Python BLE GATT Server (peripheral)

GATT is constructed out of one or more server devices (BLE peripherals) and a client device (BLE central).

A GATT server is usually a small device such as a sensor, but for some use cases you might want to have a Linux computer such as a RPi used as a GATT server. This example is meant to demonstrate how this can be done.

Setup

The instructions in this document were tested on Ubuntu 16.04.

Bluez Installation

On most distributions, you will need to upgrade Bluez in order to make this work.

Install dependencies:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libudev-dev libical-dev libreadline-dev libglib2.0-dev libdbus-1-dev

Download and install Bluez

wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/bluetooth/bluez-5.45.tar.xz
tar xvf bluez-5.45.tar.xz
cd bluez-5.45/
./configure
make
sudo make install

Enable experimental features for the bluetooth driver:

sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service
Add --experimental to ExecStart. The line should look like this:

ExecStart=/usr/local/libexec/bluetooth/bluetoothd --experimental

Reload the service:

systemctl daemon-reload
sudo service bluetooth restart

virtualenv

Install dependencies: sudo apt-get install virtualenv python-dev libdbus-1-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev python-gi

cd to the the root of this repository and:

virtualenv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
ln -s /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gi venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/

Usage

Start the sample BLE GATT server: python gatt_server_example.py

You can use a smartphone as a GATT client. I used the GATT-IP app, here it is on the Google Play Store and on the App Store

License