Hi, my name is James Hollister and I’m interested in applying for Google Summer of Code. I’m currently a student at University of California, Riverside with an interest in programming for embedded systems.
I’d like to work on the Support for Bluetooth Low Energy idea, who should I talk to in order to flesh out my ideas for getting this done and make sure I’m on the right track? Also, what hardware is recommended for this? I currently own a STM32F4 Discovery but I do not have any BLE modules for it so I’m thinking I should buy an nrf51822 or similar.
Finally, do you have an issue that you can recommend that would give me the best introduction to the code base?
I could not see BLE support in RIOT so I was planning to suggest adding BLE too.
I am planning to use PsoC 4 BLE IC. Click to see PsoC 4BLE details.
PsoC 4BLE is a SoC which contains ARM Cortex M0 core and Bluetooth low energy radio (like as nrf51822). And also it contains BLE stack.
I have already ported RIOT to PsoC 4 BLE basically (Initialization, Timer, UART etc. ) in my local but I am waiting the result of my another “Pull Request” for PsoC 5LP port.
Because, PsoC IC portings are using PsoC Creator IDE (instead of RIOT build system), so if it will be accepted by RIOT maintainers, I will also create a pull request for PsoC 4BLE silicon.
Expected result for BLE support in the “Idea List”: Connection with a smartphone.
Best flesh out your ideas on this mailing list. This is exactly where we discuss this kind of ideas and here you will get the best possible feedback.
For BLE hardware I would suggest the Nordic SoC (NRF51822). This cpu is already supported by RIOT and it allows you to get started with BLE right away, without having to port RIOT to some new hardware first. But before you actually look into a specific platform, I would highly recommend to design and discuss your overall architecture first!
To get started with the code base, I would recommend to look at the Github issues labeled as ‘Newbie-Task-Candidate’ and see if there is something you find interesting. Don’t hesitate to ask for more information right in the Github issue if something is unclear.
Looking forward to hear more about your concrete plans!