SimpleLink BLE Plugin Azure Gateway User Guide
Table of Contents
Introduction
The SimpleLink BLE Plugin Azure Gateway Example Pack is a companion software packages that enables a user to enable their BLE applications as a gateway to the Azure Cloud.
This Examples Pack requires prior download of the SimpleLink SDK BLE Plugin, as well as SimpleLink MSP432E4 SDK Azure IoT Plugin. Without prior installation of those plugins, as well as their SDK dependencies, the examples in this Example Pack will not work.
Plugin Architecture / General Overview
All of the code examples written for this software package leverage a host SimpleLink LaunchPad for the host processor. The LaunchPads currently supported include:
- MSP-EXP432E401Y (MSP432E401 LaunchPad)
This LaunchPad can be connected to a BLE radio using a LAUNCHXL-CC26X2R1 hardware configuration.
The communication between the host SimpleLink device and the CC26xx has been abstracted away using the Host Controller Interface (HCI) driver layer. The HCI layer allows for a generic and portable interface between the MSP432 and CC26xx, simplifies programming for the end user, and maximizes portability.
The HCI layer supports a physical UART Network Processor Interface (NPI) layer between the SimpleLink host MCU and the CC26xx. The HCI software APIs provide a generic software mechanism for programmers to write code that is easily portable to other TI microcontrollers (such as WiFi parts).
More information on hardware setup and flashing the CC26X2R1 can be found in the SimpleLink SDK Bluetooth Plugin User’s Guide.
Folder Structure
The folder structure for the Example Pack is minimized so as to not reproduce code from the plugins it depends on. From the root directory, the following folders are available:
- .metadata/ - Internal folder for product integration into Code Composer Studio. You do not have to edit any files in this folder.
- docs/ - Contains all documentation related to the SDK plugin
- examples/ - Contains all of the code examples and their IDE project files
You will see that the examples will depend on source code that can be found in the SimpleLink SDK BLE Plugin, the SimpleLink MSP432E4 SDK Azure IoT Plugin, and the SimpleLink SDK MSP432E4 Plugin.
IDE/Software Configurations
Code Composer Studio Project Guide
This Example Pack is designed to integrate seamlessly with the Code Composer Studio Integrated Development Environment from Texas Instruments. After installing the example pack (it is recommended to use the default installation directory), CCS should automatically detect and install the example pack software package without any special interaction from the user. To check to see if the example pack has installed correctly, go to the Windows->Preferences menu item. Under the Code Composer Studio->Products item you should see “SimpleLink BLE Plugin Azure Gateway Example Pack” installed (with a version number):
Note that the installation path of the plugin needs to be present in the Product Discovery Path:
IAR Embedded Workbench Project Guide
IAR Embedded Workbench is fully supported. Setting up your development environment to work with IAR involves pointing IAR to the plugin and SDK directories as mentioned below.
To get started, a list of external variables needs to be imported in IAR in order to let the IDE know the paths for all of the relevant software installations. An example configuration file that uses the default paths can be found in the tools/iar/simplelink_sdk_ble_plugin_azure_gateway_example_pack_msp432e4.custom_argvars file of the Example Pack installation directory. This file might have to be changed depending on specific installation paths and version numbers; however it should work if the user chose to use the default installation paths (note the version numbers might slightly vary from the picture below):
To import this file into your IAR IDE, navigate to Tools->Configure Custom Argument Variables.
From here, click the “Global” tab and navigate to the directory where the custom_argvars file is stored (by default in the examples/ directory of the installation path).
After importing this file the custom variables will show up in the text box in the middle of the screen. Click OK to closeout and save the dialog. Note that these custom variables need only be imported once and the settings will persist.
Once the external symbols have been imported you can either open the project manually on the file system or use IAR’s built-in example project explorer. To open the project manually, simply go to File->Open->Workspace:
Navigate to the example project’s eww file. For example, the simple application processor’s (for MSP432) eww file would be located at:
install_directory/examples/rtos/MSP_EXP432P401R/bluetooth/simple_application_processor/tirtos/iar/simple_application_processor.eww 
Note that if you upgrade or change versions of the SimpleLink SDK BLE Plugin or the base SDK, the external tools variables will have to change to point to the correct version of the software.
Support
Please refer to the E2E forum for any support queries/request.