Xiaomi BLE device protocol
A developer used Claude Code to reverse-engineer a Bluetooth Low Energy protocol for a Xiaomi device.
The full story
Matt Cree owned a Xiaomi Smart RC Car, a 1:16 Suzuki Jimny crawler (model XMYKC01CM) controlled by an Android app that isn't on Google Play. Rather than install it from a dodgy APK mirror or a Chinese app store, he used Claude Code to help reverse engineer the car's Bluetooth Low Energy protocol, so he could build his own controller.
He documented the commands for driving, steering and the other functions. Sadly the car's Bluetooth module was already failing after years on a shelf, and it burned out during debugging, but not before everything was written down. The post also sets out why reverse engineering for interoperability is legal in the UK, EU and US.
Single write-up.
How it was done
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Sources
From the maker's own write-up or code. We summarise what they report; we haven't tested it ourselves.
- Matt Cree: reverse engineering the Xiaomi Jimny BLE protocol
Full write-up of the BLE protocol, how it was decoded, and the legal background.