Use Blecon from a Development Board

Flash a Blecon demonstration application on your development board and use it to send data to the network and test other Blecon features

Devboard Demo App

The Blecon Devboard Demo App is firmware that can be flashed to a range of development boards to test out many of Blecon's capabilities including:

• Sending data to the cloud and receiving responses

• Receiving events associated with the board from the Blecon Network

• Viewing the location information about the board

• Reading the board's Blecon Device ID with the Blecon Scanner

Once flashed, the Devboard Demo App can be used in standalone mode with the buttons and LEDs on the development board itself. Additional functionality can be accessed if the development board is connected to a computer over a UART link.

Setup Your Development Board and Flash the Demo Application

Consult the list of supported development boards and follow the setup guide for the board you are using.

Operation with On-board Buttons

When the application is flashed and successfully running, the Status LED will briefly flash once every 2 seconds.

Using buttons on the development board you can perform the following activities

• ping connects the board to the Blecon network, sends data, and waits for the reply before disconnecting

• announce makes the board's Blecon ID available to the Blecon Scanner, allowing you to register the board to a Blecon Network or to view information about the device in the Blecon Console.

The board-specific guide for your development board will detail which LED on your board corresponds to the Status LED which buttons correspond to the ping and announce functions.

Ping

When you press the ping button the Status LED will flash more quickly indicating the board is searching for a connection. Once connected, the LED will become solid to indicate a connection has been made. When the connection ends, the LED will return to the default flashing pattern.

Announce

When you press the announce button, the board will announce its Blecon Device ID to a Blecon Scanner. Once scanned, if the device is in one of your Blecon Networks, you can view information about the device in the Blecon Console.

If the Development Board's device ID is registered to one of your Blecon Networks you can see information about that board in the Blecon Console.

Advanced commands from the UART Shell

You can also connect your development board's UART to your computer to access the DevBoard Demo application's command shell. The command shell allow you to use a command line interface to access more advanced functionality.

The board-specific guide for your development board will detail how to open a UART connection to your development board. Use your preferred serial port monitor to connect to the UART of your development board.

Supported commands

• blecon ping - Identical to pressing the ping button, but will additionally print ping statistics such as the time it took to make a connection and the round trip time to the Blecon Service.

• blecon announce - Identical to pressing the announce button

• blecon get-device-id - Prints the development board's Blecon Device ID

• blecon get-device-url - Prints the development board's Blecon Device ID

• blecon request - Sends data to the Blecon network and wait for a response

• blecon help - List supported commands

Sending Requests

The blecon request command used with out any additional options sends the message Hello from <BOARD NAME> to the echo integration in the Blecon Network. The echo integration will reply with the same message.

You can customise the message sent by adding your custom text after the command.

nrf54l15dk:~$ blecon request "a custom message to echo back"
Connected, sending request.
Data sent
Response:
a custom message to echo back
Request complete

Additionally, the -n and -m options can be added to construct a request with a specific namespace and method. You can use the namespace and method to route messages to your custom integrations.

nrf54l15dk:~$ blecon request -n demo -m post "a custom message"