Bluetooth Classic & BLE with ESP32

Learn to use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Bluetooth Classic with the ESP32.

Bluetooth is a short-range, license-free wireless communications system used to connect mobile devices, sensors, computers, and peripherals. It is available in two “flavors”:

Bluetooth Classic - The original Bluetooth, great for audio streaming and data transfer.
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) - An ultra-low power system perfect for IoT and mobile applications.

The ESP32 supports both Classic and BLE; however, support differs between ESP32 models. Some ESP32 boards only support Classic, while others only support BLE. There is also a difference between the revisions of Bluetooth supported by different ESP32 chips.

Today, we will work with both Bluetooth Classic and BLE with the ESP32. We’ll start by learning how both systems operate and what libraries Espressif provides for working with Bluetooth in the Arduino IDE. We will then run some simple code examples for both types of Bluetooth.

By the end of the video, you will better understand how to build Bluetooth projects with the ESP32.

Here is the Table of Contents for today's video:

00:00 - Introduction
01:59 - Bluetooth & BLE
07:36 - ESP32 Boards
08:59 - Bluetooth Revisions
10:39 - ESP32 Differences
11:38 - Bluetooth Serial Terminal
12:23 - Classic Bluetooth & ESP32
16:26 - Bluetooth Device Discovery
20:29 - Bluetooth Serial Client
24:18 - BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) & ESP32
28:41 - BLE Server
31:36 - BLE Client
35:54 - Conclusion

Incidentally, Bluetooth was named after an ancient King, Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson, and the Bluetooth logo is formed from the Nordic characters for his initials. The king was famous for uniting Denmark and Norway, just as the communications protocol he inspired unites devices from different manufacturers.

Hope you enjoy the video!

Bill