Central adds peripheral to the whitelist, but won't reconnect

[Nick Bentzen]

I am developing an application which uses 2 nrf52 running sdk 12.3 and softdevice 132 V3.

The central device appears to be saving and whitelisting the two peers, but it won't connect to them when I actually enable the whitelist - disable the whitelist and it works fine.

static void scan_start(bool refreshWhitelist)
{
uint32_t flash_busy;

(void) fs_queued_op_count_get(&flash_busy);

if (flash_busy != 0)
{
	m_memory_access_in_progress = true;
	return;
}

ble_gap_addr_t whitelist_addrs[maxWhitelist];
ble_gap_irk_t  whitelist_irks[maxWhitelist];

memset(whitelist_addrs, 0x00, sizeof(whitelist_addrs));
memset(whitelist_addrs, 0x00, sizeof(whitelist_irks));

uint32_t addr_cnt = (sizeof(whitelist_addrs) / sizeof(ble_gap_addr_t));
uint32_t irk_cnt  = (sizeof(whitelist_irks)  / sizeof(ble_gap_irk_t));

#if (NRF_SD_BLE_API_VERSION == 2)

ble_gap_addr_t * p_whitelist_addrs[maxWhitelist];
ble_gap_irk_t  * p_whitelist_irks[maxWhitelist];

for (uint32_t i = 0; i < maxWhitelist; i++)
{
    p_whitelist_addrs[i] = &whitelist_addrs[maxWhitelist];
    p_whitelist_irks[i]  = &whitelist_irks[maxWhitelist];
}

ble_gap_whitelist_t whitelist =
{
    .pp_addrs = p_whitelist_addrs,
    .pp_irks  = p_whitelist_irks,
};

#endif

if(refreshWhitelist) whitelist_load();

ret_code_t ret;

ret = pm_whitelist_get(whitelist_addrs, &addr_cnt,
						whitelist_irks, &irk_cnt);

m_scan_params.active   = 1;
m_scan_params.interval = SCAN_INTERVAL;
m_scan_params.window   = SCAN_WINDOW;

if (((addr_cnt == 0) && (irk_cnt == 0)) ||
    (m_whitelist_disabled))
{
    // Don't use whitelist.
    #if (NRF_SD_BLE_API_VERSION == 2)
        m_scan_params.selective   = 0;
        m_scan_params.p_whitelist = NULL;
    #endif
    #if (NRF_SD_BLE_API_VERSION == 3)
        m_scan_params.use_whitelist  = 0;
        m_scan_params.adv_dir_report = 0;
    #endif
    m_scan_params.timeout  = 0x0000; // No timeout.
}
else
{
    // Use whitelist.
    #if (NRF_SD_BLE_API_VERSION == 2)
        whitelist.addr_count     = addr_cnt;
        whitelist.irk_count      = irk_cnt;
        m_scan_params.selective   = 1;
        m_scan_params.p_whitelist = &whitelist;
    #endif
    #if (NRF_SD_BLE_API_VERSION == 3)
        m_scan_params.use_whitelist  = 1;
        m_scan_params.adv_dir_report = 1;
    #endif
    m_scan_params.timeout  = 0x0000;
}

ret = sd_ble_gap_scan_start(&m_scan_params);
APP_ERROR_CHECK(ret);
}

The whitelist_load() and peer_list_get() functions are the same as the examples they are taken from. In debugger (I am developing this using a Rigado dev board & Eclipse) I see that sd_ble_gap_scan_start() returns NRF_SUCCESS whether or not I start it with the whitelist enabled or disabled.

My peripheral device is running peer manager, but never sets a whitelist. These are my security parameters for both devices.

	sec_param.bond = true;
sec_param.mitm = false;
sec_param.lesc = 0;
sec_param.keypress = 0;
sec_param.io_caps = BLE_GAP_IO_CAPS_DISPLAY_ONLY;
sec_param.oob = false;
sec_param.min_key_size = 7;
sec_param.max_key_size = 16;
sec_param.kdist_own.enc = 1;
sec_param.kdist_own.id = 1;
sec_param.kdist_peer.enc = 1;
sec_param.kdist_peer.id = 1;

I'm kind of stuck here.

[Hung Bui]

Hi Nick,

sd_ble_gap_scan_start() won't do connection. It only scan for advertising packet. If you want to connect you use sd_ble_gap_connect(). I assume here you don't receive advertising packet that should have whitelisted address ?

When you debug, what do you see in the whitelist ? They are IRK or static address ? Would they match with the IRK/address you get when you bond to the device?

You may want to capture a sniffer trace to see what happens.

[Nick Bentzen]

Hi Hung Bui,

I noticed that when the whitelist loads, the IRK and address are blank. So peer manager is saving a peer, but not properly recovering its information after a power cycle?

Also I call sd_ble_gap_connect() just like in the nus_c example.

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../

Could this be related?

[Hung Bui]

What do you have inside whitelist_load() ?

Also we need to see if there is a bonding in your connection. Could you capture a sniffer trace ?

If you don't could you add a break point inside auth_status_success_process() and check if the peer_id is stored (pdb_write_buf_store() called) ? and what inside peer_id ?

[Nick Bentzen]

static void whitelist_load() { ret_code_t ret; pm_peer_id_t peers[BLE_GAP_WHITELIST_ADDR_MAX_COUNT]; uint32_t peer_cnt;

memset(peers, PM_PEER_ID_INVALID, sizeof(peers));
peer_cnt = (sizeof(peers) / sizeof(pm_peer_id_t));

// Load all peers from flash and whitelist them.
peer_list_get(peers, &peer_cnt);
m_whitelist_peers = peer_cnt;
ret = pm_whitelist_set(peers, peer_cnt);
APP_ERROR_CHECK(ret);

 //Setup the device identies list.
 //Some SoftDevices do not support this feature.
ret = pm_device_identities_list_set(peers, peer_cnt);
if (ret != NRF_ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED)
{
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(ret);
}
}

Here are the results of putting a breakpoint on pdb_write_buf_store():

s29.postimg.org/.../debug.png

[Hung Bui]

Could you check what in the peer_id ? It's pretty strange to see everything is 8 if it's not 0