Reverse engineering a BLE clock
Perfect Time
© Photo by ANIRUDH on Unsplash
What do you do when all your Bluetooth clocks show slightly different times? With some reverse engineering, you can write a Python program to synchronize your clocks.
A while ago, I bought a ThermoPro TP358, a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) digital thermometer with a display. The ThermoPro shows the temperature, humidity, and air comfort indicator, as well as the time and day of the week. Its big display is nice for immediate feedback, but the device also lets you read its values and view graphs in the ThermoPro Sensor app, available on Android and iOS (Figure 1). Moreover, every time you connect to the device with the app, it synchronizes the time.
Figure 1: The ThermoPro Sensor app synchronizes the time of the digital thermometer upon connection.
While that is a nice feature, I have a couple of other types of Bluetooth sensors with a clock, and I didn't want to use multiple apps to view the sensor measurements and synchronize the clocks. For the sensor measurements, a solution already exists: Software such as Home Assistant [1] supported my devices out-of-the-box, letting me view their measurements in Home Assistant's dashboard. However, I couldn't find any solution that let me synchronize the time across all of my Bluetooth clocks without using the individual apps.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
VirtualBox 7.2 Has Arrived
With early support for Linux kernel 6.17 and other new additions, VirtualBox 7.2 is a must-update for users.
-
Linux Mint 22.2 Beta Available for Testing
Some interesting new additions and improvements are coming to Linux Mint. Check out the Linux Mint 22.2 Beta to give it a test run.
-
Debian 13.0 Officially Released
After two years of development, the latest iteration of Debian is now available with plenty of under-the-hood improvements.
-
Upcoming Changes for MXLinux
MXLinux 25 has plenty in store to please all types of users.
-
A New Linux AI Assistant in Town
Newelle, a Linux AI assistant, works with different LLMs and includes document parsing and profiles.
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Released with Minor Fixes
The latest Linux kernel doesn't really include any big-ticket features, just a lot of lines of code.
-
EU Sovereign Tech Fund Gains Traction
OpenForum Europe recently released a report regarding a sovereign tech fund with backing from several significant entities.
-
FreeBSD Promises a Full Desktop Installer
FreeBSD has lacked an option to include a full desktop environment during installation.
-
Linux Hits an Important Milestone
If you pay attention to the news in the Linux-sphere, you've probably heard that the open source operating system recently crashed through a ceiling no one thought possible.
-
Plasma Bigscreen Returns
A developer discovered that the Plasma Bigscreen feature had been sitting untouched, so he decided to do something about it.