Blog | Punch Through

BLE

Architecting iOS and Android Apps for IoT BLE Systems

By: Gretchen Walker

When you buy a Fitbit, you’re not just paying for the wearable hardware. You’re buying a key that unlocks access to a greater integrated system. Before you can even start using the device, you must first download the app, pair it with your phone, and create a user login. Even a decade ago, it might’ve been completely untenable to require users to have an expensive smartphone to use a product. But today’s wireless devices take…

Culture

Meet the Team – Mike Waddick

By: Erin Moore

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

Culture

The Key to Creating a Growth Culture: Our Approach to Personal Development

By: Punch Through

“Building a culture focused on performance may not be the best, healthiest, or most sustainable way to fuel results. Instead, it may be more effective to focus on creating a culture of growth.”~Tony Schwartz, Author Personal development…

Culture

Meet the Team – Tina Hanly

By: Erin Moore

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

Culture

Meet the Team – Alex Bourdage

By: Erin Moore

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

Culture

Meet the Team – Tyler Grunenwald

By: Erin Moore

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

Mobile App Dev

Mastering all 5 Kotlin Scope Functions

By: Chee Yi Ong

It should come as no surprise that our Android team here at Punch Through loves Kotlin, and that we strive to write idiomatic Kotlin, taking advantage of its unique language features whenever possible. Some common questions we get from newer team…

BLE

How to Delete Bonds with the Nordic nRF5 SDK

By: Amanda Christiansen

When we talk about Bluetooth-connected devices, an inherent part of that discussion is bond management. Bond management consists of storing and deleting information about a paired device so that the pairing process between two authenticated devices…

Matt Kruger - Senior Embedded Engineer at Punch Through

Culture

Meet the Team – Matt Kruger

By: Emily Hinderaker

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

Punch Through office - engineer internship location

Culture

5 Important Skills for a Software Engineering Internship

By: Tia Hannes

Starting your first job in software engineering can be quite intimidating. Whether graduating from a university, coming from a bootcamp, or being a self-taught programmer, the gap of knowledge between you and the full-time engineers at your company…

Matt Dunham - Principal Systems and RF/Hardware Engineer

Culture

Meet the Team – Matt Dunham

By: Emily Hinderaker

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

Engineer learning about automated testing in office

BLE

The 4 Key Benefits of Automated Testing

By: Amanda Christiansen

In many ways, I’m your stereotypical software engineer. I don’t do small talk, but I can talk for days about my work and side projects. I’m easily irked by inefficiencies -- if it can be done more efficiently, why not do it that way? I also…

Culture

Meet the Team – Tia Hannes

By: Emily Hinderaker

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

Project Management in Punch Through Office

Product Dev

How We Manage Projects at Punch Through

By: Elaine Skaare

Project management is an essential part of every successful project. After all, you can’t start the execution without a proper plan. Project managers oversee the planning and execution of projects to ensure the desired outcome is achieved, money…

Elaine Skaare - Project Manager at Punch Through

Culture

Meet the Team – Elaine Skaare

By: Emily Hinderaker

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

BLE

Maximizing BLE Throughput Part 4: Everything You Need to Know

By: Ashish Derhgawen

Welcome to part 4 of the “Maximizing BLE Throughput” blog post series! This blog post will provide the key takeaways from our previous 3 posts and also bring us up-to-date with the latest BLE spec (such as 2M PHY). Bluetooth Low Energy was…

Ashish Derhgawen - Mobile Software Engineer at Punch Through

Culture

Meet the Team – Ashish Derhgawen

By: Emily Hinderaker

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

Small Engineering Team at Punch Through office

Product Dev

Why Small Engineering Teams Are Best for Collaboration

By: Matt Rengo

Organizing an engineering team to tackle a tough product or software development project can be a daunting task. It sounds easy—gather one or more engineers, align on a common goal, delegate the specific tasks, and wait. Right? It’s actually…

Culture

Meet the Team – Emily Hinderaker

By: Emily Hinderaker

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

Punch Through Office where engineers use rx and delegate programming on iOS

Mobile App Dev

Using Rx vs Delegates with CoreBluetooth

By: Julian Hays

Reactive (or “Rx”) style programming is quickly becoming a popular design pattern in mobile development. What is it, and how does it compare to the tried-and-true delegation pattern? Should you be using Rx on your next mobile project? Follow…

Ultimate Guide to Apple's Core Bluetooth library

BLE

The Ultimate Guide to Apple’s Core Bluetooth

By: Gretchen Walker

This article assumes you know the very basics of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and iOS programming (including the delegation pattern for asynchronous calls common to many iOS native APIs), and is meant as a comprehensive guide to the ins and outs of…

