Pairing android device with arduino (using nRF8001 Bluefruit LE Breakout)

Question

I'm a really beginner at Arduino and all this bluetooth stuff so sorry if I'm asking for the basics.

I have being following this tutorial ( https://learn.adafruit.com/getting-started-with-the-nrf8001-bluefruit-le-breakout/software-uart-service ) and I have installed the example app on an Android device and everything works perfectly, but the device itself (not running the app) cannot discover the arduino when it starts advertising. This is a problem because I'm developing a Cordova app using de BluetoothSerial plugin ( https://github.com/don/BluetoothSerial/ ) and I need to pair the components before doing anything else.

I have tried pairing with other devices like an iphone but the only device discovering the arduino is a blackberry.

What am I doing wrong?

Thank you for your time

Answer 1

The nRF8001 is a Bluetooth Low Energy board. You not need to pair it with your iPhone or Android. (Usually you only need to pair Bluetooth Classic peripherals with your phone.)

The BluetoothSerial plugin uses Bluetooth Low Energy on iOS and Bluetooth Classic on Android. To use the nRF8001 with your Android phone try https://github.com/don/cordova-plugin-ble-central. There's an example project for connecting to the Adafruit Bluefruit LE hardware https://github.com/don/cordova-plugin-ble-central/tree/master/examples/bluefruitle.