Central and a custom peripheral device

RE: Central and a custom peripheral device

endnode — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 10:46:18 GMT

Great. Can you then mark the right answer and close the question?:)

RE: Central and a custom peripheral device

Matija Tudan — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 08:53:03 GMT

@endnode thanks for the info. I found it really easy to scan for a custom peripheral device with the ble_app_hrs_c example. Just disable the whitelist and enable active scanning mode in the scan_start() function:

m_scan_param.active   = 1;
m_scan_param.use_whitelist  = 0;
m_whitelist_disabled = true;

RE: Central and a custom peripheral device

endnode — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 14:36:53 GMT

@mtudan btw.I cannot compile ble_central\ble_app_hrs_c from nRF5 SDK v13.0.0 because code size exceeds limit in Keil for free/evaluation license but I took ble_central\ble_app_uart_c project and by adding following code to line #422 of main.c (right after case BLE_GAP_EVT_ADV_REPORT: { ) I can now observe load of adv. reports captured in the console.

    printf("on_ble_evt(BLE_GAP_EVT_ADV_REPORT):\r\n");
    if (p_gap_evt->params.adv_report.dlen > 0) {
        printf("[0x%02X", p_gap_evt->params.adv_report.data[0]);
    }
    for(uint32_t index = 1; index < p_gap_evt->params.adv_report.dlen; index++) {
        printf(":0x%02X", p_gap_evt->params.adv_report.data[index]);
    }
    if (p_gap_evt->params.adv_report.dlen > 0) {
        printf("]\r\n");
    }

RE: Central and a custom peripheral device

Petter Myhre — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 12:10:53 GMT

Reflashing only the central application wouldn't remove the bonds that have the information used in the whitelist. You need to either erase the complete flash, or hold Button 2 on the nRF5x DK on reset.

RE: Central and a custom peripheral device

Matija Tudan — Sun, 09 Apr 2017 08:45:56 GMT

The FW on a peripheral device doesn't have to be the heart rate example, any other peripheral example will do the same thing. Yes, I've added NRF_LOG_xxx inside of the case BLE_GAP_EVT_ADV_REPORT:, at the beginning of the on_ble_evt() function and inside of the ble_evt_dispatch() function. I see this logs only when the nRF peripheral device is turned on (with any of the peripheral examples), so I assume it has to be something with the SoftDevice? Re-flashing the central FW didn't help.

RE: Central and a custom peripheral device

endnode — Sat, 08 Apr 2017 20:26:26 GMT

This example has pretty complex functionality as it bonds with the peer and establishes security (from what I see). Isn't it so that you've connected these two boards/FWs together once and then scanner/central looks for its peer only? I see there is whitelist used at some point which would explain that it sees only particular peer (running sensor example). If you re-flash the board, do you see different adv. reports? Have you added some NRF_LOG_xxx right after case BLE_GAP_EVT_ADV_REPORT: ? Because if not then you won't see all reports on UART, there are logging functions only for these which matches one of conditions (specific hardcoded Adv. address, Device Name or Service UUID in Adv. data...)

RE: Central and a custom peripheral device

Matija Tudan — Sat, 08 Apr 2017 20:08:07 GMT

Well that's not how the central works in my case. The BLE_GAP_EVT_ADV_REPORT event happens only when I turn on the nRF peripheral device with the ble_app_hrs example (or any other peripheral example). With any other BLE peripheral device, even with the matching advertising name, address or UUID, the ble_evt_dispatch() function never gets called...

RE: Central and a custom peripheral device

endnode — Sat, 08 Apr 2017 12:31:44 GMT

No, it is called by your BLE stack (Nordic Soft Device) when any relevant event happens. There is no way to find out if adv. device is running from Nordic chip or not (you can put some string into data and claim it as proof but I can take any other BLE chip and fake it, in general no way to tell the difference).

To ble_app_hrs_c example: what I see in nRF SDK v13.0.0 is that once it starts scanning it gets BLE_GAP_EVT_ADV_REPORT and there it looks for any device which has either specific Adv. address or Device Name AD object in the data or Service UUID in the data. So as long as your peripheral meets one of these criteria ble_app_hrs_c example should find it and connect to it. And if you enable logging on that event you will see Adv. reports from ANY BLE peripheral in the range (again regardless if it is Nordic example running on Nordic chip or anything else...)

RE: Central and a custom peripheral device

Matija Tudan — Sat, 08 Apr 2017 12:21:05 GMT

How to achieve that? Because the ble_evt_dispatch() function gets called only with the nRF based peripheral.

RE: Central and a custom peripheral device

endnode — Sat, 08 Apr 2017 12:09:37 GMT

Sure it can.