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Firmware 5.45 Release Note Description of Change Firmware 5.45 brings two significant changes to RN41APL & RN42APL capabilities: iAP2 support and Apple Bluetooth MFi compliance with the test suite introduced by Apple beginning in June 2013. New Features iAP2 iAP2 is a new protocol used by external accessories to communicate with Apps on iOS devices. 5.45 provides iAP2 authentication and data session. For backward compatibility with iOS devices that do not support iAP2, 5.45 also supports iAP1 data session for communication and authentication with those early devices. Apple Bluetooth iAP Compliance Beginning in June 2013, Apple started using more comprehensive test methods to validate Bluetooth MFi Accessories. New end products built using firmware versions prior to 5.45 will not pass these tests. Therefore, all new designs must use 5.45. Pin Code Hiding The “J” action command hides the PIN code from being displayed in command mode. This command is documented in the Bluetooth Data Module Command Reference & Advanced User’s Guide (RN-BT-DATAUG). Bonded Device Enabling the “SX,1” Bonded Device mode prevents pairing and connection requests from any other device other than the bonded device, which is the most recently paired device. This command is documented in the Bluetooth Data Module Command Reference & Advanced User’s Guide (RN-BT-DATA-UG). Status Message Delimiter The “SO” command now has the ability to add an optional end delimiter character. Entering “SO,!,#” will result in a status message such as “!CONNECT#”. Previous versions only supported prefix character. Use “SO,“ where is space character, to clear out delimiters. This feature is NOT available in standard Bluetooth firmware 6.x (6.x main version is non-Apple) and therefore not documented in Bluetooth user manual (RN-BT-DATA-UG). Table 1. Standard part numbers affected by this change: Starting November 11, 2013, the following part numbers will ship with 5.45. Microchip Part Number Standard Part Number RN41APL-I/RM
RN42APL-I/RM
RN41NAPL-I/RM
RN42NAPL-I/RM
Note: Dev tools RN-4x-APLX and RN-4x-APL-EVAL are always shipped with the latest firmware version. Firmware 5.45 can be ordered before November 11, 2013, by using the shadow part number. Append “545” to the standard part number. For example, a RN42APL-I/RM can be ordered using RN42APLI/RM545. The shadow part numbers will remain valid after November 11, 2013 when 5.45 starts shipping with the standard parts in table 1. Reason for change
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5.45 firmware was designed to provide iAP2 support and Apple Bluetooth iAP compliance. Going forward, iAP2 is expected to become the default communication protocol for accessories that communicate with new iOS devices. Furthermore, firmware 5.45 has been tested by Apple and passes the latest MFi Bluetooth validation testing. Customer Impact All new designs being submitted to Apple as part of a product plan should use 5.45. All existing design in approved product plans can use previous versions of firmware. NOTE: the end customer must submit a product plan and submit their end product to Apple for validation testing. Due to differences in each customer use cases, Microchip cannot guarantee the customer’s end product will pass Apple MFi validation testing, even with 5.45. All existing designs that use previous versions such as 5.36 and 5.43 can continue to use them in the end products that have product approved by Apple’s MFi program. Previous versions 5.43 and 5.36 are available using shadow part numbers. For example, to order the RN41NAPL with 5.43, use the following part number: RN41NAPL-I/RM543 Known Issues In some cases it is desired that an RN41APL/RN42APL module establish an SPP connection to another RN41APL/RN42APL module. A module to module connection is only possible using explicit SPP profile (“S~,0”) and pin code authentication (“SA,4”). Further Information Contact Sources:
Technical Support:
10/07/13
http://support.microchip.com
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