cannot talk to dongle after connect

[JimmyD]

I connect to the nRF52840-MDK dongle thru the Serial Terminal (nRF52 Connectivity) it found the comm port and set the baudrate automatically. However, the terminal window constantly fills up the screen with ~/ characters. it repeats every 1 second. What I would like is detailed instructions on how to configure this dongle to be a BT 5 sniffer and read the Extended Advertising for any BT device near the dongle. It would also be helpful to filter the devices seen. Eventually I like to use Python to filter the choices and obtain the advertises data where I can parse the data received. I'm using Windows 10 pro.

Thanks.

[ovrebekk]

Hi James

The nRF Sniffer is documented here. In particular you can refer to the chapter caller nRF Sniffer Usage.

The dongle needs to be programmed with the hex file included in the sniffer download, most likely it has the wrong firmware. This will be described in the documentation I linked to above. 

The sniffer does provide a Python interface, and you can find it documented in the Sniffer API Guide document included in the doc folder of the sniffer download. 

Best regards
Torbjørn

[JimmyD]

Torbjørn,

            The instruction for installation is very hard to follow and leads to a dead end.

First your link takes me to nRF Sniffer usage. The index on the side “Installing the nRF Sniffer starts off as if it is already installed. Very confusing!!

Another is the SnifferAPI.

I cannot find it anywhere.

Since I took too long to try and get this working, I have other priorities, But will circle back to try and get this to work.

Due to my time allocation for this project is short.

Please give me some dummy proof steps to get this working.

 

 

I see a bunch of python code under the nrf_sniffer_for_bluetooth_le_4.1.1 directory I downloaded, but I don’t know which one I need for my application.

 

Greatly appreciate it.

 

James DeLorenzo

[ovrebekk]

Hi James

JimmyD said:

The instruction for installation is very hard to follow and leads to a dead end.

Can you elaborate? 

You mean you are unsure what to do after the chapter "Adding a Wireshark profile for the nRF Sniffer"?

JimmyD said:

The index on the side “Installing the nRF Sniffer starts off as if it is already installed. Very confusing!!

I am unsure what you are referring to here. The "Installing the nRF Sniffer" chapter starts by explaining what the sniffer is, where to download it, and how to install it. 

JimmyD said:

Please give me some dummy proof steps to get this working.

If you let me know where you are stuck and what issues you face I will do my best to help. 
Otherwise I would just be repeating what is already in the documentation in this ticket, which is unlikely to help much. 

JimmyD said:

I see a bunch of python code under the nrf_sniffer_for_bluetooth_le_4.1.1 directory I downloaded, but I don’t know which one I need for my application.

To run the sniffer from Python you need the files in the extcap/SnifferAPI folder. 

The basic steps to use the Python libraries are described in the pdf:

Best regards
Torbjørn

[JimmyD]

Got it. I'm experimenting with wire shark. Do you know how I can filter for advertising type (BT 5 ...Extension) or Name?

[JimmyD]

Or MAC address contents.