Updating advertising data (manuf. spec. data) in SDK15

[Spirit]

Hello guys! And girls 

My project is working as expected in SDK14.2.
I'm updating adv data (manuf. spec. data) without any problem with this function

static void advertising_data_update(uint8_t adv_manuf_byte)
{
		ret_code_t err_code;

		ble_advertising_init_t 		init;
		ble_advdata_manuf_data_t 	adv_manuf_data;
		uint8_array_t            	adv_manuf_data_array;
		uint8_t                  	adv_manuf_data_data[1];
		adv_manuf_data_data[0] 		= adv_manuf_byte;

		memset(&init, 0, sizeof(init));

		init.advdata.name_type          		 = BLE_ADVDATA_FULL_NAME;
		init.advdata.include_appearance 		 = false;
		init.advdata.flags              		 = BLE_GAP_ADV_FLAGS_LE_ONLY_GENERAL_DISC_MODE;
		init.advdata.uuids_complete.uuid_cnt = sizeof(m_adv_uuids) / sizeof(m_adv_uuids[0]);
		init.advdata.uuids_complete.p_uuids  = m_adv_uuids;

		adv_manuf_data_array.p_data 							 = adv_manuf_data_data;
		adv_manuf_data_array.size 								 = sizeof(adv_manuf_data_data);
		adv_manuf_data.company_identifier 				 = APP_COMPANY_IDENTIFIER;
		adv_manuf_data.data 											 = adv_manuf_data_array;
		init.advdata.p_manuf_specific_data 				 = &adv_manuf_data;

		init.config.ble_adv_whitelist_enabled      = true;
		init.config.ble_adv_directed_enabled       = true;
		init.config.ble_adv_directed_slow_enabled  = false;
		init.config.ble_adv_directed_slow_interval = 0;
		init.config.ble_adv_directed_slow_timeout  = 0;
		init.config.ble_adv_fast_enabled  				 = true;
		init.config.ble_adv_fast_interval 				 = APP_ADV_INTERVAL;
		init.config.ble_adv_fast_timeout  				 = APP_ADV_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS;
							
		err_code = ble_advdata_set(&init.advdata, NULL);
		APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);	   
}

But in SDK15 the function ble_advdata_set() has been deprecated.
The migration guide is says to use ble_advdata_encode() and sd_ble_gap_adv_set_configure() instead.

So I changed it to something like this

static void advertising_data_update(uint8_t adv_manuf_byte)
{
		ret_code_t err_code;

		ble_advertising_init_t 		init;
		ble_advdata_manuf_data_t 	adv_manuf_data;
		uint8_array_t            	adv_manuf_data_array;
		adv_manuf_data_data[0] 		= adv_manuf_byte;

		memset(&init, 0, sizeof(init));

    init.advdata.name_type          		 = BLE_ADVDATA_FULL_NAME;
    init.advdata.include_appearance 		 = false;
    init.advdata.flags              		 = BLE_GAP_ADV_FLAGS_LE_ONLY_LIMITED_DISC_MODE;
    init.advdata.uuids_complete.uuid_cnt = sizeof(m_adv_uuids) / sizeof(m_adv_uuids[0]);
    init.advdata.uuids_complete.p_uuids  = m_adv_uuids;
			
		adv_manuf_data_array.p_data 							 = adv_manuf_data_data;
		adv_manuf_data_array.size 								 = sizeof(adv_manuf_data_data);
		adv_manuf_data.company_identifier 				 = APP_COMPANY_IDENTIFIER;
		adv_manuf_data.data 											 = adv_manuf_data_array;
		init.advdata.p_manuf_specific_data 				 = &adv_manuf_data;

    init.config.ble_adv_whitelist_enabled      			= true;
		init.config.ble_adv_directed_high_duty_enabled 	= true;
    init.config.ble_adv_directed_enabled       			= false;
    init.config.ble_adv_fast_enabled  				 			= true;
    init.config.ble_adv_fast_interval 				 			= APP_ADV_INTERVAL;
    init.config.ble_adv_fast_timeout  				 			= APP_ADV_FAST_DURATION;

		//err_code = sd_ble_gap_adv_stop(m_advertising.adv_handle);
		//APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
			
		err_code = ble_advdata_encode(&init.advdata, m_adv_data.adv_data.p_data, &m_adv_data.adv_data.len);	
		APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

		err_code = sd_ble_gap_adv_set_configure(&m_advertising.adv_handle, &m_adv_data, NULL);
		APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
		
		//err_code = sd_ble_gap_adv_start(m_advertising.adv_handle, APP_BLE_CONN_CFG_TAG);
		//APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
}

And of course... it's not working. :)
I'm getting a very strange error at sd_ble_gap_adv_set_configure() --> app: ERROR 12801 [Unknown error code]

Any idea why?
What I'm doing wrong?
What I have to change to get this working like in the SDK14.2?

