F.A.Q. for Wireless Bluetooth Modules

1. What is Bluetooth 4.0? What is the difference between Bluetooth 4.0 and previous versions of Bluetooth?

Bluetooth 4.0 has three working modes, normal Bluetooth mode, high-speed Bluetooth mode and low-speed Bluetooth mode. Previous versions only support normal Bluetooth mode, other modes are not compatible with normal Bluetooth mode. Bluetooth 4.0 contains BLE, which is a single mode type in Bluetooth 4.0.

2. What is the difference between low power Bluetooth and normal Bluetooth?

The main difference is that: there are limitations on data packets and therefore lower power consumption.

3. Is low power Bluetooth 4.0 downward compatible with previous versions of Bluetooth and why?

Low-power Bluetooth is not downward compatible. Low-power Bluetooth cannot communicate because it needs to reduce power consumption and uses a different communication mechanism than ordinary Bluetooth.

4. What is the transmission rate of BLE Bluetooth Module?

The physical transmission rate is 1M, and the actual transmission rate is 20 bytes per connection event.

5. How far is the transmission distance of the low power Bluetooth module?

It is nominally 100 feet (about 60 meters), in the case of 0dB.

6. What is the transmission rate of the BLE module? How much data can be transferred?

The transmission rate is up to 4K/S and can work stably at 2.8K/S. The data you can transfer depends on how long you transfer it.

7. How about the anti-jamming capability of BLE module?  

Under FM communication mode, 37 communication frequency points and 3 broadcast frequency points. It can effectively avoid some frequency interference, but it is not recommended to use between walls, unless a hollow wooden wall.

8. What is the size of the serial port data packet (for BLE modules) ?

Up to 200 bytes, including 200 bytes.

9. How is the working current of BLE module calculated? How long can a standard button battery last?

The continuous working current integrates the time and averages it. Connect once a second for more than a year, regardless of other power consumption.

10. Can the BLE module be used in headphones?

No, large data stream applications such as audio cannot be supported.

11. Can the BLE module be applied to the mouse or keyboard?

Yes, BLE module can be applied to the mouse or keyboard.

12. What is the difference between a normal BLE module and a transparent transmission BLE module?

If an ordinary pure hardware BLE module embedded with software, which gives the module transparent transmission function, then this module will become a transparent transmission module.

13. Does BLE support routing?

I won't support it.

14. Does transparent transmission Bluetooth Module support air upgrade?

I won't support air upgrade.

15. How many modules does TI's USB dongle support linking?

It supports three RF modules

16. How many mobile phones does the BLE module support linking?

As a slave device, a BLE module can only be connected by one master device. But a mobile phone can connect multiple BLE modules.

17. Does the BLE module support 2.4G non-Bluetooth protocol mode?

DL-CC2541 BLE module is OK to support 2.4G non-Bluetooth protocol mode.

18. What is the peak power consumption when transmitting and receiving data? How to reduce peak power consumption?

CC2540 transmits data at -6dBm at a peak of 24mA; while CC2541 transmits data at 0dBm at a peak of 18.2mA, reducing transmission power can reduce peak power consumption.

19. How to calculate the total power consumption of the module?

A standard resistance, such as 10 ohms, is connected in series to the line, and an oscilloscope is used to sample the voltage drop at both ends of the resistance. In a unit time, the voltage waveform/10 ohm integrates the time with the average current.

20. The product needs module active connection, can it be achieved?

The BLE transparent transmission module is a slave device, and can only be connected passively.

21. Can I use BLE module directly to drive an external 2.0 Bluetooth front-end?

You can try, but the transmission rate won't increase.

22. If a large amount of data needs to be sent, what should be done?

Subpackage by itself, 200 bytes per package.

23. What are the voltage requirements for the power supply to the Bluetooth module, such as ripple, decoupling capacitance, etc?

A stable 3V-3.3V DC power supply is required, with a minimum of 2.6V, a filter capacitance of the module itself, direct power supply outside the module, and instantaneous current up to 50mA guaranteed.

24. Does pure hardware Bluetooth module require bottom drivers?

The Bluetooth protocol bottom driver is sealed and cannot be modified.

25. Can TI's BLE protocol stack modify TX's signal strength?

Modifiable, with special HCI commands to set transmission power, HCI_EXT_For details on SetTxPowerCmd, check the Bluetooth protocol stack documentation or search for Prower globally in the protocol code.

26. What is the difference between the transparent transmission module and the direct drive module? What are their advantages? Which projects are suitable for development?

The difference is: transparent transmission module is for data transmission, while direct drive module is to control the peripheral circuit directly; at present, direct drive module also contains the transparent transmission function (such as our DL-CC2541 BLE module), which may be canceled in the future, so that the transfer and direct drive functions can be completely separated; 

The transparent transmission module is suitable as a bridge to connect products and mobile devices, so that electronic products and mobile devices can communicate in both directions; direct drive module is the CPU provided to customers, customers only need to pass through mobile phones. Programming can control all the resources of the module to drive the peripheral circuit without additional CPUs.