BLE advertising: not able to advertise custom service in scan response

[AlexisLcq]

Hi,

I'm having trouble with the scan response. My product is advertising manufaturer data and need to advertise also a custom service UUID. As there is no room in the advertising packet i've seen that this could be done using scan response.

If I remove the manufacturer data and put the service UUID in the advertising packet I can see it correctly advertised using nrf connect (ios)

Here is my advertising_init() 

static void advertising_init(void)
{
    ret_code_t err_code;
    ble_advertising_init_t init;
    int8_t power_level = BLE_PWR_GAIN_DEF;

    memset(&init, 0, sizeof(init));

    init.advdata.name_type = BLE_ADVDATA_FULL_NAME;
    init.advdata.include_appearance = false;
    init.advdata.flags = BLE_GAP_ADV_FLAGS_LE_ONLY_GENERAL_DISC_MODE;
    init.advdata.uuids_complete.uuid_cnt = sizeof(m_adv_uuids) / sizeof(m_adv_uuids[0]);
    init.advdata.uuids_complete.p_uuids = m_adv_uuids;
    init.advdata.p_tx_power_level = &power_level;

    init.srdata.uuids_complete.uuid_cnt = sizeof(m_adv_uuids) / sizeof(m_adv_uuids[0]);
    init.srdata.uuids_complete.p_uuids = m_adv_uuids;

    init.config.ble_adv_fast_enabled = APP_ADV_FAST_ENABLED;
    init.config.ble_adv_fast_interval = APP_ADV_FAST_INTERVAL;
    init.config.ble_adv_fast_timeout = APP_ADV_FAST_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS;
    init.config.ble_adv_slow_enabled = APP_ADV_SLOW_ENABLED;
    init.config.ble_adv_slow_interval = (uint32_t)(((float) nfc_get_ble_beacon_rate()) * 1.6);
    init.config.ble_adv_slow_timeout  = APP_ADV_SLOW_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS;

    init.evt_handler = on_adv_evt;

    err_code = ble_advertising_init(&m_advertising, &init);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

    ble_advertising_conn_cfg_tag_set(&m_advertising, APP_BLE_CONN_CFG_TAG);

    sd_ble_gap_tx_power_set(BLE_GAP_TX_POWER_ROLE_ADV, &m_advertising, power_level);
}

And here is the function updating the manufacturer data called every X seconds.

void App_UpdateBeacon(uint8_t *manfData, uint8_t len)
{
    ret_code_t err_code;
    ble_advdata_manuf_data_t manuf_data;
    static uint8_t payload_index = 0;

    if(!nfc_get_ble_beacon_rate())
    {
        return;
    }

    if (manfData)
    {
        memcpy(BLEManfData, manfData, len);

        new_advdata.p_manuf_specific_data = &manuf_data;

        // SMTC_HAL_TRACE_INFO("Updating advertising data!");

        if( NFC_Data.bleAdvType == BLE_ADV_TYPE_DEFAULT )
        {
            manuf_data.company_identifier = APP_COMPANY_IDENTIFIER_REF_TAGS;
        }
        else if( NFC_Data.bleAdvType == BLE_ADV_TYPE_SBEACON )
        {
            manuf_data.company_identifier = APP_COMPANY_IDENTIFIER_BLUFI;
        }

        manuf_data.data.p_data = BLEManfData;
        manuf_data.data.size = len;

        new_advdata.short_name_len = 5;
        new_advdata.name_type = BLE_ADVDATA_SHORT_NAME;

        err_code = ble_advertising_advdata_update(&m_advertising, &new_advdata, NULL);

        APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

        if (payload_index == TOP_INDEX)
        {
            payload_index = 0;
        }
        else
        {
            payload_index++;
        }
    }
}

With this, on Nrf connect I can only see the manufacturer data but not the service UUID.

If someone knows where I'm wrong thanks for helping ! 

[Vidar Berg]

Hi,

Do you want to place the manuf. data in the scan response or in the adv. payload? From advertising_init(), it appears that you are placing it in both. 

And here is the function updating the manufacturer data called every X seconds.

This replaces the adv. data previously set in advertising_init() with data contained in 'new_advdata'.

Thanks,

Vidar

[AlexisLcq]

Sorry forgot to remove

init.advdata.uuids_complete.uuid_cnt = sizeof(m_adv_uuids) / sizeof(m_adv_uuids[0]);
init.advdata.uuids_complete.p_uuids = m_adv_uuids;

I added this just to test that I could advertise the service.

I need manufaturer data in adv packet and service uuid in scan response.

Vidar Berg said:

This replaces the adv. data previously set in advertising_init() with data contained in 'new_advdata'.

Yes, the manufacturer data is set later after initialisation that's why. But this shouldn't modify the scan response data right ?

[AlexisLcq]

Ok nevermind I did not understood the behavior of ble_advertising_advdata_update() correctly, I thought that if you put srdata to NULL it wouldn't change the initial configuration. 

It's working now. Thanks for helping !

Solved by changing to this:

new_srdata.uuids_complete.uuid_cnt = sizeof(m_adv_uuids) / sizeof(m_adv_uuids[0]);
new_srdata.uuids_complete.p_uuids = m_adv_uuids;

err_code = ble_advertising_advdata_update(&m_advertising, &new_advdata, &new_srdata);

[Vidar Berg]

Thanks for confirming.

AlexisLcq said:

Yes, the manufacturer data is set later after initialisation that's why. But this shouldn't modify the scan response data right ?

The advertising data will also be updated with the new 'scan_rsp_data' pointer, which will be NULL at this point, effectively disabling the scan response. 

You can use the 'm_advertising.adv_data.scan_rsp_data' pointer if you want to keep the original scan response data.

[Vidar Berg]

Thank you for the update. It appears that we both replied at the same time.