Meet the team - Brett Hassler, Principal Engineer at Punch Through

Culture

Meet the Team – Bret Hassler

By: Emily Hinderaker

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

Engineer working on Human Interface Devices in office

Mobile App Dev

How iOS and Android Handle Connections with BLE Human Interface Devices

By: Alec Letourneau

iOS and Android’s Bluetooth APIs allow apps to communicate with BLE devices. The API simplifies the way apps implement BLE and allows multiple apps to use BLE at the same time, but it also introduces many undocumented behaviors. Unfortunately,…

Mobile App Dev

Unit Testing Android BLE Code with RxAndroidBle

By: Chee Yi Ong

In this post, we look at what RxAndroidBle offers as far as unit testing is concerned, and we’ll also walk through a case study of unit testing a common BLE business logic. Seasoned Android developers will no doubt have heard of RxJava—a…

Tyler Cadman - senior embedded engineer at Punch Through

Culture

Meet the Team – Tyler Cadman

By: Emily Hinderaker

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

LightBlue®

How to Use LightBlue®: The Go-To BLE Development Tool

By: Gretchen Walker

We at Punch Through first began developing LightBlue® for iOS back in 2012 out of internal necessity. We were a young company carving out a determined niche in the exciting new world of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), the revolutionary new iteration…

Mobile App Dev

Mobile Developer’s Advice for Implementing Device Firmware Updates

By: Julian Hays

When developing mobile apps for connected devices, handling device firmware updates (DFU) is a common task we need to tackle. Device firmware updating is the process of installing new programming onto an embedded device. By leveraging BLE…

Culture

Meet the Team – Julian Hays

By: Emily Hinderaker

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

BLE

Creating a BLE Peripheral with BlueZ

By: Andy Lee

While I’m fairly well-versed in working with BLE on an embedded device, I have so far had little experience with using BLE at a higher level. To help remedy this, I underwent the task of creating a BLE peripheral running a GATT server on a…

Ryan Kornetzke - embedded engineer at Punch Through

Culture

Meet the Team – Ryan Kornetzke

By: Emily Hinderaker

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

Engineers meeting about Kotlin language features

Mobile App Dev

Our 5 Favorite Kotlin Features

By: Chee Yi Ong

When Swift was released by Apple for iOS developers, Android developers were in awe and envious of this modern programming language that provides null-safety and an expressive yet concise syntax. Thankfully, the Android Studio 3.0 release in 2017…

BLE

The Ultimate Guide to Android Bluetooth Low Energy

By: Chee Yi Ong

With its ability to consume very little power yet still provide the connectivity to communicate with small devices, more and more people are looking to hop on the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) bandwagon for Android apps. Unfortunately, the Android…

Embedded Engineer Henry in Punch Through Office

Culture

Meet the Team – Henry Anfang

By: Emily Hinderaker

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

Engineer working with Android Studio in office

Mobile App Dev

Boost Productivity with 4 Android Studio Tips

By: Ashish Derhgawen

For those of us writing Android apps for a living, Android Studio is our bread and butter. Optimizing Android Studio will make your development experience both enjoyable and productive. In this blog post, I will share some tips to improve build…

Mobile App Dev

What to Consider Before Building a Mobile Medical App

By: Alec Letourneau

So, you want to build a mobile app for use in medical or health applications and believe that it may fall under government regulations? Getting regulatory approval is no small task, but focusing on building a great product will significantly…

Culture

Meet the Team – Chee Yi Ong

By: Emily Hinderaker

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

BLE

How Apple and Google’s Bluetooth Contact Tracing Framework Actually Works

By: Chee Yi Ong

The COVID-19 pandemic affects us all, with public life seeing disruptions at an unprecedented scale. To help curb the spread of the disease, Apple and Google have announced a joint effort to develop a contact tracing framework with a heavy focus on…

Culture

My First Few Months as an Engineering Intern

By: Wally Lu

As a Senior in college, my worries begin to shift away from school and turn to my professional career. Internships play a large role in the preparation of entering the workforce and I am finding it more of a relevant concern. Information Technology…

Culture

Meet the Team – Charlie Kellerman

By: Emily Hinderaker

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

Mobile App Dev

Why Re-Signing iOS Apps is Better than Recompiling

By: Alec Letourneau

Re-signing iOS apps allows you to open your app after it’s been built and modify everything except the application code. The main reason to use this process is to avoid recompiling an app and risking the introduction of unintended changes.…

LightBlue®

What’s new in LightBlue® Android v1.6.0 and iOS v3.1.1

By: Chee Yi Ong

LightBlue® Android v1.6.0 Hello BLE fans! We've been hard at work implementing some of your most highly requested features over the past couple of months for LightBlue® Android, and we're excited to share these changes with you. The version…

