JBL Pulse 3

[gpgabriel]

Hi,

Not sure if I post this in the right place. I'm using the ESP32 to test audio through bluetooth.

I'm trying to find out if the JBL Pulse 3 or JBL Charge 3 devices are using Bluetooth Low Energy. I don't have any of these devices with me and I couldn't find any proof about this after 5-6 hours worth of searching around.

It looks to me like they are using BLE but I might be wrong. The [JBL Pulse 3 spec][1] says that the Connect App is supported and the Bluetooth version is 4.2 (BLE was added in 4.0). If we look at the [JBL Charge 2][2], the spec doesn't say anything about the app (not suppored) and the Bluetooth version is 3.0. To me this is an argument because I think that there's no way to send custom data (the pulse 3 uses LEDs) using classic bluetooth. In the spec they only specify support for: A2DP V1.3, AVRCP V1.6, HFP V1.6, HSP V1.2 but I think they're also using GATT, it's not specified because they don't want to support it but I don't see how they're able to use the app without GATT being added. None of the above profiles can't be used to send custom data (as far as I know).

Gabriel


[1]: https://www.jbl.com/on/demandware.stati ... nglish.pdf
[2]: https://www.jbl.com/on/demandware.stati ... _SS_EN.pdf

[ESP_Sprite]

I highly doubt they use BLE, if anything because BLE doesn't support high-throughput applications. I think it maxes out around 15KB/sec, if you have a phone/OS/... that supports tweaking the values to go that high.

[gpgabriel]

Hi,

I bought a JBL Pulse 3 and they are using BLE. It's not in the spec but I found the BLE device named 'Pulse 3', connected to it (the speaker reacted, it ended the advertising mode) and found some services (each of them had a few characteristics). Unfortunately it's all secured so I can't read/write data to them to control the LEDs.

It does make sense for them to use BLE, I still can't see any way to send custom data (LEDs color, pattern selection) over A2DP V1.3, AVRCP V1.6, HFP V1.6, HSP V1.2. You could in theory use the metadata attribute from AVRCP and send some custom data there but I think they wouldn't do that because the product will start to act strange once actual metadata is being sent. Maybe SPP is being used but I highly doubt it because SPP is not supported on iOS devices.

Best,
Gabriel