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Possible to update firmware via Mesh SDK in the future?

MANGO

Hi, I'm testing the light control example from Mesh SDK 0.10.1.

Although I have received an answer about the future plans of mobile Mesh SDK from developer Hung Bui that

Out GATT bearer is under development. Unfortunately it's not available in the current SDK. But we are working on it.

I have extra questions to ask.

My client and I are planning to prepare a BLE mesh lighting product before April 2018.

In the Infocenter, I am aware that

nRF5 SDK for Mesh v0.10.0-alpha This is an experimental release for exploring the Bluetooth low energy mesh stack on the nRF5 device family. This release is not intended for commercial use.

Since the production level of Nordic's Mesh SDK, both mobile and firmware, may or may not be released in next year's first quarter, our concern is whether to take a risk to use the alpha stage SDK.

This is my scenario;

I flash the nRF52 chips with a firmware based on the mesh SDK 0.10.1 ->

User uses the future mesh mobile app to update the mesh firmware

I know this is a bad idea for user experiences, but my client wants to prepare this product for investors really quickly.

Telling me about the production release date of both nRF BLE Mesh SDK and mobile SDK can help me tremendously.

However, the availability of a feature that updating the firmware via mobile app with mesh is my main question.

Will it be possible to update the mesh firmware with the mobile app in the future?

If so, should I add a bootloader while testing the light control example?

-Best Regards, MANGO

  • 0

    Hi Mango,

    DFU bootloader for Mesh network is already provided. Have a look here.

    Currently, the way it work is: you have a gateway node that connects to PC via UART. And you use a tool on PC (nrfutil) to do DFU via the gateway to the whole mesh network. It take a very long time to update firmware but it can update thousand devices at the same time.

    It's possible to modify the gateway firmware to support receiving the DFU command and image from a phone instead of UART. But it's not implemented yet, but you should be able to make one.

    Bluetooth Mesh GATT bearer might not relate here. It could play a role for the gateway to receive image from the phone, but this can be done via normal BLE GATT as well. Note that the communication protocol when doing DFU is not Bluetooth Mesh, but a proprietary protocol that Nordic defined (the OpenMesh).

  • 0 in reply to Hung Bui

    Thanks again, Hug Bui! I was so blind that I only read about the light control example. I wish for your understanding for my clumsiness. Speaking of clumsiness, may I ask some questions to double check?

    -I'm a beginner to BLE Mesh. I haven't read anything about gateways from the Infocenter and the Bluetooth Blog. What do you mean by gateways; referring server/client/both nodes?

    -About the gateway node, can the mobile app, if the mobile Mesh SDK is prepared in the future, act as a gateway node, too?

    -I may have misunderstood your meaning. the communication protocol when doing DFU is not Bluetooth Mesh, but a proprietary protocol

    You mean if I use the nrfutil tool to do the DFU to update multiple devices, it uses the Nordic's proprietary protocol, not BLE Mesh?

    -Best Regards

  • 0 in reply to Hung Bui

    No, gateway is a gateway. It's defined in the Bluetooth Mesh spec, search for gateway.

    Basically it's allow communication between mesh and outside network, via UART for example.

    • I can't say about future products, but as I mentioned, you can make your proprietary app to talk to mesh. We already have some example/demo, for example here.

    • Yes, the DFU protocol is proprietary (DFU is not described in the spec). Have a look at openmesh here.

  • 0 in reply to Hung Bui

    It's defined in the Bluetooth Mesh spec, search for gateway. I apologize for this.

    I have found it in the Mesh Networking Specifications (Mesh Profile) page.

    A mesh gateway is a node that is able to translate messages between the mesh network and a non-Bluetooth technology.
A node may be able to send and receive mesh messages through a mesh gateway while not in the range of any of the Relay nodes.
This translation is out of scope for this specification.

    This is the gateway which you have mentioned, right?

    Lastly, is there any gateway related example or can I configure a PCA10040 as a gateway while testing the light control example?

    All I see is client/server from the light switch or pb_remote example.

    Thanks for your effort and have a nice weekend!

    -Best Regards

  • 0 in reply to Hung Bui

    No, both Gateway and Proxy (a node that can do BLE and works as a bridge) node are not implemented in the SDK. In the mean time, you can create one (with ble_app_uart as in the video for example)

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