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

[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.

[David300m]

Hi there, did you get this issue resolved? 

Thanks,

David

[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

[David300m]

Hi Hieu,

I tried the path that Joakim suggested and I still get the same issue. I noticed that wireshark produces some exceptions with reference to Rust. At this point I will work without wireshark.

Thank you for your response.

David

[Hieu]

Hi David,

OK. Those Rust exceptions sound like a different issue, so should you need the tool in the future, please feel free to open a new DevZone thread about it.

Hieu

[David300m]

I agree Hieu,

The symptoms experienced were exactly the same as what Zadme reported, with "exception" to the Rust exception. When time permits, I will check the Wireshark domain for support.

Thanks again. David