Pairing

When the remote control is turned on, it will attempt to connect to a bonded Bluetooth® Low Energy compatible master if bonds are available. Otherwise it will be in pairing mode and will wait for connection from host.

The Smart Remote 3 features the HID-over-GATT profile and can connect to any Bluetooth Low Energy host system supporting this profile. The HID-over-GATT profile is a direct mapping from the USB HID standard. In addition to controlling how the HID data is transferred through the wireless link, the profile requires the use of Bluetooth device security. Security and data encryption are handled by the Bluetooth Security Manager, which is a Bluetooth protocol layer handled by nRF51822. On the master side of the Bluetooth link, the Security Manager is handled in the Bluetooth driver stack.

If no bonds are stored in flash, the remote control will start to advertise to Smart Ready devices for pairing when it is turned on. When Smart Remote 3 is in this advertising state, the Bluetooth host platform should be instructed to start scanning for and then to connect to it. During this initial connection an encrypted link is configured by nRF51822 and the host transmits HID commands to the Smart Remote 3 according to the HID-over-GATT profile.

The remote control will stay in bond mode for 180 seconds waiting for a Bluetooth connection. If no connection is established, the remote control will enter deep sleep. Bonding mode will be resumed upon user activity.

Although the specifics of the pairing process may differ between platforms, the main steps remain the same.

  1. Scan for Smart Remote 3.
  2. Connect to Smart Remote 3.
  3. Bond/pair with Smart Remote 3.

Read more about Bluetooth Low Energy and HID- over-GATT at developer.bluetooth.org.