nrf51 dongle sniffer not working

[Nicolas Brunner]

Hello,

I'm trying to use a nrf51 dongle (PCA10031) as a BLE sniffer. I'm following the ble-sniffer_win_1.2_User Guide.pdf. On the required software, i need to install "nRF tools downloaded from www.nordicsemi.com." but when i search for this i found 7 differents software: infocenter.nordicsemi.com/index.jsp which software do i need to install ?

After having programmed the dongle, i'm trying to connect to it with the ble-sniffer_win_1.0.1_1111_Sniffer.exe but it failed. I found a "JLink CDC UART Port" in my device manager, is this the correct device ? My dongle is heating a lot, is it a normal behavior ?

Thanks, Nicolas

[endnode]

I won't comment on your SW struggles to install SEGGER driver for nRF5x dev board and serial port to EXE but to the (over)heating: I've seen this with sniffer FW and dongle became hard to use after several hours of such torture. Also dongle is harder to place ideally between two targets and Nordic sniffer needs some better placing to catch up all adv. packets and connection requests. Therefore I switched to nRF51 DK for sniffing and it was much better (no sensible heat and with USB cable you can place the kit into optimal position).