using nrf connect to send advertising packets from a mobile phone

[Yahel_Wiliot]

I am trying to use nrf connect to send advertising packets using my mobile phone. I don't care about the content of the packet as I am using the signal for energizing purposes. I wish for the packets to be sent over a long time period at maximum output power.

I have tried the following: I chose the "ADVERTISER" section in the app. and then clicked the switch to the right in order to start transmitting. As indicated in the attached photo, I expected to get packets in output power of 10 dbm and in length of 250ms. However, when I used a spectrum analyzer to validate this, I don't see any packets in that length or power. 

What am I doing wrong here?

The device I am using is Samsung Xcover 6 pro

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

I suspect there may be a misunderstanding here. The 250 ms is not the length of the advertising packet, it is the delay between the advertising packets (advertising intervals). Advertising packets are short, and that may be why you have missed them on the spectrum analyzer.

A simpler way to test this (verify that it is advertising), could be to install nRF Connect on another mobile phone, and start scanning there, and see if you are able to see the advertising packets. (Or if you have an nRF52 series DK or dongle, you can test with nRF Connect Bluetooth LE or the nRF Sniffer for Bluetooth LE.)

[Yahel_Wiliot]

Is there a way to transmit a longer advertising packet?

Is there a way to change the delay between advertising packets? 

Also, I want to transmit the packets over a long time period, is there a parameter for this? Because every time I turn the switch on it goes back to off after a few seconds

Thanks

[Einar Thorsrud]

Yahel_Wiliot said:

Is there a way to transmit a longer advertising packet?

Normal advertising packets can be up to 31 bytes (with 27 byte payload). With extended advertising you can get more (see this blog post for detail). But that will use secondary advertising channels. And the support for extended advertising differs for different phones.

Yahel_Wiliot said:

Also, I want to transmit the packets over a long time period, is there a parameter for this?

When you start advertising you are prompted with a screen with some configurations, including advertising timeout (either select a timeout, or configure it to advertise until explicitly disabled).

Based on what you wrote initially it seems to me that you don't really need advertising at all, but just want to set up a carrier or similar for some testing? If so a phone does not seem like a suitable tool, and a simpler way would be to take a nRF5x DK of some sort, and use the radio test firmware.