Blue Maestro: Innovative Bluetooth Smart Thermometer

Blue Maestro has invented the Tempo, a smart thermometer that sends data from the ergonomic sensor to a smartphone or tablet application via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). This product can be used in a variety of ways ranging from home applications such as monitoring a baby`s nursery through to business applications where one  Canadian customer is using Tempos in his caviar business. This innovative product is water resistant, has the ability to store temperature ranges from the previous 24 hours, and grants you the ability to set temperature alarms to ensure proper temperature.  Tempo is the first in a range of environmental monitoring and control devices that Blue Maestro will be releasing in the next 12 months.

 “Choosing Laird’s BL600 module for our new Tempo device helped speed our time to market and enabled us to quickly benefit from the low power consumption features of Bluetooth Low Energy and the integrated Nordic nRF51822 silicon.” – Richard Hancock – Managing Director – Blue Maestro

Use of BLE / Bluetooth Smart
Blue Maestro looked at many potential wireless technologies as a means to send and receive small amounts of data between the temperature sensor and a variety of smartphones or tablets, including Classic Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.  Classic Bluetooth initially sounded like a good fit, but Apple MFi implications for data transfer over Bluetooth and limitations on ultra-low power consumption made it impractical for the Tempo. The release of BTv4.0 and specifically, BLE made for the ideal solution for support of ultra-low-power consumption and for AA batteries to be used in the Tempo design, supporting approximately one year of data transfer to a mobile device.

User Friendly
The development cycle of the Tempo required a rapid prototype and mass production development schedule. After reviewing the market for fully certified BLE modules with an integrated BLE software stack, Richard chose the BL600 product line. The BL600 module provided a small footprint module based on the Nordic nRF51822 highly flexible SoC chip that enabled extremely low power operation, support for multiple hardware interfaces, and an integrated antenna. All regulatory and certification needs were all taken care of. The module also included Laird’s smartBASIC event driven programming language that simplified application code development and sped time to initial prototypes and ultimately mass production.  According to Richard, it is these feature sets that made Laird’s offering stand out, coupled with Laird’s “commitment to technical and design integration support.” 

Key Benefits                                                                                                                                                                                       

• Ultra low power consumption
• Shorted development cycle
• Simple and easy to use application programming environment
• Small footprint

Laird Product Used

• BL600

About Blue Maestro
Blue Maestro is a United Kingdom based developer and manufacturer of health and environmental monitoring and control devices for smartphones and tablets, from consumer orientated appcessories for the retail market through to one-off enterprise solutions for large commercial clients. www.bluemaestro.com