Gretchen Walker - mobile software engineer

Culture

Meet the Team – Gretchen Walker

By: Emily Hinderaker

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

engineers sitting discussing Apple's Swift Package Manager

Mobile App Dev

How to Use Apple’s Swift Package Manager

By: Julian Hays

A package manager, also sometimes referred to as a dependency manager, is a tool that facilitates installing, updating, and configuring other code packages to make them available within your software. Many iOS developers will already be very…

Engineer learning about Android Debug Bridge

Mobile App Dev

How to Set Up Wireless Debugging with Android Debug Bridge

By: Ashish Derhgawen

Writing apps for Android devices can often be challenging enough as it is. Having to deal with different USB cables (or cables that don’t work) just adds to the struggle. It wasn't until recently that I found you could avoid a lot of cable issues…

Culture

Meet the Team – Amanda Nguyen

By: Emily Hinderaker

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

Team of engineers learning about background Bluetooth

Mobile App Dev

Leveraging Background Bluetooth for a Great User Experience

By: Alec Letourneau

One of the most important things that users want when using a connected product is to be able to put its app in a folder and forget about it, trusting that it’ll work. Designing apps with this capability goes far beyond a product’s physical…

Punch Through team learning about 2M PHY

BLE

Bluetooth PHY – How it Works and How to Leverage it

By: Henry Anfang

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is a wireless communication protocol. As with other communication protocols, BLE uses a layered design, where each layer is associated with a specific aspect of the protocol. Interlayer interaction is restricted and…

Andy Lee standing in the Punch Through office

Culture

Meet the Team – Andy Lee

By: Emily Hinderaker

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

BLE

How to Use Node.js to Speed Up BLE App Development

By: Julian Hays

Imagine you are a mobile software developer that’s been tasked with implementing support for a new BLE device. But there’s one catch: The device doesn't exist yet. Not a problem! You can use bleno, a Node.js module, to mock out a BLE…

Punch Through team discussing mobile development

Mobile App Dev

3 Reasons Native iOS and Android Apps are Better for Connected Products

By: Punch Through

One decision must be made before developing a mobile app: native or hybrid. For many developers, preconceived notions lead them down the hybrid route, believing it to be cheaper and more efficient with a "one-code-fits-all" approach. However,…

BLE

Bluetooth Low Energy Serial: A Valid Design Strategy?

By: Alec Letourneau

At some point in developing a connected product for BLE, you may have wondered, "Where is the serial profile?" Maybe you assumed that you missed it while scrolling through the long lists of profiles on the Bluetooth SIG’s website. Or, maybe you…

Alec Letourneau standing in Punch Through office

Culture

Meet the Team – Alec Letourneau

By: Emily Hinderaker

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” series, where we introduce you to one of our team members…

Group of Punch Through team members who recommend Android App Tools and Patterns

Mobile App Dev

Our Preferred Android Development Tools and Patterns

By: Chee Yi Ong

At Punch Through, we work on both greenfield and legacy app projects for our clients. For greenfield Android projects, we generally try to conform to a modern, well-documented, and well-supported architectural pattern that’s easy to follow. The…

Mobile App Dev

How to Handle iOS 13’s New Bluetooth Permissions

By: Alec Letourneau

iOS 13's new Bluetooth permissions have sparked many questions, and everyone’s concluding that Bluetooth apps are tracking them. With the inevitable backlash that will arise from this conclusion, will everyone start denying apps access to…

diagram of agile methodology made by Punch Through

Product Dev

How to Use Agile Frameworks in the Medical Device Industry

By: Amanda Christiansen

“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it” is a widespread mindset in highly regulated industries. While change aversion has its place in preventing unnecessary risks, it also impedes progress and innovation in the development of life-sustaining…

Culture

Meet the Team – Erin Moore

By: Emily Hinderaker

At Punch Through, we encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we’re so proud of. That’s why we launched our “Meet the Team” blog post series, where we introduce you to one of our team…

Intern Louis in the Punch Through office with an office dog, Archer

Culture

Meet the Team – Louis Barrett

By: Emily Hinderaker

We encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we're so proud of. That's why we are launching a "Meet the Team" blog post series, which highlights one of our team members. Meet Louis,…

Python coding language on computer screen used to test Bluetooth Low Energy peripheral

BLE

Testing Bluetooth Low Energy Peripherals using a Python Script

By: Ashish Derhgawen

When developing a Bluetooth Low Energy peripheral, it’s often useful to have an app that can connect to and test the peripheral to ensure it’s working as expected. If, however, you don’t already have a companion app for the device, you’d…

Culture

Company Newsletters – The Punch Through Way

By: Emily Hinderaker

We have a love/hate relationship with company newsletters. We certainly understand the value, but let’s be honest, we all get newsletters that don’t meet our standards. They feel impersonal, the information isn't valuable, and we feel like we…

