peripheral hids example does not connect to iOS

RE: peripheral hids example does not connect to iOS

Hung Bui — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 11:59:43 GMT

Hi Mrd,
Yes Ipad should have it supported. I will need to find an iPad to test.
My suggestion is to try turning the iPad off an on, erase any bond information and test again.
You can also capture a sniffer trace (you may need to use either debug key or feed the LTK to the sniffer as instructed in the Bluetooth Academy course) so that we can inspect if the mouse actually sending anything when you press the button.

RE: peripheral hids example does not connect to iOS

mrd — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 22:09:14 GMT

Hi Hung,

That's curious that the log wouldn't show settings loading. It is called for all the stock hids examples.

if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_SETTINGS)) {

settings_load();

}

CONFIG_SETTINGS is set to 1.

Is there a logging setting I should be using to see when that function is called?

I am able to connect to the iPad with the keyboard hid sample, and type some characters. But a mouse should work too.

Clearly iPads do support bluetooth mice: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT211008

RE: peripheral hids example does not connect to iOS

Hung Bui — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 08:35:52 GMT

Hi mrd,
It's quite strange that --recover helped fix the issue.
There could be a chance that the nRF52 was bonded with your iOS devices and was trying to re-use bond information that got deleted on the iOS devices to encrypt the link but failed.
Doing a --recover will erase bond information. But from the log you showed, you didn't call settings_load so bond information shouldn't be stored/restored.

Please also try to test with keyboard sample. As I mentioned earlier , on iPhone external mouse is not supported AFAIK.

RE: peripheral hids example does not connect to iOS

mrd — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 20:49:22 GMT

Hi Hung,

Some progress. I get much further ahead after using "nrfjprog --recover".

After doing this, I can connect to android and move the cursor (perfect!). On iOS, I can connect and see HID data sent on wireshark, but there is no cursor that is displayed. Strange!

RE: peripheral hids example does not connect to iOS

mrd — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 19:37:49 GMT

It's unlikely that it would be environmental - the same environment where peripheral_uart connects perfectly is the one where hids_mouse doesn't work at all.

I guess I'll try debugging more on my own and I'll respond if I get it. Let me know if you have any other insights!

RE: peripheral hids example does not connect to iOS

Hung Bui — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 13:09:57 GMT

Hi Mrd,

I did a test with your hex file on an iPhone and I didn't see any retransmission.

In your trace with an Android phone, at the beginning I can see some transmission but then after that no retransmission:

I'm not so sure why this happen, there could be a chance that there was some interference in the environment causing the problem. Could you try to test at a different location ?
It's still strange that you don't have that problem when you test with other sample not HIDs.

Regarding the disconnection, what I can see is that the master terminated the connection:

It was most likely because the slave rejected the pairing request:

I'm not so sure why you have this error, I couldn't reproduce the problem on my Android phone here.

RE: peripheral hids example does not connect to iOS

mrd — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 19:33:19 GMT

Hi Hung,

I actually did not know that iPhone did not have mouse support, but the only test I have done on iPhone is the one you requested above with the trace. Everything else is iPad.

Wow, the peripheral_hids_keyboard connects! But it is not possible to use DK buttons to type "hello".

Here is the hex file of the mouse sample.

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../mrd_5F00_peripheral_5F00_hids_5F00_mouse_5F00_build.hex

I notice that the same hids mouse example also does not connect to android either - it shows reason 19 for disconnecting, and this in wireshark.

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../android_5F00_peripheral_5F00_mouse_5F00_fail.pcapng

And here is the terminal output.

