Ⅰ. What is a Bluetooth Low Energy Module? Physical Composition: Bluetooth Low Energy Module = BLE chip + essential peripheral circuits (crystal, capacitors, etc.) + RF section (antenna matching circuit) + shielding cover (for interference prevention). This complete package allows you to use it immediately without dealing with complex RF design. Simple Understanding: Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is like an "energy-saving version" of classical Bluetooth – it's specifically designed for small, battery-powered devices that need to run for long periods. For example, your smart bracelet, electronic scale, or anti-loss tags all rely on BLE technology to maintain connections while allowing the battery to last for months or even years. Module vs. Chip: How to Choose? Suggestion: For 90% of IoT products, using a module is more cost-effective. The saved development time and certification costs far outweigh the price difference of the module. Special Note: Common module certifications like FCC, IC, etc., require the module to include a complete RF circuit, shielding cover, and independent power supply. There are certain differences in whether a module's certification can be referenced depending on the region, the specific end product, and the chosen testing laboratory. To ensure smooth certification, RF-star recommends users directly communicate with the certification laboratory to confirm specific requirements. Ⅱ. What are the main types of Low Power Bluetooth modules on the market? 1. Classified by Function Transparent Transmission Module: The most commonly used, acts like a "data pipeline," transmitting data received via Bluetooth directly to the microcontroller. Users don't need to understand Bluetooth protocols, just wire it up and use it. Controller Module: Has its own processing capability and can be programmed for logic. Customers can write their own programs to utilize the chip's internal core, potentially saving an external MCU and reducing costs. For example, the RF-star RF-BM-2340B1 uses the TI CC2340R5, which has a built-in ARM Cortex-M0+ core, and all GPIOs are brought out, allowing it to handle both Bluetooth communication and user applications. RF-star Modules Classified by Chip Platform All the above modules can fulfill both transparent transmission and independent development needs. 2. Classified by Interface Serial Port Type (UART): Easiest to get started with, connect and use, e.g., RF-star RF-BM-2340A1. USB Type: Plug directly into a computer, no additional interface needed, customers develop their own PC software, e.g., RF-DG-22A. SPI/I2C Type: Differences in serial transmission rates, e.g., RF-BM-2340A2 supports SPI transparent transmission protocol, RF-BM-BG22Ax supports I2C transparent transmission protocol. RF-star Bluetooth Low Energy Module Interface Classification Table Ⅲ. Quick Start: How to Use a BLE Transparent Transmission Module? Wiring is Super Simple (Using RF-BM-2340A1 as an example) Note: TX connects to RX, RX connects to ...

Overview of Core Sensor Classifications and Typical Applications Physical Environment Sensing Sensors Motion State Monitoring: Accelerometers/gyroscopes are used in smartphones, drones, and industrial equipment vibration monitoring. Mechanical and Environmental Sensing: Pressure sensors are applied in automotive TPMS and industrial pipeline monitoring; temperature and humidity sensors are used in smart homes and agricultural greenhouses. Biochemical and Medical Sensors Environmental Quality Detection: Gas sensors are used for industrial safety and air quality monitoring; PM2.5 sensors are integrated into air purification equipment. Vital Signs Monitoring: Heart rate/blood oxygen sensors have become standard in wearable devices; continuous glucose monitoring systems are transforming diabetes management. Vision and Acoustic Sensors Image Sensing Systems: CMOS/CCD sensors drive smartphone cameras and security surveillance; infrared thermal imaging is used for body temperature screening. Acoustic Monitoring Networks: Microphone arrays enable intelligent voice interaction; ultrasonic sensors are applied in vehicle radar and medical imaging. The sensor market is trending towards miniaturization, low power consumption, and high integration. In 2024, the global market size exceeded $200 billion, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) exceeding 8%. Wireless RF Technology Matrix and RF-star Modular Solutions Wireless Technology Performance Comparison The PAwR Technology Revolution Breakthrough Advantages of PAwR Technology Architectural Innovation and Performance Leap Periodic broadcasting and precise response mechanisms achieve bidirectional communication with millisecond-level latency. Nanosecond-level time synchronization technology supports ultra-large-scale device collaboration. Intelligent collision avoidance algorithms improve channel utilization by over 3 times. Core Technical Parameter Comparison Power consumption reduced to 1/10 of traditional Bluetooth, extending device battery life from months to years. Connection density increased by 100 times, significantly boosting the number of devices supported by a single network. Cost is lower compared to existing RF solutions, creating economic feasibility for large-scale deployment. Deep Reshaping of Market Application Scenarios Smart City Infrastructure Upgrade Environmental Grid Monitoring: Deployment of hundreds of air quality nodes per square kilometer for real-time pollution source tracking. Industry 4.0 Comprehensive Sensing Network Predictive Maintenance Revolution: Real-time monitoring of each key component of every piece of equipment, with failure prediction accuracy >95%. Production Process Optimization: Workshop-level sensor density reaches 1 per square meter for real-time production parameter adjustment. Supply Chain Transparency: End-to-end status tracking from raw materials to finished products, reducing losses by over 15%. Continuous Health Monitoring Unobtrusive Health Monitoring:...

Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) is evolving from an auxiliary tool in diabetes management to a core component of personal health management. In this transformation, the Texas Instruments (TI) CC2340R5 series of low-power Bluetooth chips and RF-star's module solutions are injecting core momentum into the intelligence and accessibility of CGM through their exceptional performance. Market & Trends: The Broad Prospects and Intelligent Leap of CGM Surging Market Capacity: Up to 500 million diabetic patients globally have created massive demand for CGM. The market size is advancing towards tens of billions of US dollars and continues to grow at a high speed. Driving this growth is users' pursuit of more accurate, more comfortable, and easier-to-use products. AI-Powered Evolution: The value of CGM has transcended "monitoring" and is evolving towards "management and alarm." The introduction of Edge AI is a key step. As TI states, placing intelligence at the device edge enables faster response and greater privacy. This allows CGM to: Accurate Prediction: Provide early warnings for high/low glucose events. Personalized Insights: Analyze the correlation between diet, exercise, and blood glucose, offering personalized advice. Closed-Loop Control: Serve as the core, driving the "Artificial Pancreas" (Automated Insulin Delivery system) to achieve automated glucose management. Connectivity Cornerstone: Bluetooth Technology Builds the CGM Wireless Ecosystem Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology is the invisible bridge connecting CGM sensors to the digital world. Its typical application architecture is as follows: Highlighting Connection Value Real-Time & Convenient: Data seamlessly syncs to phones and watches, allowing users to view trends anytime, eliminating cumbersome manual readings. Remote Monitoring: Data is uploaded to the cloud via smartphones, enabling family members to receive alerts remotely, creating a safety net for patients. System Integration: Acts as a communication hub, connecting CGM to insulin pumps, forming the cornerstone of automated closed-loop therapy. Medical devices with similar miniaturization needs as CGM, such as Vital Signs Monitoring (continuous blood pressure monitors, smart temperature patches, pulse oximeters, smart ECG patches/handheld devices, etc.), Drug Management & Therapy (smart insulin pens/injectors, smart inhalers, smart pillboxes, etc.), Remote Patient Monitoring & Chronic Disease Management (wearable physiological parameter monitoring patches, fall detection and alert devices, etc.), and Rehabilitation & Assistive Technologies (smart hearing aids, traditional connected glucose meters, etc.), can all be empowered by selecting the CC2340R5 series products. Let's look at the performance and advantages of this chip series next. Core Engine: Features and Advantages of the CC2340R5 Chip The features of Texas Instruments' CC2340R5 series chips are highly aligned with the stringent requirements of CGM:...

While Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other 2.4 GHz technologies dominate short-range communication today, a wireless technology operating in lower frequency bands is carving out its own niche in the vast field of the Internet of Things (IoT) with its irreplaceable advantages. Sub-1GHz (Sub-G for short) wireless modules, much like an unobstructed "suburban expressway," stand in stark contrast to the congested “downtown urban highway" of the 2.4 GHz band, becoming a backbone for achieving wide-area IoT connectivity with their exceptional characteristics of long range and low power consumption. Understanding Sub-G Modules Sub-G modules, short for Sub-1 GHz modules, are wireless radio frequency modules that operate in license-free ISM frequency bands below 1 GHz (such as 169 MHz, 315 MHz, 433 MHz, 470 MHz, 868 MHz, 915 MHz, 920 MHz, etc.). Their technical advantages are rooted in basic physics: The lower the frequency, the lower the propagation loss of the radio wave and the stronger its diffraction capability. This allows Sub-G modules to easily achieve kilometer-level communication distances and powerful wall-penetrating and obstacle-surpassing capabilities, making them particularly suitable for deployment in complex environments and IoT applications requiring large-scale coverage. Network Topology Structures Sub-G modules support flexible network architectures to adapt to ever-changing application scenarios. Star Topology: All end nodes communicate directly with a central gateway or concentrator. It features a simple structure and very low power consumption, making it the preferred choice for LoRaWAN and many proprietary protocols, perfectly suited for large-scale applications like smart metering and environmental monitoring. Point-to-Point Topology: Establishes a direct link between two devices. It is simple and direct, with low latency, often used for remote control and data transparent transmission. Mesh Topology: Each node can act as a relay, automatically forming a network and relaying data transmissions. This can greatly extend network coverage, suitable for areas where gateway deployment is difficult but wide coverage is needed. Core RF Technologies and Chips The implementation of Sub-G modules relies on their underlying chips and communication protocols, mainly divided into the following categories: LoRa (Long Range Radio) This is one of the most representative technologies. It uses Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS) technology, achieving ultra-long-range communication with very low power consumption and possessing extremely high receiver sensitivity, significantly improving link budget and anti-interference capability. Representative Chips: Semtech's SX1276, SX1262 series. Proprietary Protocols (Private Protocols) Chip manufacturers provide basic RF transceiver chips, based on which developers can customize private protocols. This approach offers controllable cost and high flexibility. Representative Chips: Texas Instruments (TI)'s CC1310, CC1312R, CC135...

In the intelligent era of the Internet of Everything, are you still troubled by how to manage hundreds or thousands of smart devices? Traditional Bluetooth Low Energy connections have limited capacity, while Mesh networking is complex and power-hungry. These have become bottlenecks restricting the large-scale deployment of the Internet of Things. Leveraging the industry-leading Silicon Labs chip platform, RF-star Technology has launched a low-power module featuring PAwR functionality, truly achieving large-scale bidirectional one-to-many communication. Theoretically, a single central device can simultaneously perform bidirectional data exchange with up to 32,640 end devices, completely breaking through the device number limitations of traditional Bluetooth connections and making device management unprecedentedly simple and efficient. Now, let's witness how this technology can create new value for your business! Differences Between PAwR and Other Technologies: Traditional Connected One-to-Many: Typically refers to a host taking turns maintaining connections with a few to several dozen slave devices via time-division multiplexing. The number is limited, and management complexity increases significantly with the number of devices. Broadcast-Based One-to-Many: Uses a Broadcaster/Observer model. One device broadcasts, and numerous devices can receive. However, this is one-way; observers cannot reply, and all devices receive the broadcast, lacking privacy and targeting. Bluetooth Mesh Networking One-to-Many: Employs a "flooding" network management approach. Each node that receives a message forwards it, relaying it via other nodes until the target node receives it. Theoretically, a network can accommodate tens of thousands of nodes, enabling many-to-many communication. However, the network is complex, and power consumption and latency are difficult to control. PAwR One-to-Many: Stands for Periodic Advertising with Responses, a revolutionary feature introduced in the Bluetooth Core Specification version 5.4. According to the Bluetooth SIG specification, one PAwR Broadcaster can simultaneously engage in bidirectional communication with up to tens of thousands of PAwR Subscribers – an astonishing upper limit of 32,640. What is PAwR? How is PAwR Applied? In a PAwR system, the roles are somewhat reversed compared to what we are traditionally accustomed to. The Broadcaster acts as the central hub device, referred to as the Access Point (AP). The Scanner/Responder devices are typically the node devices. We can imagine it as a teacher (the Broadcaster) in a classroom asking questions to students according to a fixed, recurring schedule. This schedule is divided into a large number of extremely short time windows. The detailed workflow is as follows: 1. Establish Synchronization: The Broadcaster continuously sends a periodic advertising stream containing specific timing information. Thousands of Subscriber devices listen to this advertising stream and maintain ...