Karel standing in the Minneapolis Punch Through office

Culture

Meet the Team – Karel Kalthoff

By: Emily Hinderaker

We encourage everyone to proudly be themselves and want you to know the people behind the work that we're so proud of. That's why we are launching a "Meet the Team" blog post series, which highlights one of our team members. Meet Karel,…

Computer coding with Android and Bluetooth symbol - Android BLE tips

Mobile App Dev

4 Tips to Make Android BLE Actually Work

By: Chee Yi Ong

Android development is hard, and it's no thanks to its relatively fragmented ecosystem and having a million OEM’s out there. Throw BLE—which is extremely hardware and Bluetooth spec. dependent!—into the mix and the platform's behavior becomes…

BLE

Maximizing BLE Throughput Part 3: Data Length Extension (DLE)

By: Zach Michel

Welcome back BLE enthusiasts, to the long-overdue 3rd installment in Punch Through’s ‘Maximizing BLE Throughput’ blog post series. It's been about 2.5 years since our last post in this series and a lot has happened in that time: The…

Hardware Dev

Harmonics Part 2 – Determining the Source of the Harmonic

By: Charlie Kellerman

This post is the second part of the two-part Harmonics & BLE blog post. We urge you to read this part if you enjoyed Harmonics Part 1 – Introduction to Harmonics & BLE or you didn’t read part 1 but are somewhat familiar with…

Hardware Dev

Harmonics Part 1 – Introduction to Harmonics & BLE

By: Charlie Kellerman

Welcome to the first part of a two-part blog brought to you by the Punch Through Team! We hope this two-parter helps educate readers on a topic at which Punch Through excels. This blog post aims to help you better understand what harmonics are,…

BLE

Maximizing BLE Throughput Part 2: Use Larger ATT MTU

By: Punch Through

It's commonly accepted with BLE that as throughput goes up, so does power consumption. However, by intelligently choosing your MTU size, you can actually increase throughput while also decreasing power consumption. NOTE: This is Part 2…

4k-wallpaper-atmosphere-cloudiness-1631625

LightBlue®

Introducing Cloud Connect for LightBlue® Explorer

By: Chee Yi Ong

Punch Through Design is proud to announce Cloud Connect: an exciting new feature for LightBlue®, the leading BLE debug and development tool. Cloud Connect enables users to quickly and easily send data received from your BLE devices via…

LightBlue®

Setting up Adafruit IO with LightBlue® Cloud Connect

By: Chee Yi Ong

LightBlue® has the ability to send data received from your BLE devices via indication or notification to Adafruit's IO platform. You'll be prompted to provide some information for your Adafruit IO set up from within LightBlue® when you opt to…

Mobile App Dev

CoreNFC – The Missing Link

By: Punch Through

Near-field communication (NFC) is standardized by ISO/IEC 18092. While not a new technology it has become more important with the proliferation of mobile devices. Phone manufacturers have increasingly begun to incorporate NFC hardware in their…

LightBlue®

Introducing LightBlue® Explorer for Android

By: Chee Yi Ong

LightBlue Explorer for iOS has been downloaded by over 600,000 people over the years and is trusted by industrial experts and enthusiasts alike. What began as a project to simplify BLE development internally blossomed into an app that has helped…

LightBlue®

Setting up AWS IoT with LightBlue® Cloud Connect

By: Chee Yi Ong

LightBlue® Explorer has the ability to send data received from your BLE devices via indication or notification to AWS's Internet of Things (IoT) platform.You'll be prompted to provide some information for your AWS IoT set up from within…

BLE

Developing Cross Platform BLE Apps: Our Experience

By: Punch Through

Those who have successfully developed a connected product know it is a unique struggle. The idea of a product being one physical thing, where you build it, ship it, and move on, is over. Now the hardware is only one part of the puzzle, and often…

BLE

Attribute Caching in BLE: Advantages and Pitfalls

By: Punch Through

Every OS that supports BLE caches parts of your device's profile. It's a method to save power and time by caching values that don't change very often. But what happens when the values change? If you're not careful, you can end up rendering your…

BLE

Maximizing BLE Throughput on iOS and Android

By: Punch Through

Still confused about how fast you can really send data over Bluetooth Low Energy? It's not just you. A google search will turn up many incomplete answers. Each OS and device has it’s own restrictions, such as connection interval and number of…

Mobile App Dev

WTF is an iBeacon

By: Punch Through

At this year’s WWDC, Apple quietly announced one of their upcoming products for iOS 7, the iBeacon. Even if you’ve been following WWDC and the iOS 7 announcements, you might not have heard of the iBeacon. And even if you’ve heard the name,…

architectural-design-architecture-bridge-2524368

BLE

How GAP and GATT Work

By: Punch Through

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is a protocol developed by Bluetooth SIG that builds on the lessons learned from building lots of Bluetooth Classic devices. Compared to Bluetooth Classic, BLE consumes less power, requires less time and effort to…