*** Booting Zephyr OS build v3.3.99-ncs1-1 ***
Starting Bluetooth Peripheral HIDS mouse example
I: 8 Sectors of 4096 bytes
I: alloc wra: 0, db0
I: data wra: 0, 480
I: SoftDevice Controller build revision:
I: e0 7e 2e c1 5e 05 85 23 |.~..^..#
I: 46 15 dc fa 8e 29 7d 70 |F....)}p
I: 10 93 a5 fc |....
I: HW Platform: Nordic Semiconductor (0x0002)
I: HW Variant: nRF52x (0x0002)
I: Firmware: Standard Bluetooth controller (0x00) Version 224.11902 Build 2231721665
I: No ID address. App must call settings_load()
Bluetooth initialized
I: Identity: F7:CC:36:D1:32:8A (random)
I: HCI: version 5.4 (0x0d) revision 0x1077, manufacturer 0x0059
I: LMP: version 5.4 (0x0d) subver 0x1077
Direct advertising to 10:30:25:A5:68:39 (public) started
Direct advertising to 10:30:25:A5:68:39 (public) timed out
Direct advertising to 9C:B6:D0:E6:D8:64 (public) started
Direct advertising to 9C:B6:D0:E6:D8:64 (public) timed out
Regular advertising started
Connected 6A:0D:0B:AF:01:76 (random)
Direct advertising to 10:30:25:A5:68:39 (public) started
Direct advertising to 10:30:25:A5:68:39 (public) timed out
Direct advertising to 9C:B6:D0:E6:D8:64 (public) started
Direct advertising to 9C:B6:D0:E6:D8:64 (public) timed out
Regular advertising started
Disconnected from 6A:0D:0B:AF:01:76 (random) (reason 19)
Directed advertising failed to start

RE: peripheral hids example does not connect to iOS

Hung Bui — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 09:12:44 GMT

Hi,

I don't see any retransmission in the new trace you sent.
This suggest that the hardware and the compatibility between the DK and the phone is OK.

Could you send us your hex file (of the hid keyboard sample) so that we can flash on a DK here and test with an Iphone we have ?
I assume you have the same problem with the peripheral_hids_keyboard ?.

(The reason I ask for the keyboard because last time I checked iPhone didn't support external mouse, only keyboard ? iPad support both)

RE: peripheral hids example does not connect to iOS

mrd — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 22:53:59 GMT

I am already using two DKs for running code and sniffing. All wireshark traces are from DKs.

I am able to connect to peripheral_uart example, but only through the nrf connect app, not through the normal bluetooth connection menu on the iPad.

Here is a trace connecting to the peripheral uart sample.

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../iOS_5F00_peripheral_5F00_uart_5F00_working.pcapng

I'm trying to reflect on what differences between our setups are possible. Could I be setting up the build wrong? Here is my build configuration

RE: peripheral hids example does not connect to iOS

Hung Bui — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 11:55:02 GMT

Thanks Mrd,

It's pretty interesting that in the PC_working trace I don't see any retranmission but they are on the iOS traces. I'm thinking of an issue with the timing of the LFCLK.

Could you describe your hardware board ? Do you use external 32kHz crystal or use the internal 32kHz RC ?

Could you do the same test on one of our DK instead of your board ?

If you test with other sample, for example peripheral_lbs , can you connect from the iOS device ? You can use nRF Connect app on the phone to connect.

RE: peripheral hids example does not connect to iOS

mrd — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 19:09:06 GMT

I am not using slave latency as far as I can tell.

I double checked that I am indeed using the stock example.

Here are the requested traces.

iPad is on iOS 15.3.1

iPhone is iOS 17.0.3

Additionally, I am using nrf52840 hw v3.0.1 to run the example, and 52840 Preview as the sniffer

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../iOS_5F00_iPad_5F00_dbg2.pcapng

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../iOS_5F00_iPhone_5F00_dbg2.pcapng

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../PC_5F00_working.pcapng

RE: peripheral hids example does not connect to iOS

Hung Bui — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 09:21:46 GMT

Hi Mrd,
Thanks for the trace.
From what I can see it seems that the slave was not very responsive. You can find a lot of retransmission on each command from the master:

This is normal when the slave is using slave latency. But it may be too much. Causing the link to be very easy to break.
My suggestion is to check if the mouse use any slave latency ?
As far as I know the sample doesn't use it, so it's a little bit strange.
Please also capture the trace when you connect to your PC.
Also capture another trace with iPhone so that we can be sure it's the same issue.

RE: peripheral hids example does not connect to iOS

mrd — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 20:46:37 GMT

Hello Hung,

Thank you for the guidance. Here is a much cleaner capture of what's going on. I did not decrypt it as I believe it is pre-encryption based on what I read in the course?

The fun begins at line 12280.

Additionally, note that when connecting the DK to my PC, I get a security prompt like this:

Passkey for 9C:B6:D0:E6:D8:64 (public): 712495
Press Button 1 to confirm, Button 2 to reject.

But when connecting the DK to iOS, it has never gotten that far.

