Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Mitch996 — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 05:56:08 GMT

@Aleksander Nowakowski

Hello, can you take a look at this question and provide some insight?

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Mitch996 — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 09:41:22 GMT

@Aleksander Nowakowski

Thank you! I'm going to check it out right away, will get back ASAP!

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Aleksander Nowakowski — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 08:48:01 GMT

Then wait for onDescriptorWrite(...) callback to check the status. If this doesn't work, you may have a bug in your code on nRF side, as I wrote before.

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Aleksander Nowakowski — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 08:44:14 GMT

Hi, I just tried nRF Toolbox with nRF52840 + s140 5.0.0.alpha2 + HRM and UART samples and everything works as expected. Here's the code it is using: github.com/.../BleManager.java

Important steps:

// Enable notifications locally
gatt.setCharacteristicNotification(characteristic, true);
// Enable notifications on a remote device
final BluetoothGattDescriptor descriptor = characteristic.getDescriptor(CLIENT_CHARACTERISTIC_CONFIG_DESCRIPTOR_UUID);
final int originalWriteType = characteristic.getWriteType();
characteristic.setWriteType(BluetoothGattCharacteristic.WRITE_TYPE_DEFAULT);
descriptor.setValue(BluetoothGattDescriptor.ENABLE_NOTIFICATION_VALUE);
gatt.writeDescriptor(descriptor);
characteristic.setWriteType(originalWriteType);

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Mitch996 — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 07:40:28 GMT

Hello, @Aleksander, I'm even more confused, are you a casual contributor to this project (the nrfTool box) or someone on the official developer team?

I'm not using the nrf toolbox or DK, the reason I'm here banging my head against the toolbox is that I want to find the proper code to enable notification. You told me that the proper code is:

characteristic.setWriteType(BluetoothGattCharacteristic.WRITE_DEFAULT)

and then write 0x0001 to the descriptor, but I have shown you that it doesn't work, so what is the ACTUAL proper code to get the job done??? And there isn't even a "WRITE_DEFAULT" anywhere?

Please advise?

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Aleksander Nowakowski — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 07:34:09 GMT

The current version of toolbox in Google play still have this issue, I fixed it right now only on GitHub, and on Friday. They will be available in the next version. What profile in Toolbox are you using?

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Mitch996 — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 07:25:55 GMT

@Aleksander Nowakowski:

If I may, did you try any nrfTool box examples on a S140 based example? Can it enable notification?

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Mitch996 — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 07:08:17 GMT

Also, even in the nrfTool box example, it was suing WRITE_TYPE_DEFAULT...

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Mitch996 — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 07:07:20 GMT

Are you sure there is not bug on the nrf side? I think it support team could help with this as i have no experience in nrf programming.

Unfortunately, no not really, I mean I didn't produce the SD after all... but it is the latest version of S140.

Also I really couldn't find "WRITE_DEFAULT" anywhere in :

developer.android.com/.../BluetoothGattCharacteristic.html

Is it because of a higher android API version? I'm using V25 or something, latest I believe.

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Mitch996 — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 07:03:42 GMT

In case you wonder, yes I set the write type back to write without respond later, after using the "default" write.

Edit: according to this:

developer.android.com/.../BluetoothGattCharacteristic.html

int WRITE_TYPE_DEFAULT

Write characteristic, requesting acknoledgement by the remote device

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Aleksander Nowakowski — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 07:02:34 GMT

Write type default is what it should be. If it's not this... Could you post somewhere code you are using? Are you sure there is not bug on the nrf side? I think it support team could help with this as i have no experience in nrf programming.

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Mitch996 — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 06:59:19 GMT

Before your step 2. you have to set characteristic.setWriteType(BluetoothGattCharacteristic.WRITE_DEFAULT), and then write 0x0001 to the cccd.

Hello, I'm sorry that I misunderstood your post, but I've tried the characteristic.setWriteType(BluetoothGattCharacteristic.WRITE_TYPE_DEFAULT); it does not work.

My BLE GATT handler doesn't even respond after using the "WRITE_TYPE_DEFAULT" property, moreover, there is no "WRITE_DEFAULT" property at all. "WRITE_TYPE_DEFAULT" is the closest I could find.

Something is seriously wrong here?

