BLE 4.2 sniffer

[lbehhhh]

I am hoping to get solid verification that nordic offers a solution for sniffing BLE 4.2 packets.

The application I need to sniff is maxing out the MTU (250B payload) so I need support for long packets.

The blogs and googling haven't provided me with a solid answer.

Thanks

[lbehhhh]

Ok thanks for clarifying that for me.
Again if anyone has suggestions on a sniffer they have used for the purposes of BLE 4.2 and long data packets please let me know.

[RK]

You were very clear. The links you posted said that the softdevice (recent) support packets longer than 23 bytes in BLE applications and that the old sniffer software is reasonably compatible with the nRF52832. Nowhere does it even hint that the longer packet capability in the softdevice extends to the sniffer, and it doesn't so I cannot draw the conclusion you have in 1) from those threads. I suspect the sniffer was an offshoot of the then-current softdevice code and as much as I'd love Nordic to continue developing it because it's an awesome resource, it doesn't feel like it's getting to the top of the priority list. And with the amount of work they've done recently introducing two new chips, modern BLE support and a very revamped SDK I'm not that surprised.

I don't know of a long-packet sniffer, even less so a free one.

[lbehhhh]

Fair enough, my misunderstanding regarding the long packets being supported by the sniffer. Thanks for the answers/help. If I end up finding something I'll be sure to update this thread.

[endnode]

@lbehhhh I believe you have already two choices: some professional device like Teledyn Fronline BLE Low Energy (priced typically 4k USD/EUR/GBP but you can get some promotional deals as low as 1k - at least in some markets) or you can be looking for other "free" or even "open source" things like Texas Instruments sniffer or Ubertooth (HW costs <100 USD).

[Phil Beeson]

It's a real shame Nordic haven't updated their sniffer for nRF52, trying to work with BLE 4.2 data length extensions, or even recent versions of Wireshark just isn't supported. It's just frustrating as they are normally really good at supporting developers, but I feel they've really dropped the ball on this.

However, I've been searching for a solution that doesn't cost the same as a small car and came across the USB-KW41Z from NXP. NXP support tell me that it will sniff BLE4.2 with long packets (community.nxp.com/.../453948) complete with wireshark screen capture. It's a relatively cheap device at around £70.

However, It's only fair to say, that so far I can't even follow BLE 4.1 unencrypted connections with it. Other people seem to be having some success (see NXP screenshot) but I'm not, so I can't wholeheartedly recommend it, but if you feel lucky, it might be worth a try.

Sorry Nordic, I wouldn't normally highlight competitor's offerings, but while you were developing the glowing thingy on my desk in front of me, others were developing tools that people in the devloper zone are actually asking for.