S120 softdevice on nRF51822 : How to alternate between scanning and advertising

RE: S120 softdevice on nRF51822 : How to alternate between scanning and advertising

Alessandro — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 11:24:56 GMT

Hi Ole, I have also to alternate between scanning and advertising but I am still waiting for the boards so I couldn't try anything yet :) I was reading the documentation for the SD S120 v2.1 and it says that the stack is initializable at runtime as either Central or Peripheral therefore I was wondering if it is possible to use the S120 to alternate between scanning and advertising and if there is any drawback in doing that. My idea is to initialize the stack as peripheral, advertise for a certain period, close the stack, initialize it as central, scan for a certain period and then repeat. Is this approach feasible? Thanks!

RE: S120 softdevice on nRF51822 : How to alternate between scanning and advertising

Scott Piette — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 15:26:26 GMT

Hi, I am also in this situation where I need to primarly act as a peripheral, but on a regular basis scan for advertisements from another peripheral. I too was hoping the S120 would allow this operation but unfortunately it appears does not. I don't need all of the functionality of a central, just to be able to scan for advertisements (I am planning on having my information broadcast in the advertisement on the other sensor). Vaio, Arnaud, any guidance on your success would be appreciated. Thanks, Scott

RE: S120 softdevice on nRF51822 : How to alternate between scanning and advertising

Vaio — Thu, 08 May 2014 15:02:48 GMT

Hi Arnaud,

I just stumbled upon your question, as I am facing pretty much the same challenge. I need a device, which primarily is in the peripheral role. However, about every once a minute, the device should also do a scan (to detect the presence of a base station nearby). Therefore, I'd need a combination of (mainly) peripheral role and (sometimes) scanning role.

Did you succeed yet in making a scan without S120? (do you have S110 then, or no SD at all?)

Thanks, Mike

RE: S120 softdevice on nRF51822 : How to alternate between scanning and advertising

Arnaud Waels — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 13:30:36 GMT

Hi Ole

Thanks a lot for your fast reply. I indeed missed out the possibility of implementing a scan without S120. It sounds like a pretty good option. I'm gonna give it a try.

RE: S120 softdevice on nRF51822 : How to alternate between scanning and advertising

Ole Morten — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 13:03:36 GMT

As the question you linked to says, it is not possible to use the S120 as a Peripheral, i.e. to advertise. The functions are included in the header files, but will as you have found out return NRF_ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED.

Depending on your requirements, it could perhaps be an option to implement the scanner (or the advertiser, depending on which role you'll primarily use) in your application instead of using a softdevice. If you want to try this, you may have use in taking a look at this question.

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