Find Your Bluetooth Low Energy Peripheral Devices

You can see a list of nearby Bluetooth^® Low Energy peripheral devices using blelist. After you identify your device on the list, you can establish a connection to it from MATLAB^® using ble.

Scan for Devices

Scan for Bluetooth Low Energy peripheral devices from MATLAB using blelist. This function lists all nearby peripheral devices that are advertising data. You can view the advertisement data for each device in MATLAB to determine whether it is connectable. If your device does not appear in the list, make sure it is powered on, nearby, and disconnected from any other devices or applications. Then scan for it again.

list = blelist

list=5×5 table
    Index           Name              Address        RSSI    Advertisement
    _____    __________________    ______________    ____    _____________

      1      "Gear Fit2 (E16A)"    "8498663EE16A"    -54     [1×1 struct] 
      2      ""                    "2C4D2724754D"    -69     [1×1 struct] 
      3      ""                    "1B75E09FD18F"    -70     [1×1 struct] 
      4      ""                    "4F7D6DAF9FCE"    -75     [1×1 struct] 
      5      ""                    "7B8ADB5851BD"    -76     [1×1 struct]

Devices are sorted by RSSI, which represents signal strength. If there are several devices listed, use the Name field to identify your device.

The advertisement data for each device contains data defined in the Generic Access Profile (GAP) by Bluetooth SIG. The Type field in the advertisement data Advertisement shows the connection status. View advertisement data of the first device.

list.Advertisement(1)

ans = struct with fields:
                            Type: ["Connectable Undirected"    "Scan Response"]
                      Appearance: "Generic Watch"
              ShortenedLocalName: []
               CompleteLocalName: "Gear Fit2 (E16A)"
                    TxPowerLevel: []
    SlaveConnectionIntervalRange: []
        ManufacturerSpecificData: [0 117 1 0 2 0 1 3 0]
                     ServiceData: []
            CompleteServiceUUIDs: []
          IncompleteServiceUUIDs: []
        ServiceSolicitationUUIDs: []

Scan for Devices by Name

You can use name-value pair arguments to list only devices with a particular name.

For example, list all peripheral devices with names starting with the string "UA".

list = blelist("Name","UA")

list=2×5 table
    Index           Name               Address        RSSI    Advertisement
    _____    ___________________    ______________    ____    _____________

      1      "UA E39 MODULE"        "84DD20E39AB6"    -84     [1×1 struct] 
      2      "UA Footpod 239AE2"    "0CF3EE239AE2"    -87     [1×1 struct]

You can use name-value pair arguments to scan for specific names when you have many peripheral devices nearby.

Scan for Devices by Service Name or UUID

For devices that are advertising services, you can use name-value pair arguments to list only devices with the specified service. Service name and service UUID are both valid.

For example, list all peripheral devices that advertise the Heart Rate service.

list = blelist("Services","Heart Rate")

list=1×5 table
    Index           Name               Address        RSSI    Advertisement
    _____    ___________________    ______________    ____    _____________

      1      "UA E39 MODULE"        "84DD20E39AB6"    -84     [1×1 struct]

You can use name-value pair arguments to scan for specific services when you know which services you want to work with.

Scan for Longer Time

You can increase the amount of time MATLAB scans for nearby devices. This is useful if your device has a high advertising interval and does not appear in the list with the default timeout value of three seconds.

list = blelist("Timeout",10);

Connect to a Device

After you discover your device, establish a connection between MATLAB and the peripheral device using ble. Specify the device name or address from the blelist output.

b = ble("Gear Fit2 (E16A)")

b = 
  ble with properties:

               Name: "Gear Fit2 (E16A)"
            Address: "8498663EE16A"
          Connected: 1
           Services: [2×2 table]
    Characteristics: [3×5 table]

Show services and characteristics

After creating a connection to your device, you can work with the Characteristics listed in the ble properties. See Work with Device Characteristics and Descriptors for more information and next steps.