Raspberry Pi 2 compatible BLE USB dongle for RuuviTag

Products & Services 🇬🇧 RuuviTag & RuuviTag Pro Sensors
1

Hello!

I am looking for a Raspberry Pi 2 compatible USB BLE dongle to collect RuuviTag data with my old Raspberry Pi 2. Which ones do you recommend? I found some Raspberry Pi compatible BT 4.0 adapters in Amazon.de (with CSR chipset), and I was wondering whether BT 4.0 adapter works with RuuviTag, which uses BT 4.2. I was looking this item: https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Bluetooth-4-0-Dongle-Adapter-Raspberry-10-Black/dp/B01IM8YKPW

Should I buy a BT 5.0 bluetooth adapter instead? I assume BT 5.0 is backwards compatible with BT 4.2. I am considering also this one, which according to Verkkokauppa.com, has Linux support, but I am not sure if it is supported by Raspberry Pi 2. Asus USB-BT500 Bluetooth 5.0 USB-adapteri, musta – Verkkokauppa.com

Are there any other things I should consider when selecting a suitable model for my old Raspberry Pi 2?

2

Hello,

Any dongle with 4.0 and upwards should work for listening in the advertisements for real-time data, 4.2 brings some features for connection which are needed for downloading the history data.

Most if not all USB-BLE dongles use HCI USB protocol which is supported by most Linux distributions running on Raspberries, but only way to find if your specific combination works out of the box is to try it.

3

Actually, I remembered the model of my old Raspberry incorrectly, since I haven’t used it for couple of years. :slight_smile: I have a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, which based on some quick googling supports Bluetooth 4.1, see https://us.rs-online.com/m/d/4252b1ecd92888dbb9d8a39b536e7bf2.pdf.

I plan to use the ruuvitag-sensor library at GitHub - ttu/ruuvitag-sensor: Python package for communicating with RuuviTag BLE Sensor and for decoding sensor data from broadcasted data to receive measurement data from my RuuviTags, and build my own application on top of the library. I assume the library doesn’t use any BLE 4.2 features, so it should be compatible with Raspberry Pi 3 Model B and RuuviTags?

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4

In case you’re not aware, Home Assistant has a Ruuvi integration and I think it will run just fine on that device.

5

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B has only 1 GB or RAM. Based on some googling I found that HA requires 2 GB of RAM. Some users have tested HA with Rasp having only 1 GB or RAM, and experienced lots of problems, at least when updating the software (apt-update jammed the whole device)

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Also, I have read that HA logs a lot, wearing down Rasp SD cards quickly, so an external SSD hard drive is recommended.