BLE 4.2 Support in the BLE Mesh SDK

[Hardik V Patel]

 Hi,

We want that any bulb or any devices (Server device) of BLE 4.2 should be able to work with BLE Mesh SDK(Client). We are using the nrf52832 with SDK  BLE_2.0.1 for the mesh. My questions are as per below,

1)Is it possible to operate any BLE 4.2  device with this SDK?

2)Any Extra things required to work with BLE 4.2 like Proxy client or server?

3)If it is possible then Please provide us example code or document then to implement BLE 4.2 with SDK  BLE_2.0.1.

4) Is it possible to enable both the things BLE 5.0 mesh and BLE 4.2 in this same SDK? 

[Bjørn Kvaale]

1) You need to use a proxy node to communicate between Mesh & regular BLE.

2) Do you mean communicate between the mesh sdk & regular sdk for example?

3) Take a look at the nrf mesh app for iOS. You will be able to provision a mesh network using your smartphone. Also take a look at the mesh sdk examples, like the light switch demo. We also have a proxy client & proxy server example inside the light switch demo.

4) Bluetooth Mesh is not based on Bluetooth 5. My guess is you want something like this?

[Hardik V Patel]

Thanks, Bjørn Kvaale for the quick reply,

2) You understand correctly that I want to communicate mesh SDK & regular SDK. For example, mesh SDK of the server is NRF SDK and regular SDK does not belong to NRF SDK then is it possible to communicate with each other? For example, one side I have Nordic SDK and another side I have regular BLE 4.2 another company SDK like TI, Silicon Lab or any Other then it will work or not with Nordic SDK?

4)Yes, I want to work simultaneously on BLE 5.0 mesh and BLE 4.2 then it is possible? If yes then how we can do that? We have to integrate proxy and mesh example code?

Apart from it, I have another question regarding DFU bootloader, I want to do changes for firmware upgrade and it is as per below,

I need DFU UART for our application but unfortunately, it is not available in current BLE mesh SDK so we have decided to implement our own UART DFU support so my query is as per below,

5)Is it possible to implement DFU UART in this SDK? I want to upgrade hex file over the UART from the host controller for NRF52.

6)Is there any document for DFU? It would be great if you can give us any documents for DFU UART also and bootloader related things where we should be able to start development of DFU UART.

[Bjørn Kvaale]

2) It might work to use Nordic SDK on one side & then use another sdk from another company, but I cannot fully guarantee this will work. I would recommend using Nordic SDK on both sides.

3) Bluetooth mesh does not use Bluetooth 5.0. Take a look at the proxy example if you want to combine Bluetooth Mesh & BLE.

5) not sure how easy it is to implement your own dfu. This link might be helpful.

6) Take a look at the Nordic Infocenter for more info related to dfu (e.g. this link or this link).

[Hardik V Patel]

Thanks, Bjørn for your quick reply and support.Appreciated it 

[Bjørn Kvaale]

No worries. Let me know if you need any more help.

[Hardik V Patel]

Hi Bjørn Kvaale,

5) As you mentioned you are not much sure how much easy to implement own UART DFU so Can you please give us contact detail who is expert in it. As we want to implement our own DFU, so we need the proper guidance with documentation. 

1) Can you please suggest any vendor who is working on Nordic BLE 4.2 or BLE 5.0 for manufacturing end devices like Bulb or light, door and motion sensor. We required this three device to work with our product which is based on the nrf52832 with SDK  BLE_2.0.1 for the mesh.

[Bjørn Kvaale]

5) I would recommend taking a look at & testing this dfu quick start guide. It will do a DFU of all of your devices over a serial UART connection to your computer.

1) Do you want these end devices to be connected in the mesh network or via a proxy node to a BLE connection?

[Hardik V Patel]

Actually,

5) We Don't want to use Nordic traditional desktop tools like NRFutil or other. We want to do the firmware upgrade over the UART using the 32-bit microcontroller and it is RTOS don't have any OS, So please guide us how we can do this?

So Basically, We need two things to develop one is for the host(Ex:-32-bit microcontroller like STM32, LPC1788) and one is for the target(nrf52832 DFU UART). we need to develop code in the nrf52832 DFU UART and in the HOST controller(32-bit microcontroller) Serial firmware Update code over the UART.

1)We required both as we are going to support both the things but currently we don't have any devices so if you have any contact then for any of them then it would be great

[Bjørn Kvaale]

We support Mesh DFU over nrfutil. I unfortunately cannot help you all too much if you do not want to use nrfutil or one of the other dfu tools we have available.