nRF51 based Capture Dongle with nRF528x devices

RE: nRF51 based Capture Dongle with nRF528x devices

ovrebekk — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 10:06:56 GMT

While libpcap is included in the Sniffer release, the firmware is not really based on it, so you can't use it in the same way.

The latest Sniffer release is BT5 compliant and supports 2M high speed mode as well as the new channel selection policy (CSA2). We don't yet support the long range mode or the advertising extension feature, but that might be added later on.

Best regards

RE: nRF51 based Capture Dongle with nRF528x devices

rishavnath satapathy — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 11:32:48 GMT

I didn't mean to use nordic sniffing F/W with TI devices, really sound crazy. What I mean is it looks like the ble-sniffer binary is based on libpcap project. github.com/.../Capturing-BLE-in-Wireshark

ble-sniff creates pipe, same way libpcap creates.

So my idea is let us use TI f/w with TI device, only ble-sniffer binary can we use with TI device ? Or you can suggest me if any sniffer f/w with compatible BT5 is available form nordic.

RE: nRF51 based Capture Dongle with nRF528x devices

ovrebekk — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 11:02:33 GMT

While Nordic and TI is over the air compatible since they both use BLE, the programming interfaces and development environments are completely different, as endnode pointed out ;)

If you want to make a BT5 sniffer based on the TI board you would have to use their software examples as a starting point.

RE: nRF51 based Capture Dongle with nRF528x devices

endnode — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 05:57:25 GMT

No, none of Nordic FWs will work on any other vendor's chip! It even won't work on different chip family from Nordic! How you came to this crazy idea?

RE: nRF51 based Capture Dongle with nRF528x devices

rishavnath satapathy — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 05:54:36 GMT

Hello There, I am trying to build my own Bluetooth 5 sniffer.

Will the ble-sniffer binary and other software from following link will work with TI evaluation board ? Is the following is a free software ? www.nordicsemi.com/.../nRF-Sniffer

RE: nRF51 based Capture Dongle with nRF528x devices

ovrebekk — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 10:43:42 GMT

I think it will be a very cool kit, and hopefully cheaper than the nRF51 dongle since we don't need a separate programming chip :)

RE: nRF51 based Capture Dongle with nRF528x devices

rishavnath satapathy — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 09:33:53 GMT

Thanks Endnode and Torbjorn.

Debugging devices really needed during product developments.

RE: nRF51 based Capture Dongle with nRF528x devices

endnode — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 08:25:07 GMT

Now that sounds interesting!;)

RE: nRF51 based Capture Dongle with nRF528x devices

ovrebekk — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 07:49:46 GMT

Next year we will release a USB dongle based on the nRF52840 device, which would be a good fit for a low cost BT5 sniffer if someone wants to make one ;)

RE: nRF51 based Capture Dongle with nRF528x devices

endnode — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 08:36:01 GMT

That's not true, BT5 devices indeed ARE backward compatible, they just need to default to air speed and PDU lengths of lower standard if they meet such counterpart. However older HW like nRF51 will never capture 2Mbps or long range (500/125kbps) data rates because simply its radio don't listen to them (unless you hack it on completely different level then built-in BLE PHY). If you are asking for cheap sniffer which can capture BT5 high-speed and long-range packets then I have bad news for you: there seems to be no such device yet and there is no sign it would pop up any time soon. So the only alternatives are these professional analyzers in 10-30k USD range (or you can try to do something yourself similar to Ubertooth on TI chips).