Bluetooth Product Design
Bluetooth Low Energy products designed end to end, electronics, antenna and firmware, on Nordic nRF52 and Espressif ESP32 platforms.
BLE is easy to demo and hard to ship. Products that pair reliably, hold a connection in a pocket or a bag, and last on a coin cell need the radio, antenna, firmware and app interface designed together. We design BLE products for wearables, health and fitness devices, consumer electronics and connected equipment.
What this includes
- Nordic nRF52 and Espressif ESP32 product design
- Zephyr RTOS, nRF Connect SDK and ESP-IDF firmware
- Custom GATT services and mobile app integration
- Antenna design, tuning and RF pre-compliance
- Low-power optimisation measured on real hardware
- BLE OTA firmware updates with MCUboot
nRF52 and ESP32, on Zephyr, nRF Connect SDK and ESP-IDF
We work across Nordic nRF52 and Espressif ESP32 families. On Nordic parts we develop on Zephyr RTOS with the nRF Connect SDK, and we also maintain products on the older nRF5 SDK. On ESP32 we use ESP-IDF, and Zephyr where a common codebase across platforms makes sense. We will recommend the platform that suits your power budget, feature set and cost, rather than the one we happen to prefer.
Reliable connections and real battery life
Connection stability and battery life are decided by connection intervals, advertising strategy, transmit power and antenna performance in the real enclosure. We tune these on real hardware, measure current draw with power profiling tools, and test against the phones your customers actually use, because Android and iOS behave differently.
Custom GATT profiles and app integration
We design custom GATT services and characteristics around how your app needs to use the data, with pairing, bonding and security levels that match the sensitivity of the product. We document the interface properly so your app developers, or ours, can build against it without guesswork.
Firmware updates over Bluetooth
Products in the field need fixing. We design over-the-air firmware updates over BLE, using MCUboot and the SMP protocol on Zephyr-based products, with signed images and the ability to recover from a failed update.
Common questions
Should we use nRF52 or ESP32?
As a rough guide, nRF52 suits battery-powered products where BLE is the only radio and power is critical. ESP32 suits products that also need Wi-Fi or have mains or larger battery power. Cost, existing code and module availability also matter, and we will help you weigh them for your product.
Should we use a module or design the radio onto our own board?
Pre-certified modules reduce certification cost and risk, which usually makes them the right choice at lower volumes. A chip-down design can reduce unit cost and size at higher volumes, but adds RF design and certification work. We will model both against your volumes.
Can you take over BLE firmware written by someone else?
Yes. We regularly pick up existing nRF and ESP32 codebases, including legacy nRF5 SDK projects, and start with a review so you know what you are inheriting before committing to further work.
Ready to take your product to production?
ISO 9001 certified electronics, firmware and mechanical engineering, from first prototype to small-batch manufacturing.
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