RN4870 Bluetooth 4.2 Sensor PICtail Plus

RN4870 Bluetooth Low Energy PICtail Plus Daughter Board

The Microchip RN4870 Bluetooth PICtail Plus Daughter Board is a flexible development tool that showcases the RN4870 Bluetooth 4.2 Low Energy Module. It can be used standalone or utilised to add the RN4870 to Microchip development platforms that feature a PICtail Plus connector, such as the Explorer boards.

Included is a separate sensor board that features a potentiometer, light sensor and push button to generate data for the RN4870 to transfer over Bluetooth.

When used as a standalone tool the board interfaces with a host PC via USB as a Communication Device Class (CDC). Through a terminal program, the RN4870 can be configured through the provided command set.

As a Daughter Board the PICtail/PICtail Plus connector is used to interface with compatible development platforms. When connected the RN4870 UART interface is available to the base board microcontroller for data transfer and configuration, with the latter via an easy-to-use ASCII style command set.

Microchip also provides two iOS apps for the iPad and iPhone to help with development. The BLE Sensor app allows an iPad or iPhone to view sensor data and configure the module in real time. The Bluetooth Smart Discover app provides the ability to scan and connect to Bluetooth Low Energy devices, allowing read, write and enable notifications.

Bluetooth - Microchip