TI BLE5-Stack 1.01.02.00 Release Notes
Table of Contents
Introduction
The BLE5-Stack is a set of sample applications, tools, APIs and protocol stack libraries that enable engineers to develop Bluetooth ® 5 standalone or network processor LE applications on the SimpleLink™ CC2640R2 Bluetooth low energy (BLE) wireless MCU. This Bluetooth 5 (BLE5-Stack) release includes support to enable development of applications using the following Bluetooth 5 LE features: High Speed, Long Range (LE Coded PHYs), Advertisement Extensions as well as all existing Bluetooth 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2 LE features.
As with all Bluetooth core specifications that support the low energy (LE) feature, devices implementing the LE feature of Bluetooth 5 are backward compatible with Bluetooth 4.2, 4.1 and 4.0 LE capable devices.
BLE5-Stack 1.01.02.00 is an updated evaluation, non-production release for the CC2640R2 wireless MCU.
Key features of BLE5-Stack 1.01.02.00 :
- Supports the following Bluetooth 5 LE features: High Speed Mode (2 Mbps PHY), Long Range (LE Coded 125kbps and 500kbps PHYs), Advertisement Extensions (AE) non-periodic, Privacy 1.2.1 and Channel Selection Algorithm #2
- Support for all Bluetooth 4.2 LE features including LE Secure Connections and Data Length Extension (DLE)
- Integrated BLE Host and Controller supporting System-on-chip (SoC) standalone or network processor dual-device configurations
- Project Zero sample application demonstrates typical peripheral role operations such as controlling LEDs, identifying button states and sending strings of data from a smartphone to the LaunchPad™
- Standalone Peripheral, Broadcaster and Central sample applications to jump start development
- Full integration with TI-RTOS for real-time scheduling, automatic power management and utilizing peripheral device drivers
- Over-the-Air Download (OAD) firmware upgrade support for updating device firmware wirelessly
- Free code development option with Code Composer Studio™ (CCS)
Additional information about TI’s Bluetooth low energy solutions can be found at www.ti.com/ble
BLE5-Stack Documentation
The SimpleLink CC2640R2 SDK allows easier product development by combining TI-RTOS and the BLE protocol stack in one unified SDK. All BLE5-Stack sample applications are based off the TI-RTOS Kernel. Key documents needed for BLE application development include:
Installation and Usage
- To build the sample applications with this SDK a supported a supported IDE must be installed (refer to Dependencies below)
- Install the simplelink_cc2640r2_sdk_2_20_00_00 installer package on a supported host operating system build machine with Administrator privileges
- The default install path for Windows is C:\ti\simplelink_cc2640r2_sdk_2_20_00_00 and is referenced as $BLE_INSTALL$ in the documentation
- Changing the default install path and/or drive letter may require updating project variables. Do not use a space in the install path
- It is recommended to make a backup of the installation in order to revert modifications to the SDK
What’s New
| ID | Summary |
|---|---|
| BLESTACK-3899 | Updated two-button menu to permit long range connectivity testing using simple_central and simple_peripheral sample applications running on the CC2640R2 LaunchPad™ |
| BLESTACK-3898 | Added ability to automatically select a PHY based on RSSI reports |
| BLESTACK-3897 | Updated HCI Vendor Specific APIs to match updated GAP APIs. Previous versions of BTool are not supported |
| BLESTACK-3895 | GAPRole task has been deprecated with related functionality moved to the application task |
| BLESTACK-3894 | Major update to GAP Advertising, Scanning and Connection Management APIs to permit greater flexibility and memory utilization |
| BLESTACK-3893 | Bluetooth 5 feature support for Long Range (LE Coded PHY) and Advertisement Extensions to permit establishing BLE connections on the LE Coded PHYs as well as broadcasting larger payloads using extended advertisements |
Fixed Issues
| ID | Summary |
|---|---|
| BLESTACK-3839 | When using large AE data payloads, out-of-heap memory conditions may result in undefined operating conditions |
| BLESTACK-3832 | Added support for GapAdv HCI Vendor Specific Commands to BTool |
| BLESTACK-3831 | Random issues when SCAN_RSP payload is greater than 242 Bytes |
| BLESTACK-3830 | Fixed issue where multiple advertisement sets were not supported during a connection |
| BLESTACK-3829 | Added missing vendor specific modem test commands |
| BLESTACK-3826 | Devices acting as a master will not accept devices with unresolvable Resolvable Private Addresses (RPA) |
| BLESTACK-3438 | Scanning multiple PHYs is not supported |
| BLESTACK-3436 | Privacy on AE is not supported |
| BLESTACK-2743 | BLE5 Simple Peripheral fails to connect to Samsung Galaxy S7 |
| BLESTACK-2620 | No response after two GapAdv_loadData calls with 300 byte payload |
| BLESTACK-2544 | Scan duration does not expire while scanning in an active connection |
| BLESTACK-2435 | Link Layer Connection Parameters Request Procedure may not work with some smart phone devices |
| BLESTACK-2359 | RTOS Object Viewer (ROV) in IAR is not available when using autosized heap configuration |
| BLESTACK-1967 | HostTest does not support the Observer- or Broadcaster-only build configuration |
| BLESTACK-1358 | BTool: Responses to connection parameter updates must manually sent within 30 seconds using HCI_LERemoteConnectionParameterRequestReply under the Adv.Commands -> HCI menu |
Known Issues and Limitations
| ID | Summary |
|---|---|
| BLESTACK-3877 | Maximum supported number of concurrent BLE connections: 2 (embedded sample applications), and 3 (Host Test).Additional connections can be supported when using Cache-As-RAM |
| BLESTACK-3834 | Periodic advertisements are not supported |
| BLESTACK-3685 | Number of simultaneous connections may be limited when attempting concurrent LE Secure Connections pairings |
| BLESTACK-3678 | Host test peripheral + central build is not supported |
| BLESTACK-2711 | Issue when Scanning for extended advertisements using the 2M PHY |
Upgrade and Compatibility Information
The BLE5-Stack 1.01.02.00 introduces new BLE API which breaks compatibility with BLE5-Stack 1.0.x and earlier BLE-Stack releases. Refer to the included porting guide for migrating applications developed with prior TI BLE protocol stack versions.
Operating System Support
- Microsoft Windows® 7 SP1, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10
- Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit, Ubuntu 16.04 64-bit
- macOS Sierra
Dependencies
The BLE5-Stack sample applications were built & tested with the Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) and listed in the top-level SDK release notes.
Note: Earlier IDE/toolchain versions are not supported and compatibility with newer versions of supported IDEs is not assured.
Device Support
This release supports single-mode Bluetooth LE on the wireless MCUs listed in the top-level SDK release notes
Development Board Support
This release supports Bluetooth low energy application development on the CC2640R2 LaunchPad
Validation
The BLE5-Stack sample applications were built & tested with versions of the following Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) and tool chains listed in the top-level SDK release notes:
- Code Composer Studio using the TI C Compiler for ARM
- IAR Embedded Workbench for ARM
This release is for development purposes only. Refer to the TI BLE Wiki How to certify your product page for details regarding Bluetooth certification.
Versioning
This product follows a version format, M.mm.pp.bb, where:
- M is a 1 digit major number,
- mm is a 2 digit minor number,
- pp is a 2 digit patch number,
- bb is a 2 digit incrementing build counter.