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Aleksander Nowakowski — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 06:56:08 GMT

No, it's about step 2 only. Step one just adds your BluetoothGatt object to notification listeners in the system. Had the notifications were enabled before you connected in your app to this device it's enough to call only step 1. It's an information for the system that you want to receive whatever comes to this characteristic.

Step 2 enables notification on the remote device by sending some data (0x0001). This write to the ccc descriptor should be done with Write Request type, but incorrectly may be written without response. Older SDa were accepting this out-of-spec method, the new one isn't.

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Mitch996 — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 06:50:33 GMT

@Aleksander, thank you, I'll look right into it, so it has something to do with the step 1 eh? I never thought you should work on the function "BluetoothGatt.setCharacteristicNotification" itself. I didn't even know BluetoothGatt.setCharacteristicNotification has its own writing properties.

Will get back later!

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Aleksander Nowakowski — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 06:47:36 GMT

On Android it's called WRITE_DEFAULT. If the characteristic you want to enable notifications for has Write_no_response property, and no Write property, then the default write type for it may have been set to Write_without_response. This is correct, but due to a bug in Android 4.4-5.1 the same type will be used for writing to its descriptors, which is not correct. Before your step 2. you have to set characteristic.setWriteType(BluetoothGattCharacteristic.WRITE_DEFAULT), and then write 0x0001 to the cccd.

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Mitch996 — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 06:21:38 GMT

Hello @Aleksander, how do you mean by:

write something to the char before you enable notifications/indications on it,

? Write something to what char?

This is what I believe you should do to enable CCCD in an android program:

call BluetoothGatt.setCharacteristicNotification on the right characteristic.
Write 0x0001, in android, a byte[] of 0x01, 0x00 to the corresponding descriptor of the characteristic in step 1.
No step 3, it's done!

The problem is #2, I believe you should write 0x0001 using some sort of "request" instead of "write", but sadly I don't know how to do that, there are all sorts of "write" in android API it seems, but nothing about "request".

And can you please help me find the right API/property setter??

It'll be greatly appreciated.

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Aleksander Nowakowski — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 05:01:03 GMT

nRf Toolbox should be working with all our DKs. It's a bit difficult for the above bug to appear. You have to have Android 5.1 or older phone, newest SD, write something to the char before you enable notifications/indications on it, and write without response.

What do you mean be what workaround? All the code is on GitHub. I pointed you to the commit.

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Mitch996 — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 02:08:07 GMT

Hi Mitch, so I dug deep into nRF Toolbox and I found out that I wasn't using a workaround to set the write type of a descriptor when enabling notifications/indications.

@Aleksander Nowakowski Thank you Aleksander, I found the function too and it was not! So... what does this mean, that nrfTool box SHOULDN'T BE WORKING??? Whaaaaaaaa? So does it work or not? This is so positively confusing! Gosh I don't have much hair left to pull out !!! T_T

God the whole thing is such a mess!

Also @Aleksander Nowakowski what workaround do you use? It would be really, really nice of you if you can let me take a peek at your android code... or just point me to the right direction...

Cheers - a downtrodden code monkey

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Aleksander Nowakowski — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 13:35:16 GMT

Hi Mitch, so I dug deep into nRF Toolbox and I found out that I wasn't using a workaround to set the write type of a descriptor when enabling notifications/indications. Please read this issue (just reported it): github.com/.../33

I have also immediately fixed it and you'll find a commit id in the issue. Please say it it fixes your issue.

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

Mitch996 — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 11:43:03 GMT

Hello @Kristin, I actually have been going at that for some days now, is there a super early version of S140 which hasn't fixed the "bug" that I can use to isolate this problem? I just want to confirm this is actually the problem, because my Android code doesn't look quite different from the nrfTool box one?

RE: Does nrf toolbox (android) work on nrf52 related SD, e.g. S140?

FormerMember — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 12:29:25 GMT

First, I would recommend you to read this thread regarding the problem you describe.

The android part: Which phone/android version do you use?

When I test here, nRF Toolbox (Huawei P10/ android 7.0)<--> nRF52840, S140 v.5.0.0-2.alpha, example ble_app_hrs works fine, it is not any problem to enable notifications.

In nRF Toolbox: perhaps the function newWriteRequest()--> getWriteType() can be of any use when enabling notifications? Or, run nRF Toolbox in debug mode, set a breakpoint in newEnableNotificationsRequest()and check which write type the app will use for enabling notifications.