Can't capture any packets (Zigbee)

RE: Can't capture any packets (Zigbee)

Edvin — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 07:15:06 GMT

I am glad to hear it is finally working! And I am sorry for the inconvenience caused by the defect dongle!

Best regards,

Edvin

RE: Can't capture any packets (Zigbee)

Sannie — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 13:01:22 GMT

Thanks for all you support in this!

I've got my new dongle and its working as expected. So the problem a broken dongle.

Kind Regards,

Sander

RE: Can't capture any packets (Zigbee)

Edvin — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 08:49:39 GMT

Ok, I see. Then you can test the Zigbee sniffer with the new dongle first. If that doesn't work, but the attached test_file.hex does work, then it is nothing wrong with the radio, but probably something else with the setup.

Let me know about your findings 🙂

Best regards,

Edvin

RE: Can't capture any packets (Zigbee)

Sannie — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 13:08:20 GMT

I'll test this when I receive my new dongle. The distributor wanted to swap th dongle so I send it back and got a new one in a few days. I'll report back when I receive it!

RE: Can't capture any packets (Zigbee)

Edvin — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 12:11:13 GMT

I see. Can you try to program the attached hex file to the dongle:

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../test_5F00_file.hex

It should turn on the green LED when it starts. If you then take your phone, and uses the app nRF Connect for iOS/Android, start scanning, and see if you can find the device advertising as "Nordic_Blinky", and press "connect". When you connect, the green LED should turn off, and the red should turn on.

Let me know if that works or not.

Best regards,

Edvin

RE: Can't capture any packets (Zigbee)

Sannie — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 08:52:45 GMT

Sorry my bad,.

I tried a lot of things to debug my problem before I posted on devzone. I indeed also tried the nrf802154_sniffer_nrf52840dongle.hex (346kB) firmware. That indeed showed up on Wireshark as mentioned in my opening post, but gives no packages.

With nrf802154_sniffer_nrf52840dongle.hex flashed I can connect to the dongle with the Serial Terminal app (from NRF Connect for Desktop) en run the commands channel, receive. But no packages are shown in either Wireshark of the terminal.

Kind regards,

Sander

RE: Can't capture any packets (Zigbee)

Edvin — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 08:42:47 GMT

That is strange. My sniffer .hex file:

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../nrf802154_5F00_sniffer_5F00_nrf52840dongle.hex

is 346kB, while yours is only 155kB. I re-downloaded it just now, to make sure I had the latest version.

Did you, perhaps, download an older version of the sniffer? If so, can you please try the latest version (or the attached file)?

When I flashed your file, it didn't show in Wireshark, but when flashed with the nrf802154_sniffer_nrf52840dongle.hex from github, it shows in WireShark as this:

Best regards,

Edvin

RE: Can't capture any packets (Zigbee)

Sannie — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 07:18:42 GMT

I've downloaded the firmware from:
https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/nRF-Sniffer-for-802.15.4

And flashed this file via de NRF Connect for Desktop application. Push te button to activate the bootloader, red led is flashing and add the file en write to the Dongle

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../nrf802154_5F00_sniffer_5F00_dongle.hex

Thanks again,

Sander

RE: Can't capture any packets (Zigbee)

Edvin — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 06:31:10 GMT

Just for sanity testing, can you send me the hex file you are using for the dongle? And how do you program the hex file onto the dongle?

Best regards,

Edvin

RE: Can't capture any packets (Zigbee)

Sannie — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 13:59:17 GMT

Hi,

The sniffer never had worked for me. Not in Wireshark, not with the Serial program in NRF Desktop.

When using Wireshark, I indeed got a popup to select the channel. I've tried 11 and 15 (both are valid for different Zigbee networks around me).

I've also tried to eliminate a problem in my Wireshark-setup by using the Serial Program of NRF Desktop. I've set the channel with the channel command and checked if it was correctly set by entering the channel command again. After that I've entered the "receive" command. But again no packages appear even I have forced some traffic.

So I think there are 2 options:

- The Dongle I've received has a broken radio chip (because the RSSI Viewer also didn't work)

- The firmware isn't working anymore.

