I cannot change the Bluetooth device name that is broadcast by the Nordic sample program "Bluetooth: Peripheral HIDS keyboard"

RE: I cannot change the Bluetooth device name that is broadcast by the Nordic sample program "Bluetooth: Peripheral HIDS keyboard"

Jared — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:13 GMT

Hi,

That sounds plausible, I'm not sure as these are third party applications.

I think the only way to be sure what name that is actually advertised is by a sniffer trace, you can use nRF Sniffer for Bluetooth LE for that,

regards

Jared

RE: I cannot change the Bluetooth device name that is broadcast by the Nordic sample program "Bluetooth: Peripheral HIDS keyboard"

TexasLance — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 18:54:24 GMT

Hey, thanks!

The nRF Connect app does indeed show the new / changed BT Device Name.

But my other "BLE Terminal" app (another BLE sniffer app I've had for a few months) shows the old name OR the new name on different scans... mostly the new name but not always. That is really odd to me. Mac and iPhone still show the old name even this morning EXCEPT I now got my iPhone to show the new device name at least once.

This makes me wonder if there is a value transmitted about "Cache for x amount of time". I remember this kind of thing from my days as a web developer LONG ago when web page caching was a new thing. So maybe if I waited a day or two of only transmitting the new name, then the new name would appear on any device, any app.

It still remains strange to me that this issue never came up with the BT Beacon and BT Peripheral HIDS Mouse apps... my iPhone and Mac saw those device names change as soon as I re-built and re-flashed. Hmmm. I notice that those 2 apps have 2 conf files each, where the BT Peripheral HIDS Keyboard app only has 1 conf file. And if there is some other cache-time parameter sent out, maybe that is set to a much shorter time for these other sample apps?

Anyway, I appreciate the nRF Connect app and the nRF Sniffer app sounds good, too. Now I will be on the lookout for any caching of BT broadcast data.

Thanks.

RE: I cannot change the Bluetooth device name that is broadcast by the Nordic sample program "Bluetooth: Peripheral HIDS keyboard"

Hung Bui — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 11:43:39 GMT

Hi Lance,
Could you try to use nRF Connect app on the phone to check what's advertised ?
My suspicion is that the central device (computer or phone) just cached the name of the device and show you not updated name.
I would suggest to get familiar with the nRF Sniffer as well. Using this tool you can have deeper debug information on BLE. Please take a look here: https://academy.nordicsemi.com/courses/bluetooth-low-energy-fundamentals/lessons/lesson-6-bluetooth-le-sniffer/topic/sniffing-bluetooth-le-packets/

I attached here the hex file for nRF53, I modified CONFIG_BT_DEVICE_NAME="My_keyboard" in prj.conf in peripheral_hids_keyboard and it seems to work for me. Please double check that you build and flash the project when you select build, not the level lower as it may not update the hex file when you build.

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../merged_5F00_CPUAPP.hex

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../0842.merged_5F00_CPUNET.hex