We are happy to announce that nRF Connect has reached v1.0 production release and has been made available on the nRF Connect for desktop product page on the Nordic Semiconductor web site.
About nRF Connect
- a Bluetooth low energy tool for development and exploration
- allows you to quickly set up connections with other Bluetooth low energy devices and perform operations on them
- cross platform support: runs on Windows, Ubuntu Linux and OSX
Release change log
We have listened to feedback from our users and have added some improvements and new features. Here is a list of the most important changes between this release and the previous v1.0 RC release:
- Automatic firmware detection and programming
- New version of connectivity firmware, fixes issue of crash when receiving many notifications
- Display both serial port name and J-Link serial number, making it easier to find the correct serial port to connect to
- Improved stability related to opening and switching between adapters
- Sorting and filtering of discovered devices list
- Support for adding custom advertising types
- Text parsing and input for well known characteristic types
- Connected devices stay in the list of discovered devices, making it easier to reconnect
- Automatic discovery of descriptors, making it easier to enable notifications
- Buttons for operations (like read, write, notify) are hidden when they are not supported by a characteristic
- Support for adding custom UUID definitions
- Copy & paste functionality on OSX has been fixed
- Dedicated button for opening detailed log file
Known issues
There are still some unresolved issues which we hope to improve on in future releases. These are the most important issues:
- Segger J-Link USB issue on OSX: More information towards the end of the article
- Missing support for address resolving. This means it is not possible to reestablish security with stored bond keys when the peer device has changed its advertising address.
Roadmap
Source code on GitHub
The source code of nRF Connect will be made available on GitHub, complete with build instructions. ETA: a few weeks. Update: the release of the source code has been postponed. See related comment below the article.
More releases
We will continue to improve the application going forward, adding features and improving the overall experience. Stay tuned for more to come.
Downloads
File downloads and getting started guide can be found in the downloads tab on the nRF Connect for desktop product page.
Bug reports
If you are having problems related to nRF Connect, please open an issue on DevZone Questions.
#J-Link OB USB issue on Mac OS and Linux [Update] The issue is now also found on newer versions of Linux, not only on Mac OS.
Summary
There is a an issue with the Segger J-Link OB firmware related to USB packet sizes and endpoints. The issue manifests itself on Mac OS and Linux where it may lead to corruption of packets over UART, unless the following workaround is applied.
Workaround
Please perform the following to make the device function properly on OSX and Linux:
- Upgrade to the latest version of J-Link software. The version must be v5.12i or higher.
- The MSD (mass storage device) feature of the Segger J-Link must be disabled. Instructions are availble here.