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../6204.iOS_5F00_dbg.pcapng

RE: peripheral hids example does not connect to iOS

Hung Bui — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 10:21:31 GMT

Hi Mrd,
You would want to select the device that you want to follow (5b:12:2d:96:6d:09) in the device list
Please see the screenshot:

This way the sniffer will be able to follow the connection, otherwise it will just capture advertising packets from all device.

Since the link would most likely be encrypted, you may need to use either the LESC Debug key or you need to printout the LTK to input the sniffer to decrypt. Please check the Academy Course on how to use the sniffer.

RE: peripheral hids example does not connect to iOS

mrd — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 21:29:56 GMT

Hello Hung,

Apologies for the delay - I needed to get a second DK.

Here is the serial output and the trace file.

The peripheral_hids_mouse example is at 5b:12:2d:96:6d:09

The iOS device is at 47:81:D1:0F:B1:FC

Hopefully this is all the information you need. I have never used a bluetooth sniffer before.

Let me know if you need anything else!

Connected 47:81:D1:0F:B1:FC (random)
Direct advertising to 9C:B6:D0:E6:D8:64 (public) started
button_changed(): left
Disconnected from 47:81:D1:0F:B1:FC (random) (reason 8)
Directed advertising failed to start
Direct advertising to 9C:B6:D0:E6:D8:64 (public) timed out
Regular advertising started
Connected 47:81:D1:0F:B1:FC (random)
Direct advertising to 9C:B6:D0:E6:D8:64 (public) started
W: Ignoring data for unknown channel ID 0x003a
Disconnected from 47:81:D1:0F:B1:FC (random) (reason 42)
Directed advertising failed to start
Direct advertising to 9C:B6:D0:E6:D8:64 (public) timed out
Regular advertising started

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../iOS_5F00_dbg.pcapng

RE: peripheral hids example does not connect to iOS

Hung Bui — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 13:30:36 GMT

Hi Mrd,

Please provide the sniffer trace. If you need help on how to use the sniffer you can take a look at this course.

I suspect that the 5s delay is simply the connection timeout. One of the peer was crashed/reset/disconnect and therefore 5s later the connection is terminated.

RE: peripheral hids example does not connect to iOS

mrd — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 17:31:57 GMT

Re NCSDK-19942, the current state is that I can connect to an android device (it receives BAS notifications), but no HID characters are received.

There is one more piece of information I neglected to include in the original post though - the disconnection after connection happens after ~5s, without any input from me. I will try to disable CONFIG_BT_AUTO_PHY_UPDATE.

I have another dk board coming soon that I can use as a sniffer.

Edit: After adding CONFIG_BT_AUTO_PHY_UPDATE=n, the new reason for disconnection is 0x08, or BT_HCI_ERR_CONN_TIMEOUT. About 5s elapses between the indicated points here, which is about the same timing has was happening previously.

Regular advertising started
Connected 67:32:F4:70:41:6E (random) <---------------------- 5s time starts
Direct advertising to 58:24:29:86:60:18 (public) started
W: Ignoring data for unknown channel ID 0x003a
Disconnected from 67:32:F4:70:41:6E (random) (reason 8) <----------- 5s time ends
Directed advertising failed to start
Direct advertising to 58:24:29:86:60:18 (public) timed out
Direct advertising to 9C:B6:D0:E6:D8:64 (public) started
Direct advertising to 9C:B6:D0:E6:D8:64 (public) timed out
Regular advertising started

RE: peripheral hids example does not connect to iOS

Hung Bui — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 11:38:51 GMT

Hi Mrd,

We are still waiting for Google to fix the issue with NCSDK-19942. It may be patched by Google or by other vendors already so you may want to do an actual test to see if it remains.

Regarding the issue with BT_HCI_ERR_DIFF_TRANS_COLLISION. We would need to have a sniffer trace to see what exactly happened. In many case it can be a collision with PHY update. So please double check if there is any PHY update that may cause collision with other activity.

From what I can see in the log, you can pair but after disconnect and connect again the device receive BT_HCI_ERR_DIFF_TRANS_COLLISION, correct ?
I think a sniffe trace would really help.
I did a quick test here with an Iphone running iOS v15.5 and it can connect and reconnect with the peripheral_hids_keyboard (and the SamsungS22 running Android 13 also works).