TI BLE5-Stack 1.01.01.00 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™ CC26x2 Bluetooth low energy (BLE) wireless MCU. This Bluetooth 5 (BLE5-Stack) evaluation 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 1.01.01.00 is a evaluation release for the CC26x2 wireless MCU.
Key features of BLE5-Stack 1.01.01.00 :
- 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™
- Simultaneous multiple master and/or slave connections with Multirole sample application
- 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) v7.4
Additional information about TI’s Bluetooth low energy solutions can be found at www.ti.com/ble
BLE5-Stack Documentation
The SimpleLink CC26x2 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:
What’s New
- Initial BLE5-Stack support for the SimpleLink CC13x2 and CC26x2 platform
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_cc26x2_sdk_1.60.00.43.exe package on a Windows ® 7 SP1, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 machine with Administrator privileges
- The default install path is C:\ti\simplelink_cc26x2_sdk_1.60.00.43 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
Fixed Issues
- Refer to CoreSDK release notes for details on RF Driver updates
Upgrade and Compatibility Information
The BLE5-Stack 1.01.01.00 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
The BLE-Stack sample applications in the SimpleLink CC26x2 SDK are supported on a Microsoft Windows® 7 SP1, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 build platform.
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 CC26x2 LaunchPad
Known Issues and Limitations
- BLESTACK-3011: Simultaneous Connection Parameter Update collision may lead to LMP timeout if both the master and slave send a LLCP connection parameter update request on the same connection event, subsequent connection parameter update requests from the master go unanswered by the slave. Sample applications updated to workaround this limitation.
- BLESTACK-3072: Scanner may drop Legacy Advertising packets if Duplicate Filter is on and it receives an Extended Advertising packet from the same advertiser before the first Legacy Advertising packet is received. To avoid this anomaly, Duplicate Filter needs to be off using GapScan_setParam(SCAN_PARAM_FLT_DUP, SCAN_FLT_DUP_DISABLE); Note that the Duplicate Filter is on by default.
- BLESTACK-3129: In multirole configurations, a connection cannot be initiated in the master role if Advertisements are enabled. There is a workaround in place for this issue in the multirole sample application: The advertisement is disabled before initiating a connection, then re-enabled again.
- BLESTACK-2445: There is a known issue with connecting a TI peripheral to a Samsung S8 Android phone where the S8’s connection parameter update requests sends the peripheral an eventCounter in its LLCP data which is interpret as invalid. When the peripheral rejects the update request a disconnect is observed.
- BLESTACK-2995: PTM is not currently supported; HostTest can be used for DTM / Modem Testing
- OAD is supported for off-chip memory configurations only; future update to enable on-chip OAD support
- RTOS logging of certain high-priority events, such as SWIs and HWIs, may interfere with reception of a scan response chain
- Maximum application supplied AE payload is 1650 bytes, however, only 300 bytes has been tested
- Some smartphone devices observed to disconnect when switching to the 2M PHY if the suggested Data Length Extension TX values are not the maximum 251 bytes / 2120us
- Up to 20 combined AE and legacy advertising sets can be created and active using round-robin scheduling
- Maximum 8 demonstrated simultaneous connections
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 evaluation and development purposes only. End products being developed with this protocol stack version will require a future update prior to obtaining Bluetooth and/or regulatory 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.