I placed my bets on the first option and request a RMA for the dondle. I'll expect to have a new Dongle by the end of next week. I'll update this topic when I have the new results.

Thanks,

Sander

RE: Can't capture any packets (Zigbee)

Edvin — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 13:50:44 GMT

Hello,

Sorry, I don't understand whether the sniffer was actually working as intended when you were using the wireshark (with sudo)?

When you started this, did you see a popup asking you what channel you wanted to start the sniffer on?

Best regards,

Edvin

RE: Can't capture any packets (Zigbee)

Sannie — Sun, 17 Aug 2025 07:46:22 GMT

Hello again,

As a follow-up to my previous post about not being able to capture any 802.15.4 packets with the nRF52840 Dongle, I also tried using the RSSI Viewer app from nRF Connect for Desktop.

What I did

When I first started RSSI Viewer, it asked me to update the bootloader. This failed with an error.
After that, it continued and flashed the RSSI firmware. However, even then I saw no RSSI data at all in the app.

Here is the log output:

08:59:45.487 Initialising the bundled nrfutil device
08:59:46.153 Using the bundled core version for nrfutil device: 8.1.0
08:59:46.256 Using nrfutil-device version: 2.10.2
08:59:46.256 Using nrf-device-lib version: 0.17.71
08:59:46.256 Using nrf-probe version: 0.38.0
08:59:46.256 Using JLink version: JLink_V8.18
09:00:07.538 Getting serial port options from the persistent store for D41CCCDC14C2.pc-nrfconnect-rssi
09:00:07.539 Device connected with the serial number D41CCCDC14C2
09:00:07.772 Getting serial port options from the persistent store for D41CCCDC14C2.pc-nrfconnect-rssi
09:00:08.996 Selecting device with the serial number D41CCCDC14C2
09:00:09.550 Selected device with the serial number D41CCCDC14C2
09:00:12.179 Update bootloader [object Object]
09:00:12.853 Error: Failed with exit code 1. One or more program tasks failed: * D41CCCDC14C2: (SdfuInvalidObject). Message: Failed,.
09:00:12.854 Failed to write bootloader to the target device: Failed with exit code 1. One or more program tasks failed: * D41CCCDC14C2: (SdfuInvalidObject). Message: Failed,.
09:00:12.854 Error while setting up device with the serial number D41CCCDC14C2
09:00:12.854 "Failed with exit code 1.\nOne or more program tasks failed:\n * D41CCCDC14C2: (SdfuInvalidObject).\nMessage: Failed,."
09:00:12.855 Deselected device
09:00:15.316 Selecting device with the serial number D41CCCDC14C2
09:00:15.873 Selected device with the serial number D41CCCDC14C2
09:00:18.796 Continuing with old bootloader
09:00:21.223 All DFU images have been written to the target device.
09:00:31.470 Device connected with the serial number D41CCCDC14C2
09:00:31.471 Failed to detect device after reboot. Timed out after 10 seconds.
09:00:31.471 Error while setting up device with the serial number D41CCCDC14C2
09:00:31.471 "Failed to detect device after reboot. Timed out after 10 seconds."
09:00:31.471 Deselected device

My interpretation (please correct me if I am wrong)

From looking at the RSSI Viewer firmware source code, it seems to me that:

The firmware waits for specific radio events (EVENTS_READY, EVENTS_RSSIEND, etc.) without any timeout or error handling.
If the radio does not respond correctly, the code might just “hang” waiting forever.
I also noticed that the firmware does not seem to use the dongle’s LED as an indicator for scanning or radio errors – the LEDs are only toggled for USB/CDC events or if the user sends a “led” command over serial.

So my question is: if the radio part of the dongle is not working, is it expected that the firmware still flashes successfully but produces no RSSI output at all (and no LED feedback)?

That seems to match what I am seeing: the dongle enumerates, the firmware appears to be flashed, the LED blinks according to USB state, but the app never receives any actual RSSI values.

Thanks again for any clarification – I’m mainly trying to understand whether my dongle might simply have a broken RF front-end, or if I am misinterpreting how the firmware should behave in such a case.