
Show HN: Open source hardware platform for Bluetooth hacking - aleksanb
http://nordicsemiconductor.github.io/puck/
======
aleksanb
Hello HN! We, a group of summer interns at Nordic Semiconductor, have made an
Internet of Things-enabling platform based on ARM's mbed technology. We make
it easy to rapidly prototype and develop Bluetooth LE enabled devices - get up
and running in under 10 lines of code, written directly in the browser.

We hope to create a community around BLE devices where developers share their
ideas designs with each other. Everything is open-source, of course, with lots
of supporting materials, together with companion apps for both Android and
iOS.

~~~
toni
I have spent 10 minutes trying to find an actual working "buy now" or "add to
cart" button, but sadly, those are no where to find.

I followed the link from Location Puck Tutorial Page[1] to mbed.org page[2]
which does have a "Buy Now" button, but clicking on it took me back to the
vendor page where it was completely unclear how am i supposed to buy this!

I understand you have this amazing bluetooth board, that I can do wonderful
magic with it. But how do I get one? Give me a straight direct link to buy
this thing.

How can you possibly think that this can be called "The Raspberry Pi of
Bluetooth" when even buying this looks like an impossible mission.

As I said it looks pretty cool and I congratulate you for taking it so far. I
think there is a lot of work to be done to enable hobbyists/hackers to buy
this device easily without jumping through numerous corporate hops.

Also if I understand it correctly, I need a special IDE to be able to hack on
this device? If that is really the case, I think there should be some work to
decouple the device from the IDE to increase the openness and remove any kind
of vendor lock-in.

But then again, i might be completely off and this device is not what i
thought it was. Good luck anyway!

[1]
[http://nordicsemiconductor.github.io/puck/tutorials/location...](http://nordicsemiconductor.github.io/puck/tutorials/location.html)

[2] [https://mbed.org/platforms/Nordic-
nRF51822/](https://mbed.org/platforms/Nordic-nRF51822/)

[3] [https://www.nordicsemi.com/eng/Products/Bluetooth-R-low-
ener...](https://www.nordicsemi.com/eng/Products/Bluetooth-R-low-
energy/nRF51822-mKIT)

~~~
8ig8
I was curious as well, here's a shop I found with what appear to be the
products from the tutorials..

[http://www.semiconductorstore.com/Nordic-
Semiconductor/](http://www.semiconductorstore.com/Nordic-Semiconductor/)

~~~
toni
Wow, thanks! That's what I was looking for. Why the article didn't link to the
exact product page on this store is really beyond me.

Edit: They added a direct link to the store. Great!

------
TeMPOraL
Please mark in the title that it's about BLE, not the "usual" Bluetooth. Those
are two different technologies.

------
doe88
Neat project. It would be even greater if the IDE was working natively on
OSX/Linux.

~~~
introiboad
With mbed you can compile everything from the browser, and Nordic's userspace
code can be compiled on any platform with GCC.

