nRF52840 dongle as a BLE sniffer in Wireshark

[Mindu]

Hi,

I've been following the steps indicated by the "nRF_Sniffer_BLE_UG_v4.1.x" document in order to set up my nRF52840 dongle as a BLE sniffer for Wireshark. Unfortunately, I've not achieved my goal despite a great number of tries. Following some more information I'd like to share:

1) Wireshark version: 4.2.3 (v4.2.3-0-ga15d7331476c).

2) Python version: v3.10.9 as shown below.

3) nRF Programmer v4.3.0 to flash the "sniffer_nrf52840dongle_nrf52840_4.1.1.hex" firmware in my dongle. Suceed.

4) A picture of the output after the execution of: 

nrf_sniffer_ble.bat --extcap-interfaces

 

It seems everything is working as expected!

5) Regrettably, when I launch Wireshark, the nRF Sniffer is not included in the Capture list.

I'd like to remark that after executing what is pointed out in step 4, LED1 of the dongle starts blinking really fast in a no periodic way. if I pull the dongle out and reconnect it again to the USB connector, LED1 doesn't blink never again. It doesn't matter if I close Wireshark and restart it.

I don't know what the problem is. Any idea?

Thank you in advance.

[Simonr]

Okay, that was definitely not as informative as I had hoped. I am officially out of ideas of what this could be, so I'll reach out to some of the devs internally to see if they have any idea what this could be caused by. It might take a few days to hear back, but I'll let you know as soon as I have anything. In the meantime, do you have another computer to use Wireshark and the nRF Sniffer on by chance?

Best regards,

Simon

UPDATE: One thing that came to mind. Can you try a few different USB ports or with a USB hub on your computer, just to rule out if the USB port you're connecting to is not able to detect the nRF52840 Dongle correctly with Wireshark?

[Mindu]

I've tried in different USB ports and with a hub as an intermediate device with no success.

I look forward to hearing from the dev team as I've also ran out of ideas.