[Nijat]

71 replies, none of them is the solution. Why Nordic changes the original simple API "ble_advdata_set", the new API really sucks !!!

[Koenig Patrick]

I found a solution that seems to work fine. Once you have started the advertising, just use ble_advdata_encode to encode your data and write it to the buffer used when you first called sd_ble_gap_adv_set_configure . Do not call the sd_ble_gap_adv_set_configure function again, only encode the data. Your advertising data will be updated every time you do this. This might not be the recommend way for doing this, but I did not encounter any errors yet.

[devops]

Just tried it out. Basically, take the ble_advertising_init() function and delete/comment out everything after the last else statement of the scan response data encoding, right? If that's the case, seems to work just fine...

[Koenig Patrick]

Yes, thats it.

[devops]

Amazing! Thank you!

EDIT:

After implementing the updating function to run after switch statement in main loop, another "problem" has arose. After connecting and disconnecting to the device, the advertising does not continue and device could not be found - but looping through switch statement and printing on UART continues without problems. I tried to debug the situation and added a breakpoint to the updating function in the main loop, to see that if it even gets called or what is happening. After that, I get a "SOFTDEVICE ASSERTION FAILED". Why is that?

I am using the bsp_app_template to build up my application and if I debug the code, run it, connect to the device and disconnect, I get:

ERROR 8 [NRF_ERROR_INVALID_STATE]

[Alexander]

Could you please post an example code snippet where you show exactly how you have implemented the advdata_update function? Would be much helpful. I'm getting error 0x07 (NRF_ERROR_INVALID_PARAM) and can't really understand why..

[devops]

static void advertising_data_update()
{
    ret_code_t err_code;

    // Stop advertising
    if(m_conn_handle == BLE_CONN_HANDLE_INVALID)
    {
        err_code = sd_ble_gap_adv_stop(m_advertising.adv_handle);
        //NRF_LOG_INFO("sd_ble_gap_adv_stop: %d", err_code);
        APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
    }
		
    // New initialization
    ble_advertising_init_t              init;	
    ble_advdata_manuf_data_t            adv_manuf_data;
    uint8_t adv_manuf_data_elements[] = {mydata};
    uint8_array_t                       adv_manuf_data_array;
	
    memset(&init, 0, sizeof(init));

    init.advdata.name_type          	 = BLE_ADVDATA_FULL_NAME;
    init.advdata.include_appearance 	 = false; //https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/gatt/viewer?attributeXmlFile=org.bluetooth.characteristic.gap.appearance.xml&u=org.bluetooth.characteristic.gap.appearance.xml
    init.advdata.flags              	 = BLE_GAP_ADV_FLAGS_LE_ONLY_GENERAL_DISC_MODE;
    init.advdata.uuids_complete.uuid_cnt = sizeof(m_adv_uuids) / sizeof(m_adv_uuids[0]);
    init.advdata.uuids_complete.p_uuids  = m_adv_uuids;
			
    adv_manuf_data_array.p_data          = adv_manuf_data_elements;
    adv_manuf_data_array.size            = sizeof(adv_manuf_data_elements);
    adv_manuf_data.company_identifier    = 0x0059;
    adv_manuf_data.data                  = adv_manuf_data_array;
    init.advdata.p_manuf_specific_data   = &adv_manuf_data;

    init.config.ble_adv_whitelist_enabled      		= true;
    init.config.ble_adv_directed_high_duty_enabled 	= false;
    init.config.ble_adv_directed_enabled       		= false;
    init.config.ble_adv_fast_enabled  			= true;
    init.config.ble_adv_fast_interval 			= APP_ADV_INTERVAL;
    init.config.ble_adv_fast_timeout  			= APP_ADV_DURATION;

    init.evt_handler   = on_adv_evt;
    //init.error_handler = ble_advertising_error_handler;

