BLE + RPi 3 + Node.Js

Question

I am currently developing an application where I connect from an Android/iOS app to the Raspberry Pi 3 via Bluetooth/BLE. Once paired, the RPi will send temperature measurements to the mobile app.

I searched the internet, and honestly I found many articles and forum topics where they address these issues, but I wasn't fully satisfied with what I found (no step by step guide for newbies).

Skills missing to accomplish this:

• Creating a node js server that sends data through RPi BLE/Bluetooth
• Creating a mobile app that connects to RPi and gets the data.

I know there are million ways to do it, but I need the best and quickest solution. I already know how to develop Android Apps, but also I prefer using something like Cordova/PhoneGap (Fast and multi-platform)

Can you please suggest any guides for me to ramp up quickly?

Answer 1

Of course you can ! You can go very low level and look into ATT/GATT interfaces and commands. They work like AT commands if you've ever used them.

But of course this makes it much simpler : https://github.com/sandeepmistry/noble

Answer 2

Well for the nodejs part it won't be very complicated. Follow a tutorial and find some way to send req to the server from whatever device you use.

I would recommand this library that would make the use of blueZ easier: https://github.com/intel-iot-devkit/tinyb

First develop your Rpi App using C/C++ and tinyb, once that's done, find a way to pass calls from your device to the server, to your app. You can do that either by using a C daemon that will handle on it's own the bluetooth or via a wrapper from Nodejs to tinyb. Depending on your skills you should go for one or the other solution.

It seems that I might be wrong and that "noble" can be used, but I feel like C approach would be more effective. But I cannot be 100% of that without trying it first. @Kevin Roy thanks for showing noble, looks awesome !