Xenon as BLE-only device

General
1

Hello,

Are there plans to allow Xenon’s to be used in a BLE-only mode?

I’ll tell you why I’m asking. I’d like to add sensors that will be mostly off. for example water-leak sensors. I will not want to pay monthly per-device for these sensors so am instead looking for ways for them to speak to a backhaul mesh network without being mesh nodes themselves.

I’m considering the ESP32, but it only does BLE 4.2 (which really is probably fine). When looking for chips that support BLE 5 the most common are the nRF528__. It’s possible to pick up some non-particle devboards in the $5-ish range, but particle.io boards are almost certainly easier to deal with.

2

You should be able to do that by opting for SYSTEM_MODE(MANUAL).

3

Thanks. Is there anything else I’d have to do to bypass the setup stage?

4

I don’t think so, but I have no fresh Xenon to try :wink:

5

I’m thinking I might have to also try the instructions some very helpful person posted in Running firmware without claiming the device

6

Meanwhile I have been told that this would only be required for Argon and Boron but not Xenon :wink:
But it won’t harm if you do (but you should avoid the Particle.connect() call as it won’t work anyway without a gateway)

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