BlePad: BLE Remote

BlePad turns your iPhone into a wireless remote controller for BLE UART devices — perfect for micro:bit, ESP32, and any Nordic UART Service (NUS) compatible hardware. Great for electronics projects, education, and robotics.

■ Four built-in remote screens

Game Controller
D-pad (up/down/left/right) and A/B buttons with full multi-touch support.

Numpad
Digits 0–9 plus arithmetic keys (+, −, ×, ÷).

QWERTY Keyboard
Full alphabetic layout, optimized for landscape orientation.

Custom Remote
Freely arrange widgets on a 12-column × 8-row grid in landscape mode. Choose from Buttons, ON/OFF Switches, and Sliders (horizontal or vertical). Set custom labels, command values, colors, and sizes for each widget. Long-press repeat sends the button command every 100 ms. Pro unlocks up to 20 saved layouts, and layout names can be up to 20 characters.

■ Share your layouts

Share the custom remote layouts you've created with other phones. Export a layout as a JSON file and send it however you like — AirDrop, email, cloud storage, and more. Import a layout someone shared with you to start using the same setup right away. Exporting is available in the free version; importing requires Pro.

■ Receive Log

Displays incoming BLE UART notifications in real time as a timestamped text log (up to 100 entries).

■ Free vs Pro

Free (ad-supported)
• Game Controller, Numpad, Keyboard: full access
• Custom Remote: create, use, edit, and export 1 layout
• Receive Log: full access

Pro (one-time purchase)
• Everything in Free
• Custom Remote: up to 20 layouts, plus layout import
• Ad-free

■ Technical specs

• Protocol: Nordic UART Service (NUS)
• Write / Write without response, max 20 bytes per packet (auto-detected from characteristic properties)
• Command format: +ID\n on press, −ID\n on release
• Requires iOS 17.0 or later

■ Compatible devices

• BBC micro:bit (V1 / V2)
• ESP32 (requires NUS-compatible BLE UART firmware)
• Any Nordic UART Service (NUS) compatible BLE device

Note: BLE stability depends on your environment. For robotics or safety-critical use, we recommend implementing emergency stop logic on the device side.