ever).

Here is the final prototype board, assembled and tested:

I'm finally ready to put in the big order and make a bunch of these. Excited!

After a little messing about, the iOS BlueBasic console is now in the AppStore for iPhone and iPad. You can find them here:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blue-basic/id926657809?mt=8

The new PCBs turned up a few moments ago. Here's the package in all its splendor.

I ordered 10 but received 18! Not bad. As you can see, this time I went with DirtyPCBs rather than OSHPark. I'm planning to do the final run of boards with them (a cost thing) so I wanted to try them out when it was a little less critical. Actually testing the boards will probably have to wait until early next week.

With the release of XCode 6.1, I can finally submit the Blue Basic console code to the AppStore. Before this people who wanted to try it out had to download the code and compile it themselves; a painful process on OSX and impossible without a developer license on iOS.

Now Apple just has to accept it ...

The new modules arrived from Alibaba today. These are samples of the final ones I'll use to make my first 100 boards. They look good, but I won't really know until the Dirty PCBs turn up at the end of the week and I can assemble the next, and final, prototypes.