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Installing the Ubertooth on the Mac mini M1

 For my video project, one of the demonstrations included using an Ubertooth One to scan for Bluetooth and BLE packets. This blog post will cover the installation of the Ubertooth One on the Mac mini M1. The official install guide for Mac devices didn't work very well for me, and I had to install some extra tools in order to get it to work. The examples assume you are using Python 3, and have homebrew installed. 

To begin, follow the instructions found here: https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/ubertooth/wiki/Build-Guide.


Additionally, you may find that you need to install pytq5, numpy, and qtpy. To do this, simply run Python3 pip install pyqt5, numpy, qtpy.

This will install the required libraries needed to run the Ubertooth tools. There are multiple ways to install pip on an OS X device, but I suggest using homebrew to install python3, which should install pip as well.

Next, you will need to update the firmware of the device. When downloading the tools, a firmware directory should also have been created. Within this directory, run ubertooth-dfu -d bluetooth_rxtx.dfu -r. This should update the firmware of the device.

Once you have installed the Ubertooth tools and updated the firmware, run ubertooth-specan-ui to verify that the device is working and that everything is installed correctly. Another helpful site for setup and use is wiki.elvis.science. They have a great guide on setup and Wireshark/crackle use.

To purchase an Ubertooth One, find a retailer on Great Scott Gadgets website.

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