The insulin pump embedded Bluetooth Low Energy modules offers an innovative pump therapy for diabetes patients in the digital age. BLE is currently used in many types of medical devices that have been approved and cleared by the FDA, including blood pressure, oximeter, thermometer, insulin pump, ECG patch, and more. Let's introduce the BLE-enabled insulin pump in detail. The Background of Insulin Pump Diabetes is a chronic condition that affects millions of people worldwide, and the management of diabetes is a daily struggle for them. One of the critical components of diabetes self-management is insulin therapy, which often requires multiple daily injections or the use of an insulin pump. However, even with these treatments, it is also challenging to maintain optimal glucose control. If the volume of insulin is injected less or more, it may lead to a couple of long-term complications. The solution to this problem is to embed Bluetooth technology into insulin pumps, which can provide a more personalized and data-driven way to diabetes management. What Are the Pain Points of Users? Diabetes management involves a mess of things, including frequent glucose monitoring, insulin calculating, administering insulin injections, and pump therapy. However, patients may forget to take their insulin, dose inaccurately, or experience hypoglycemia unawareness. All of these mistakes may lead to serious health risks. Furthermore, patients may feel embarrassed by the visible insulin pump or device, causing them social phobia. How does BLE-enabled Insulin Pump Work? The insulin pumps and glucose measurement devices are designed with Bluetooth Low Energy modules for connectivity to mobile devices, such as smartphones and mobile pads. The BLE will take charge of the data transferring of glucose meter values to APPs to trend and alert the user and their caregivers about the abnormal data. All data will be stored from the APP to the IoT cloud when the user uploads. Long-term data monitored will be shared and diagram-shown to the doctor, which will make the diagnose easily and quick. What Can You Benefit From the Wearable Medical Device? The implementation of Bluetooth technology in insulin pumps can provide several key benefits: 1. Seamless integrated CGM 2. Close loop control 3. Terminal-cloud Intelligent management Personalized insulin dosing Automatic insulin dosing recommendations based on glucose trends Alerts for hypoglycemic events Remote monitoring by healthcare providers Data tracking for a long-term analysis Thanks to these functions above, Bluetooth-enabled insulin pumps can help patients achieve better glucose control, reduce the risk of complications, and improve their life quality. For BLE insulin pumps, RF-star Bluetooth Low Energy modules based on Texas Instruments are recommended to achieve a better product design and shorten your development lifetime: CC2640R2LRHB Module or CC2642R Module. For more intelligent medical electronics so...

There are a large number of monitoring wells in smart cities, but due to the lack of effective real-time monitoring and management methods, the loss or damage of manhole covers can occur frequently, posing a threat to the safety of pedestrians and vehicles. Adding Bluetooth Low Energy technology can achieve below functions: In daily inspections, handheld mobile terminals can grasp the status of all manhole covers in the nearby area, and determine whether there are any abnormal situations such as loss, tilt, water immersion, and abnormal gases. In the intelligent system maintenance, BLE can easily realize on-site wireless OTA, avoiding the tedious work of disassembly and debugging. For BLE solutions, we recommend the following modules: RF-BM-2340B1 (Based on TI CC2340), RF-BM-BG22A1/A3 (Based on Siliconlabs EFR32BG22), RF-BM-ND04 (Based on Nordic nRF52832) For more wireless connectivity solutions, RF-star is happy to support you.

RF-star weekly case card is coming as usual. BLE ECG (Electrocardiograph) Nowadays, more and more people are facing heart problems from the stress of work and life. However, the heart problem needs long-term monitoring and recording so that the doctors can analyze what the problem is. How do we monitor our healthy condition dynamically? Traditional ECG is hanging on the baby. People move with a bag, and the ECG device is in the bag. The device is big and there are a lot of wires. When the ECG device embeds with the BLE and the battery, it can work for a long time to record and upload the data via mobile APP for dynamic monitoring. The data can be shown in a diagram format. Choosing RF-star BLE modules based on Texas Instruments to achieve a better product design and ease your development workload. RFBM2642B1 (CC2642 CC2642R) Find RF-star for more wireless connectivity modules and solutions.

RF-star weekly case card is coming as usual. BLE Noise Detector gives you a wireless solution to collect, analyse and share sound sensor data. BLE can be used in many industrial applications, which can achieve data transmission and data upload to APP. What BLE can support is uploading when there is no 3G or 4G network, and printing data reports out. Embedding with RF-star new module RF-BM-BG24 (based on SiliconLabs EFR32BM24 makes your device much smarter and more useful. Find more on www.rfstariot.com Contact us via info@szrfstar.com