Bluetooth settings and PAwR (Periodic Advertising with Responses)

RE: Bluetooth settings and PAwR (Periodic Advertising with Responses)

Ben — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 13:14:34 GMT

Fixed it by adding

uint8_t own_addr_type = BT_ADDR_LE_RANDOM;
bt_id_set_scan_own_addr(true, &own_addr_type);

and enabling CONFIG_BT_SCAN_WITH_IDENTITY

RE: Bluetooth settings and PAwR (Periodic Advertising with Responses)

Edvin — Sat, 05 Jul 2025 22:33:04 GMT

Hello Ben,

I am terribly sorry for the late reply. We have been a bit short staffed last month.

I still can't reproduce the issue that you are explaining out of the box. Can you please try to download a fresh, unmodified version of NCS v2.9.0, and see if the issue persists? Perhaps you did some modifications that you don't recall.

If you still see it, can you, in your next reply please upload one peripheral application in a zipped folder, and the corresponding application in a zipped folder. This way, we know that nothing changed in the github repository in the meantime, and that we have the exact same application that you are testing, and that they don't require any modification.

Please also, in the next reply, describe what issue to look for. I will be out of office for a couple of weeks, so someone else may handle your ticket. This way, it is easier for them to know what to look for, rather than interpreting our discussion.

Best regards,

Edvin

RE: Bluetooth settings and PAwR (Periodic Advertising with Responses)

Ben — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 16:45:08 GMT

You can leave the central config unchanged (so also with CONFIG_BT_SETTINGS=y). The problem is only with the peripheral. When executing the esl_c acl scan 1 1 command the central scans for peripherals and syncs with them automatically, though this can take a couple of seconds. This works in the current implementation. When executing esl_c acl connect_esl 0 the central tries to connect to the peripheral with PAwR address 0. This fails if the peripheral has CONFIG_BT_SETTINGS enabled and succeeds otherwise.

So first check that the peripheral and the central have established a PaWR sync, then try to restablish a connection, then the error should happen.
You can check the peripheral serial output. It should print SYNCHRONIZED when the sync was successful.

The tag storage errors are unrelated to this problem. It should work either way.

Thank you for your effort and please let me know if I can help you further with reproducing the error.

Best regards,

Ben

RE: Bluetooth settings and PAwR (Periodic Advertising with Responses)

Edvin — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 09:09:03 GMT

Ok, so I tried using the peripheral from your previous reply (NCS v2.9.0), and the nrf-esl-bluetooth\samples\central_esl (both with CONFIG_BT_SETTINGS=y included and commented out with NCS v2.5.0), but nothing happens in either case. Do I need to adjust anything? Note that I moved the shell from cdc_uart to uart0. Does that change anything? Is it dependent on connecting the USB or something?

When I tried to run your commands I got:

In the log, it said:

But do I need to specify any addresses or something?

Note that this is with CONFIG_BT_SETTINGS commented out.

Best regards,

Edvin

RE: Bluetooth settings and PAwR (Periodic Advertising with Responses)

Ben — Wed, 21 May 2025 16:01:44 GMT

For the central device, I am using the unmodified sample from github.com/.../nrf-esl-bluetooth. The peripheral is custom-built, although it's similar to the peripheral from the sample. You can find the peripheral code in the ZIP file uploaded in the previous message.

To reproduce the error, flash the central firmware to a nRF5340DK and the peripheral firmware to a nRF52840DK. Connect to the shell on the central and synchronize with the peripheral (as described in the sample documentation). Then, switch from the synchronized PAwR connection back to a regular BLE connection.
This only works if I disable CONFIG_BT_SETTINGS.

Here are the commands I use in the central shell:

esl_c acl scan 1 1 // Establishes sync with the peripheral
esl_c acl connect_esl 0 // Attempts to connect to the peripheral with address 0000 (fails if CONFIG_BT_SETTINGS is enabled)

Here is the ZIP file containing the sample. I'm only using the central part from it.devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../nrf_2D00_esl_2D00_bluetooth.zip

I hope this helps clarify the issue.

Best regards,
Ben

RE: Bluetooth settings and PAwR (Periodic Advertising with Responses)

Edvin — Tue, 20 May 2025 12:06:45 GMT

Can you please also upload the central sample you are using? Did you do any changes to the nrf-esl-bluetooth sample? Or did you just add CONFIG_BT_SETTINGS=y, built it for the nRF5340 DK and flashed it?

BR,
Edvin

RE: Bluetooth settings and PAwR (Periodic Advertising with Responses)

Ben — Thu, 15 May 2025 12:27:04 GMT

Thank you for your Response!

The peripheral is running on a nrf52840-DK with nRF Connect version 2.9.0 and and the central is running on a nrf5340-DK with nRF Connect version 2.5.0. This is because for the central I am using the https://github.com/NordicPlayground/nrf-esl-bluetooth sample. The problem persists, even if I drop the peripheral SDK version to 2.5.0. The problem arises only if I enable CONFIG_BT_SETTINGS, otherwise the devices work fine.

Here is the zip of my peripheral (electronic shelf label).devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../6320.peripheral.zip

Thank you for your help!

Best regards,

Ben

RE: Bluetooth settings and PAwR (Periodic Advertising with Responses)

Edvin — Thu, 15 May 2025 09:15:02 GMT

Hello,

Is i t possible to upload the application you are testing? Just zip the application folder and drag and drop it here.

[quote user=""]Does the CONFIG_BT_SETTINGS option influence the connection process from the PAwR sync train?
[/quote]

Not that I was aware of, but when I am able to reproduce what you are seeing, I can have a closer look.

What device are you trying to connect to? Another nRF device running another sample? If so, what sample are you using for testing?

Best regards,

Edvin