Multiactivity_beacon advertiser for nRF52 (Service and iBeacon together)

RE: Multiactivity_beacon advertiser for nRF52 (Service and iBeacon together)

Hung Bui — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 13:54:06 GMT

Hi fab,

Please be aware that by spec, iBeacon should be advertise with the non-connectable flag set. So you won't be able to connect to the beacon when it's advertise with the iBeacon data. So you still need to advertise with normal mode (non beacon)

What you can do is to use a timer and switch between the two advertising data and flags. You only need to call sd_ble_gap_adv_data_set() with the appropriate parameter to change the advertising data and flags. If you use ble_advertising.c module, you can call ble_advertising_init() instead.

RE: Multiactivity_beacon advertiser for nRF52 (Service and iBeacon together)

fab — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 11:01:04 GMT

Hi Hung, thank you for your support. I eventually made it working. Using Master Control Panel on Android I realized that the minor value was wrong: 256 instead of 1. This because the major/minor have to be expressed in little endian format. What fooled my is that in the ibeacon example major/minor are in big endian format instead.

Unfortunately, I have not reached my actual goal yet. I need to make the ibeacon advertise all the time and not when a device is connected. I think I need timeslot api. Is there any specific example to start with?

RE: Multiactivity_beacon advertiser for nRF52 (Service and iBeacon together)

Hung Bui — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 07:46:33 GMT

@fab: Please use one of these to capture the advertising packet and send me the screenshot:

Master Control Panel application on PC
NRF Master Control Panel app on Android
nRF Sniffer.

The screenshot that you took didn't show much information about the advertising packet.

RE: Multiactivity_beacon advertiser for nRF52 (Service and iBeacon together)

fab — Fri, 05 Aug 2016 07:43:32 GMT

Hi Hung. Thank you for your time. I pretty sure that something is wrong here, but I cannot figure out what.

with -O3 and I am able to get a smaller executable but nothing changes. RTT is not problem.
I follow this procedure a) I connect to DK-52 using n/f Toolbox - HRM b) I use a my own iOS app to detect the iBeacon. It has been working for months. I am sure that the problem is not there. By the way, it works using the ble_app_beacon c) I use nRFConnect and it shows that on connection something changes. (I sent you my screenshots). Values looks like different from which you get. I stuck here. Could you please help me with a simple example with an iBeacon and a service with a characteristic that I can read and write? I am just starting with nRF52 and I am not able write it on my own. Do I need to switch to DK-51? Tks.

RE: Multiactivity_beacon advertiser for nRF52 (Service and iBeacon together)

Hung Bui — Thu, 04 Aug 2016 08:47:54 GMT

Hi fab,

The code size exceed 32kB for the free version. You may need to pay to get the licensed one to be able to compile bigger code size than 32kB. Or you can enable optimization so that the size can be reduced.

How did you test iBeacon ? Note that with the experimental_ble_app_multiactivity_beacon, you would need to connect to the Nordic_HRM_adv first before the device advertise as an iBeacon. This example shows how you can be both in a connection and advertise as a beacon at the same time.

Our nRF Beacon app doesn't show iBeacon, only Nordic's Beacon. You may need to use other app to chck for iBeacon, for example "Locate Beacon" app, I can see your beacon after adding the UUID and major, minor iD.

RE: Multiactivity_beacon advertiser for nRF52 (Service and iBeacon together)

fab — Wed, 03 Aug 2016 16:49:07 GMT

Unfortunately, I am not still able to make it working.

when I added the NRF_LOG_INIT the executable is too big:

error: L6047U: The size of this image (33368 bytes) exceeds the maximum allowed for this version of the linker

Assuming that the problem were related to the RTT, I removed the following files:

RTT_Syscalls_KEIL.c
SEGGER_RTT.c
SEGGER_RTT_printf.c

but nothing changes: my iOS app doesn't recognize the iBeacon and nRF Connect shows exactly the same information as before. I am not able to make a test with MCP for 2 or 3 days, because I am using Windows in virtualbox and MCP doesn't connect.

What I actually need is an app which acts as an iBeacon and provides a services (with at least one characteristic) at the same time. Can you point me to any other working example which I can test on the DK-52?

Tks

RE: Multiactivity_beacon advertiser for nRF52 (Service and iBeacon together)

Hung Bui — Tue, 02 Aug 2016 13:10:16 GMT

@Fab: I see no problem with the project you sent. After I connected, the device advertise as a beacon as show below:

The only modification I need to add is to add to main.c :

err_code = NRF_LOG_INIT();
APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

As it's not included by default, it's a bug.

RE: Multiactivity_beacon advertiser for nRF52 (Service and iBeacon together)

fab — Tue, 02 Aug 2016 08:06:55 GMT

I attached my project. I am using: nRF5_SDK_11.0.0_89a8197. Tks for your support. my_experimental_ble_app_multiactivity_beacon.zip

RE: Multiactivity_beacon advertiser for nRF52 (Service and iBeacon together)

Hung Bui — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 10:26:03 GMT

@Fab: It looks pretty strange, could you send me your project source so I can compile and test here ? Also let me know the SDK version.

RE: Multiactivity_beacon advertiser for nRF52 (Service and iBeacon together)

fab — Fri, 29 Jul 2016 16:13:30 GMT

@Hung Bui. Thank you for your support. Setting the optimization to 0 did the job. The err_code has value 0 after connection. I attached the nRF Connect after the connection. iBeacon is still not reveled by the iOS application which should be triggered by it.

FYI this is my ibecon configuration:

define APP_COMPANY_IDENTIFIER 0x004C define BEACON_UUID 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00,0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x09 define BEACON_ADV_INTERVAL 200
define BEACON_MAJOR 0x0000
define BEACON_MINOR 0x0001
define BEACON_RSSI 0xC3

IMG_2102.PNG Tks

RE: Multiactivity_beacon advertiser for nRF52 (Service and iBeacon together)

Hung Bui — Fri, 29 Jul 2016 13:04:40 GMT

@fab: You may need to set the optimization level to level 0 as shown in this guide.

The screenshot only show the scanning panel when the device is not connected. In the example the advertising as beacon only start after connected. My suggestion is to use the NRFToolbox to connect, then you can use nRF Connect to scan for the beacon (when connection is on going)

RE: Multiactivity_beacon advertiser for nRF52 (Service and iBeacon together)

fab — Fri, 29 Jul 2016 12:37:41 GMT

@Hung Bui

Apparently, something weird is happening. When I set a breakpoint at the line you suggested, the err_code is not set (value is ).

If I go head, step by step, apparently no error is reported.

I attached a couple of screenshot from nRF Connect.

Tsk IMG_2099.PNG IMG_2100.PNG

RE: Multiactivity_beacon advertiser for nRF52 (Service and iBeacon together)

Hung Bui — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 10:23:27 GMT

@fab: Have you tried to use the Master Control Panel /nRF Connect app to scan for the beacon ? The app is available on both iOS and Windows PC. If the device advertise as a beacon, could you take a screenshot of the advertising data ?

If you add a break point at the command err_code = sd_ble_gap_adv_start(&m_beacon.adv_params); in app_beacon_start(), what error code you get ?