BLE Requirements for MacOS

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Created 3d

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I am working on a hobby project to develop my own Bluetooth peripheral. The platform for this peripheral is a Espressif ESP32-based TinyS3 from Unexpected Maker. I have defined the bluetooth device & service information using custom UUIDs. Using nRF Connect or Light Blue mobile applications I can discover and connect to my device. I receive confirmation of this BLE connection and modifications to the my BLE Service from my code on my TinyS3.

I am attempting to write a custom software program that uses the onboard Mac Bluetooth hardware to detect this device. I am technically using Qt's Bluetooth infrastructure via PySide6 [python].

Despite being able to see my device in the mobile BLE applications, my software as well as the Mac Bluetooth System Services does not detect my BLE device.

I am broadcasting advertising messages at a 250ms rate, and since they are findable by these mobile applications, I am wondering if MacOS has specific requirements for advertising data for what it considers as a "legitimate/ connectable" device.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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Answer 1

Engineer OP

Apple

2d

While 250ms is not the ideal (our recommended intervals are 20ms, 152.5 ms, 211.25 ms, 318.75 ms, 417.5 ms, 546.25 ms, 760 ms, 852.5 ms, 1022.5 ms, 1285 ms for the best power/time-to-discovery performance), other apps being able to see your peripheral means there isn't a fundamental problem with your device.

If you only tried mobile versions of these apps, you could try macOS versions and check if those also see your device. In general the Bluetooth stacks of both iOS and macOS are functionally the same.

Mac Bluetooth System Services only discovers Classic Bluetooth devices, and won't discover BLE devices. You must discover those with apps.

This leaves the problem being with your app. Unfortunately we can't help with QT and python code, so you may need to refer to the appropriate support channels for those tools. Perhaps someone from the community here could help.

Argun Tekant /  DTS Engineer / Core Technologies

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