From where I can get Nordic Android BLE mesh library to create smartphone app in Android for BLE 5.0?

[Nishant]

From where I can get Nordic Android BLE mesh library to create smartphone app in Android for BLE 5.0?

[leonwj]

Hi Nishant,

At the present moment, you can't get it from anywhere as it is still on Nordic's roadmap I believe. Firstly they'll need to deliver the PB-GATT bearer and Proxy feature support (fairly close is my understanding) and then a mesh library API on top of Android/ios to be able to proxy (via that API) into the mesh network.

There are other vendors (Silabs/STM) who have delivered beta type apps (on Android) that let you do simple things like provision and configure nrf5x based mesh devices but none (AFAIK) have dropped an API to allow custom apps as yet.

My advice would be for you to reach out to your Nordic rep(s) to gauge timeframes (if available) and then based on that feedback look at the Silabs/STM options as a last resort since any Nordic mesh library on Android/ios would be better aligned with the nrf5x ecosystem.

Regards,

[Randall Toepfer]

I see STMicroelectronics has an BLE Mesh SDK with Android source code for free download: http://www.st.com/en/embedded-software/stsw-bnrg-mesh.html#getsoftware-scroll

However, with that Android app I can't see the light switch client/server examples from the mesh SDK running on the nrf52 dev boards.  I'd expact any BLE Mesh Android app to work - do you have any other knowledge on 3rd party SDKs?

[leonwj]

Hello Randall,

AFAIK, all the Android/smartphone Bluetooth Mesh implementations/apps would be based upon the PB-GATT bearer and therefore they will not be able to provision the light switch client/server examples from the Nordic mesh SDK. This is because the light switch client/server examples are based upon the PB-ADV bearer and hence the mesh adverts sent out will not be 'picked up' by the smartphone app.

Once Nordic deliver the next version of their SDK (slated for end-of-April 2018, I believe) then you will be able to successfully provision nodes running on the nrf5x chips using any compliant smartphone app (that's the theory in any case, although my experience is that each vendor app is currently best tailored to support their own chipset. Going forward, this will change as the apps mature and they include support for all the core mesh features.) Additionally, it's my understanding that the nrfConnect for Mobile app will also support node provisioning at some point.

Regards,

[alasknnj]

Today, I tried to use Silicon Labs' Mesh App and STM's BlueNRG Mesh App with the proxy client example from Mesh SDK 2.0.1. I was unable to see the device in any of them, unfortunately.

As you suggested, I fear we won't be able to do so until Nordic releases their own library. From what I gathered, they have a [pre-alpha iOS library](https://github.com/NordicPlayground/IOS-nRF-Mesh-Library)

[leonwj]

Hi,

We did some limited work on this about a month ago or so when the Nordic Mesh SDK v2.x was delivered. From re-collection we managed to see the nRF5 Mesh light switch nodes within the Silabs app but there appeared to be an issue with the composition data that was being sent from the Nordic end (haven't had time to write it up as a question in devzone as yet)...

In any case, I believe we had to do the following:

1- Amended the light switch code to use the Network Key that Silabs issued when it created its network (by default the Nordic provisioner generates random keys)

2- Amended the light switch code to use numeric pin based OOB authentication (it uses static OOB auth by default)

Again, we got a few devices provisioned over PB-GATT but the configuration process failed. I've included some screenshots which we took at the time which shows some of our progress.

(a) unprov'd nrf5x Mesh Light Switch device (as seen in nRF Connect app) note the 0x1827 Mesh beacon type as well as the UUID

(b) nrf5x Mesh Light Switch node after being provisioned into the Silabs app (note the 0x0059 Nordic vendor ID as well as the UUID

(c) nrf5x Mesh Light Switch node after being provisioned but ability to set Proxy/Relay not functional

(d) a 3rd nrf5x Mesh Light Switch node provisioned into network

If I get some time, i'll try to take things further on this end and let you know whether we manage to toggle lights etc. from Silabs (note: we've achieved toggling with nrf52's using Zephyr firmware but that uses the generic on/off SIG model and not the custom model used in the Nordic light switch demo)

Regards,