nrf52832-DK sniffer issue

[Khodidas11]

Dear Nordik, 

Made nrf52832-DK as a sniffer, using nrf sniffer for bluetooth le 4.1.1 and wireshark version 4.0.7. Now iwant to sniff NRF54L15 BLE device/Peripheral which is connected to central  using nrf connect app..

Now issues iare as
1. It detects advertisments successfully but sometimes it doesnot gives log entry of CONNECT_IND and remians in ADV_IND,SCAN_REQ and SCAN_RESP,despite device is connected with central

2. If it detects CONNECT_IND thenafter it doesnot log any communication event happening between device and central.

I want to sniff data packet transmitted over GATT profile and in another application packet transmitted using BTL2CAP. For above issue, my device is transmitting "Hello" as a data every secondand it works fine. In sthis simple app thereis no bonding/pairing mechanism used.

Even if any method to make NRF54L15 as a sniffer, please share the process of it.

Regards
Khodidas Domadiya

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi Khodidas,

In order to follow a connection you need to select the advertising device in the dropdown in Wirehark in the device list before the CONNECT_IND is sent. Do you do that? Note that even then the sniffer may loose the packet, and then you need to try again (disconnect and establish a new connection and see if the sniffer picks it up).

If that is not the probelm, we need to look deeper. I have questions about the sofware versions. Are you using 4.1.1 of the sniffer PC side software, or is that just the version of he hex file? The PC side software has moved to nrfutil and is now installed via nrfutil and there has been several important undates there. See documentation. I would also suggest updating Wireshark as that is quite old. The last nrfutil based version is 0.21.0 (see changelog).

If you stil see this issue with the latest versions, can you share a bit more detail about the configuration (type of advertisment, PHY used) as well as a description of how you test and logs?

There is currently no support for using nRF54L15 as a sniffer, but that is a request that we are looking into. I cannot promise or povide a timeline for this, though.

Regards,

Einar

[Khodidas11]

Hi, Einar

I am using sniffer_nrf52dk_nrf52832_4.1.1.hex, which is proigrrammed if nrf52832-DK.
Also tried with wireshark version 4.6.8. Facing same issues.

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

I see. But which version of the sniffer software do you use? Do you use the nrfutil variant (which you should)? If so, can you make sure it is updated? (You can update with "nrfutil self-upgrade" and then "nrfutil upgrad").

Also, can you confirm that you select the device in the device list before connection is established? That is a requierment for the sniffer to follow the connection.

[Khodidas11]

Hi,

nrfutil 8.2.1 (350d1fd 2026-08-11)
commit-hash: 350d1fdcdf82d30c115ebb08bdbb9717937f37ac
commit-date: 2026-08-11
host: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
build-timestamp: 2026-08-11T14:44:07.606388532Z
classification: nrf-external

this is installed in Ubuntu 22.04 Also for windows, downloaded latest and using. Yes we selected device from device list and then after established connection.

[Einar Thorsrud]

I see. Is the BLE sniffer updated as well? ("nrfutil ble-sniffer --version")?

Also, can you confirm that connection happens on 1M PHY? If by any chance connection happens on Coded PHY you have to enable that in Wireshark, and also use a board that support it (nRF52832 does not). 

Other than that I am not able to think of anything specific, so it would be interesting to see more details on your testing.