    /*err_code = ble_advertising_init(&m_advertising, &init);
    //NRF_LOG_INFO("ble_advertising_init: %d", err_code);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);*/

    err_code = ble_advertising_update(&m_advertising, &init);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

    ble_advertising_conn_cfg_tag_set(&m_advertising, APP_BLE_CONN_CFG_TAG);

    // Restart advertising
    if(m_conn_handle == BLE_CONN_HANDLE_INVALID)
    {
        bool erase_bonds;
        advertising_start(erase_bonds);
    }
}

uint32_t ble_advertising_update(ble_advertising_t            * const p_advertising,
                              ble_advertising_init_t const * const p_init)
{
    uint32_t ret;
    if ((p_init == NULL) || (p_advertising == NULL))
    {
        return NRF_ERROR_NULL;
    }
    if (!config_is_valid(&p_init->config))
    {
        return NRF_ERROR_INVALID_PARAM;
    }

    p_advertising->adv_mode_current               = BLE_ADV_MODE_IDLE;
    p_advertising->adv_modes_config               = p_init->config;
    p_advertising->conn_cfg_tag                   = BLE_CONN_CFG_TAG_DEFAULT;
    p_advertising->evt_handler                    = p_init->evt_handler;
    p_advertising->error_handler                  = p_init->error_handler;
    p_advertising->current_slave_link_conn_handle = BLE_CONN_HANDLE_INVALID;
    p_advertising->p_adv_data                     = &p_advertising->adv_data;

    memset(&p_advertising->peer_address, 0, sizeof(p_advertising->peer_address));

    // Copy advertising data.
    if (!p_advertising->initialized)
    {
        p_advertising->adv_handle = BLE_GAP_ADV_SET_HANDLE_NOT_SET;
    }
    p_advertising->adv_data.adv_data.p_data = p_advertising->enc_advdata;
    p_advertising->adv_data.adv_data.len    = BLE_GAP_ADV_SET_DATA_SIZE_MAX;

    ret = ble_advdata_encode(&p_init->advdata, p_advertising->enc_advdata, &p_advertising->adv_data.adv_data.len);
    VERIFY_SUCCESS(ret);

    if (&p_init->srdata != NULL)
    {
        p_advertising->adv_data.scan_rsp_data.p_data = p_advertising->enc_scan_rsp_data;
        p_advertising->adv_data.scan_rsp_data.len    = BLE_GAP_ADV_SET_DATA_SIZE_MAX;

        ret = ble_advdata_encode(&p_init->srdata,
                                  p_advertising->adv_data.scan_rsp_data.p_data,
                                 &p_advertising->adv_data.scan_rsp_data.len);
        VERIFY_SUCCESS(ret);
    }
    else
    {
        p_advertising->adv_data.scan_rsp_data.p_data = NULL;
        p_advertising->adv_data.scan_rsp_data.len    = 0;
    }
    
    /*
    // Configure a initial advertising configuration. The advertising data and and advertising
    // parameters will be changed later when we call @ref ble_advertising_start, but must be set
    // to legal values here to define an advertising handle.
    p_advertising->adv_params.primary_phy     = BLE_GAP_PHY_1MBPS;
    p_advertising->adv_params.duration        = p_advertising->adv_modes_config.ble_adv_fast_timeout;
    p_advertising->adv_params.properties.type = BLE_GAP_ADV_TYPE_CONNECTABLE_SCANNABLE_UNDIRECTED;
    p_advertising->adv_params.p_peer_addr     = NULL;
    p_advertising->adv_params.filter_policy   = BLE_GAP_ADV_FP_ANY;
    p_advertising->adv_params.interval        = p_advertising->adv_modes_config.ble_adv_fast_interval;

    ret = sd_ble_gap_adv_set_configure(&p_advertising->adv_handle, NULL, &p_advertising->adv_params);
    VERIFY_SUCCESS(ret);

    p_advertising->initialized = true;
    return ret;
    */
}

Something like this, have not really changed anything substantial. This works only when not connecting to the device. I have encountered some new problems which I have written in my previous post, under EDIT.

[Alexander]

Ok, I thought the solution would not involve stopping and restarting advertising. Anyway, I will try your solution in my application and see if i run into the same problems.

[devops]

Please let us know in here, still looking for a solution.