Help with idea

Thread Starter

NickHJ

Joined Aug 10, 2013
7
Hi everyone,

Ive got an idea I would like some help with and you fine folks on here appear to be the people I should be talking to. My carpentry skills won't help me at all here! :D

I would like to make/have made a small device that will pulse a name of say 20 characters. The pulse would ideally be using bluetooth so mobile phones can pick it up. I don't want the device to communicate any other information at all, only the name and doesn't need to 'Pair' with the mobile at all. It needs to be super small though, about the size of the CR2032 battery I would like to power it and as thin as possible. I have been looking at the new Bluetooth 4 modules that are mega tiny but have no idea how to use one.

Is this something that might be possible at all?

Kind Regards
Nick
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
I think it's possible. When I pair with small bluetooth devices such as earphones, they announce their name so that other bluetooth devices know what to call it. You just want to have control over what name such a thing calls itself, right?
 

Thread Starter

NickHJ

Joined Aug 10, 2013
7
I think it's possible. When I pair with small bluetooth devices such as earphones, they announce their name so that other bluetooth devices know what to call it. You just want to have control over what name such a thing calls itself, right?
Hi Wayneh,

Thats exactly it. I suppose it doesn't have to pulse at all, it could transmit permanently but I thought the battery life may be compromised.
 

odinhg

Joined Jul 22, 2009
65
You can get cheap bluetooth modules from eBay. If you search for "UART bluetooth slave module" you can find this module.

Using a microcontroller with UART, you can send AT commands to the module. There should be a command for setting the device name.

If you have no experience with microcontrollers, this might be an ambiguous solution. Maybe it's easier to just buy a cheap cell phone with bluetooth and use that.
 

Thread Starter

NickHJ

Joined Aug 10, 2013
7
Hi Odinhg,
Thanks for the reply, I will have a look thanks. I can't use a cell phone though as I want to be able to wear the resulting device on a chain around my neck or on a wristband.
 
Top