52840 Dongle，ble sniffer set coded phy failed

[zadme]

Hello, when testing the BLE sniffer with an nRF52840 dongle (utilizing the most recent official sniffer firmware), I configured Wireshark to capture the coded PHY. After initiating the sniffing process for several seconds and capturing roughly tens of broadcast packets, Wireshark ceases to update data. Upon conducting lower-level debugging, I discovered that the sniffer exclusively outputs counts rather than continuing to output broadcast packets. Could this be attributed to a misconfiguration or are there alternative explanations?

[Edvin]

Hello,

the sniffer exclusively outputs counts rather than continuing to output broadcast packets.

What do you mean by this? What kind of counting are you seeing? 

What sort of packets are transmitted using CODED_PHY? Advertisements, or are you changing over to coded phy after entering a connection?

Best regards,

Edvin

[zadme]

i set this, scan coded phy

flow to thousands of packets and no longer refresh, this phenomenon occurs every time

[zadme]

I add that when the sniffing is normal, the LD1 of dongle flickers irregularly. When wireshark stops refreshing, the LD1 no longer flickers

[zadme]

Hello, excuse me, the project is urgent, please help test the coded phy, thank you

[Edvin]

Hello,

Yes. I have reproduced it. And it seems like a bug. I have reported it to the developers of this tool. I didn't notice it before. In fact, I wasn't even aware you could sniff Coded Phy packets (Well, it doesn't work now, so basically, you can't). 

zadme said:

I add that when the sniffing is normal, the LD1 of dongle flickers irregularly. When wireshark stops refreshing, the LD1 no longer flickers

I see that too. I believe it ususally toggles one time for every packet it picks up, so it suggests that the issue is in the nRF FW, and not with wireshark.

Let me see what the developers say.

Best regards,

Edvin

[zadme]

Thank you for your support. When will this software bug be solved

Best regards

[Edvin]

Hello,

I can't see to get it working with the nRF52840 DK either. So unfortunately, I don't see any way of sniffing Coded PHY packets at this point in time. 

Best regards,

Edvin

[Joakim Andersson]

zadme You have selected "only legacy advertising packets" and "Scan and follow devices on LE Coded PHY". The intersection of these two options should be no packets. You need to unselect "only legacy advertising packets".

I suggest you uncheck both of the "Only .. " options.

Edvin Yes, the DK firmware does support USB. Just change your USB cable to the nRF USB after flashing the board.

[Edvin]

I was able to reproduce it without the "only ..." options being checked. Both on the Dongle and the DK.

[Joakim Andersson]

Follow up . It appears that the new extcap does not handle LE Coded PHY Packets. So use the old way to install the Python based extcap to get it working: https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/ug_sniffer_ble/UG/sniffer_ble/installing_sniffer_plugin.html

Note that advertising on LE Coded PHY is extremely rare and unless you have put up your own advertiser you probably want see anything.

I got it working on newest sniffer release, 4.1.1, using wireshark 4.2.2

[David300m]

My setup: Sniffer rel 4.1.1 and wireshark 4.3.0 on Linux

For my application this is not a show stopper but a nice to have for development and verification. Hopefully this can be fixed in the future but I understand there are priorities on tools like these. 

For clarification, you noted that advertising on LE Coded PHY is rare. Can you please elaborate? I would think that this would be useful for many applications that need to reach far for a connection.

In my application, it could improve the functionality given the expected dynamic use-cases. For now, we plan to advertise w a 1M PHY and monitor the PER and adjust the PHY to improve the connection.

Much appreciated for your response.

David

[Hieu]

Hi David,

David300m said:

My setup: Sniffer rel 4.1.1 and wireshark 4.3.0 on Linux

For my application this is not a show stopper but a nice to have for development and verification. Hopefully this can be fixed in the future but I understand there are priorities on tools like these. 

Do you have issue sniffing Coded PHY packets? Have you tried installing the sniffer following the link in Joakim's reply?

David300m said:

For clarification, you noted that advertising on LE Coded PHY is rare. Can you please elaborate? I would think that this would be useful for many applications that need to reach far for a connection.

This is likely referring to Joakim's personal observation. On DevZone, I could also observe that most questions on Advertising are about regular legacy advertising.

It is true that it would be useful for many applications that want to have range.

Hieu