Blog | Punch Through

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

Team

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, Punch Through's 2019 Summer Intern. He's a doer who enjoys playing guitar, retro video games, and spending time at his cabin. What were you doing before you started interning at Punch Through? I…

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…

Company Update

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

Team

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

BLE

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…

Breakdowns

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…

Breakdowns

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 RF…

Breakdowns

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,…

Breakdowns

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 in Punch…

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Press Release

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® Explorer, the leading BLE debug and development tool. Cloud Connect enables users to quickly and easily send data received from your BLE devices via…

How-To

Setting up Adafruit IO 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 Adafruit's IO platform. You'll be prompted to provide some information for your Adafruit IO set up from within LightBlue®…

Breakdowns

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…

Press Release

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…

How-To

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…

Breakdowns

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…

Breakdowns

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…

Breakdowns

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…

Breakdowns

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, you…

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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…

Breakdowns

Testing Bluetooth Low Energy Devices

By: Punch Through

Bluetooth Low Energy is a new Bluetooth standard that is exciting for a couple reasons- it enables very low power battery applications, and it further opens the smartphone accessory market. LightBlue allows you to test and simulate Bluetooth Low…