Feitian Bluetooth Readers
The Bluetooth reader means the smart card reader based on Bluetooth technology, which can work for host device which supports Bluetooth, for example, your mobile phone, PC or embeded devices. The device brings the contact slot with bluetooth connector, users can pair the reader to their phone and insert their banking card or eID card to do mobile authentication, identification and payment. Currently, we released three product based on Bluetooth technology, you can find the differences from below.
| Product | Casing number | Bluetooth Technology | Smartcard support |
|---|---|---|---|
| bR301BLE | C18C / C45C | Bluetooth Smart | Contact card |
| bR500 | C45FC | Bluetooth Smart | Contactless card |
We provide the SDK(Software development kit) for integrating the reader abilities into your application, which is the basic interface allows you to do operation with the readers, for example, connect/disconnect the card, and check the card slot status, read/write date to the smart card and so on. we provide the source code based on OC, Swift and Java give you a reference, more information, please check the developer guide for iOS/Android/Linux/Windows/macOS.
Here is an example, for the country eID card, you may need to get your card specification/COS(Chip Operating System) manual to learn your card, and send the APDU command to the smart card and get the information that you need. like you can call our API to connect reader and after detect the card, if you found the card, then you can send get your ID card name or address from your ID card.
For the product name, we named lightning reader as bR301, which "b" means Bluetooth, and the R301 is our standard name for contact readers. the "BLE" means Bluetooth Low energy. R500 is our standard name for contactless reader, number 5 is a keyword for all contactless reader.
1. Introduction
The Bluetooth reader is CCID and PCSC standard product, it supports IOS, Android, PC platform. The product is compact, light and easy to operate, according with Bluetooth low power consumption design to save batteries and using support latest contactless and contact technology, support the world wide range of commonly used NFC card and IC chip card.
Those readers needs work with application, and FEITIAN provide second development library and graphical user interface that allow user to all functions. And for customer can develop their own application based on FEITIAN SDK on mobile platform. For PC platform, it is fully compatible with traditional USB card reader (Micro USB provide with product), if you want using them with Bluetooth connection on PC platform, will need install bluetooth driver on PC platform. or you can buy a Bluetooth CCID dongle from us, it just plug in and play without driver.
Those reader suites customers where security concerns are the most salient and satisfies the demand for a flexible solution for ID authentication, e-commerce, e-payment, information security and access control.
2. Which platform supported
| Product | Support platform | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| bR301BLE | iOS/iPadOS/Android/Windows/Linux | |
| bR500 | iOS/iPadOS/Android/Windows/Linux |
3. Specification
Please check the specification from this link.
4. Release notes
Below is the release notes of Bluetooth readers. The bR301 release notes:
| Reader name | Changes | Release Date |
| bR301 with 2.00 firmware | First version released based on iAP1 protocol | 2013-2019, EOL early in 2020 |
| bR301 with 3.13 firmware | Second version released based on iAP2 protocol | Release early in 2019, no plan for EOL |
The bR301BLE release notes:
| Reader name | Changes | Release Date |
| bR301BLE with 1.12 firmware | first version released | early in 2017 |
| bR301BLE with 2.22 firmware | the bluetooth module is EOL, need change to a new module. Also change the light means | early in 2019 |
The bR500 release notes:
| Reader Name | Changes | Release Date |
| bR500 with 1.10 firmware | first version released | early in 2017 |
| bR500 with 2.02 firmware | the bluetooth module is EOL, need change to a new module. Also change the light means | early in 2019 |
5. Hardware Configuration
The reader bring 4 lights and MicroUSB port, 2xRed, 1xGreen and 1x Blue. You can find their means from below:
bR301BLE/bR500 lights means:
| Item | Means | Notes |
| Red light #1 (from left to right) | N/A | |
| Blue light | Bluetooth connection, flashing means ready to connect. after connect successful, then always ON. | |
| Green light | Inform the card slot status, ON means card present, OFF means card absent | |
| Red light #2 (from left to right) | Battery charging, turn off means battery full |
6. Bluetooth Instructions
Bluetooth can only be used in the case of adapter or battery power supply.
Bluetooth will turn off automatically while USB connection with your PC computer, it won’t disconnect when using Charger/adapter. When the Bluetooth is not connected, the contactless signal will closed.
Notices: Pair issue with iOS device, Apple has rule of mobile device Bluetooth settings, all the BLE device only can found in App, cannot through “Setting”(Bluetooth search panel) to do pair, this is feature from Apple, so if you want do test under Apple mobile device, then please install our App as well.
Notices: After pair with your mobile device, if disconnect Bluetooth connection, the reader will turn off automatically for power saving.
7. Battery Instructions
Capacity of battery - BR301BLE(C18C casing) uses a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery with capacity of 800mAh, the BR301BLE(C45C casing) and the BR500(C45FC casing) use a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery with capacity of 350mAh.
Battery charging - The battery through USB Type C connector cable to do charging, there is a cable comes within product box with an end of USB Type A connector to the other end of USB Type C connector, you can connect it to 5V recharge adapter or PC computer.
Battery life - The battery life is dependent on the usage of the device. Below is an estimate of the battery life depending on the various work conditions:
bR301BLE C18C
| Battery Mode | Estimated Battery Life |
|---|---|
| Working Mode | 24 hours |
| Standby Mode | The reader design is maximum saving your battery, after 3mins without any data communication, the reader will turn off |
| OFF Mode | 8 years |
| Battery Capacity | 800 mAh |
| Time Of Charging Full Battery | 3 hours |
| Battery Warranty | 1 year by default, can talk to sales to ask more warranty on this |
bR301BLE C45C and bR500 C45FC:
| Battery Mode | Estimated Battery Life |
|---|---|
| Working Mode | 11 hours |
| Standby Mode | The reader design is maximum saving your battery, after 3mins without any data communication, the reader will turn off |
| OFF Mode | 8 years |
| Battery Capacity | 350 mAh |
| Time Of Charging Full Battery | 2 hours |
| Battery Warranty | 1 year by default, can talk to sales to ask more warranty on this |
8. Reader firmware upgrade
Firmware update tool is used to upgrade bR500 and bR301BLE firmware, it is for maintain in future. BR500 and bR301BLE apply dual encrypted mechanism. The firmware will have encrypted by UID (User ID), only the right UID firmware can be update by right reader. We will explain UID function later. To using update tool, please check bR500 and bR301BLE SDK.
The reader support upgrade the firmware, you can connect cable with your Windows computer and the reader, and download our latest SDK, find update tool to upgrade the fireware.
Before update the reader firmware, make sure your UID is default, which is all FF or empty, otherwise, please contact your supplier to let them provide you the encrypted latest firmware file for upgrading.
9. Reader UID Management
The reader supports to configure the UID(User ID), this function is used for distrubuitor, which can make a rules for end user. The UID means User ID, you can through seedcode to generate User ID, and such ID can be read by API, also the firmware encryted based on this ID, if end user wants to update firmware, then they must have the firmware which was encrypted with UID, otherwise, they cannot do the update.
10. Upload App to Apple iOS Appstore
If your app integrated our SDK, and used our lightning reader, you may need provide below information to us, we will need forward to MFi(Apple MFi(Made for iPhone/iPad/iPod)) to have their approval, after they agreed, then we will provide you a PPID, you will need put this PPID in review notes to let Apple reviewer knows.
1. Name of app as it will appear in App Store:
2. App version:
3. Planned release data?
4. App Store category:
5. Bundle identifier:
6. protocol names:
7. functional overview:
8. name of the developer that will submit the app to the app store