OpenBLE
Dev tools
api specification and code generator
SHOW HN2023
How HN took it
6 positive, 8 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 9 critical, out of 23 comments about the project. Thread score -0.08.
Privacy: 1 for, 5 againstIdea: 3 for, 3 againstDesign: 1 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Commenters like the idea of a standard GATT profile definition format
From 2 comments
Great stuff - and it seems you and I are a kindred spirit. For the past few years I've been building iOS and Android BLE apps/SDKs using my own GATT YML spec, and using that to…
snydersaurus on HNI mean, defining the service in some sort of universal definition format is clearly the way to go. Working with BLE across platforms is incredibly terse and error-prone. The…
foooorsyth on HN
Web Bluetooth is a sane way to access BLE devices
From 2 comments
I use Nordic's app nRF Connect for this - last I used it it was fantastic. Nice to have alternative options though. I agree WebBluetooth is easily the sanest way to access BLE…
IshKebab on HN> Web Bluetooth's usefulness is dubious, It is very useful, I use it often. I can't think what security exploits there could be given that the user has to select the device and…
teruakohatu on HN
Objections
Web Bluetooth exposes security risks in browsers
From 3 comments
As another commenter mentioned, it's common practice to shove all your device's functionality into one characteristic to reduce service discovery time (and, in some cases, memory…
ryukoposting on HNUnfortunately it also opens up the door for so many new exploits. A lot of hardware has very minimal protection against attacks, because the general idea is that anyone able to…
crote on HNSecurity. A lot of hardware devices pretty much implicitly trust the device on the other side of the data connection, because historically anyone able to run software on a…
crote on HN
Single-characteristic designs make per-characteristic specs less relevant
From 2 comments
I don't know about other people, but I've worked for 2 companies now that don't use numerous GATT characteristics to handle numerous operations. They use 1 characteristic with a…
seanalltogether on HNI am of the opinion that a community-backed, portable library of encoders/decoders for a single L2CAP stream or notified characteristic would be far more useful than numerous…
jtrueb on HN
YAML spec format is disliked
From 1 comment
> Features > 1. Define your GATT services in YAML. Uh, nope, thank you.
orphea on HN
Requests
Generate code for Zephyr, Android and iOS
From 1 comment
As another commenter mentioned, it's common practice to shove all your device's functionality into one characteristic to reduce service discovery time (and, in some cases, memory…
ryukoposting on HN
Describe byte structure of characteristic values
From 1 comment
As another commenter mentioned, it's common practice to shove all your device's functionality into one characteristic to reduce service discovery time (and, in some cases, memory…
ryukoposting on HN
Support for HID over GATT profiles
From 1 comment
Is there a HID over GATT YAML? From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37522059 : > https://github.com/DJm00n/ControllersInfo: HID profiles for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS4, PS5,…
westurner on HN
Peripheral mode and Security Level 3 in Web Bluetooth
From 1 comment
Cool! I have an interesting project but it’s still waiting for Security Level 3 support in Web Bluetooth. Also Peripheral mode would be nice.
jtwaleson on HN
Questions
Is Web Bluetooth limited to Chrome and unsupported on iPhone?
From 2 comments
Seems to be unsupported on any iPhone browsers - I’m assuming it’s WebKit constraint?
greggsy on HNThe only mainstream browser that supports Web Bluetooth is Chrome. Maybe Apple told Google "no, don't implement that." There are good reasons for that. Web Bluetooth's usefulness…
ryukoposting on HN
Can a Mac emulate a BLE device like a heart rate monitor?
From 1 comment
One thing I’ve wanted to do for end to end testing purposes is to be able to make pretend Bluetooth devices from my Mac. I’ve not seen much to suggest a simple way to do this,…
andy_ppp on HN
Alternatives named
nRF Connect
From 1 comment
I use Nordic's app nRF Connect for this - last I used it it was fantastic. Nice to have alternative options though. I agree WebBluetooth is easily the sanest way to access BLE…
IshKebab on HN
LightBlue
From 1 comment
My tool of choice for this is LightBlue. It's not fully cross platform, unfortunately, but it works great on Apple devices. (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lightblue/id557428110)…
skibz on HN
bleno and noble
From 1 comment
My tool of choice for this is LightBlue. It's not fully cross platform, unfortunately, but it works great on Apple devices. (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lightblue/id557428110)…
skibz on HN