ble peripheral examples are not working on PCA10056

[sj_golf]

Greetings.

I have PCA10056 0.9.3 and have downloaded nRF5_SDK_15.0.0_a53641a. I am trying to run pre-compiled ble_peripheral examples. I have tried ble_app_blinky and ble_app_uart but not successful so far. Here is the procedure I am doing and problem I am seeing.

- Connect nRF52840-PDK to USB port --> I see JLink drive in windows.

- From command prompt, navigate to armgcc folder of the application and run make flash_softdevice --> nrfjprog flashes the soft device s140_nrf52_6.0.0_softdevice.hex successfully.

- Copy precompiled hex file from application's hex folder to the JLink drive --> The board restarts and I see signs that the example is running (LED1 on in case of ble_app_blinky and LED1 blinking in case of ble_app_uart)

- For ble_app_blinky, when I open nRF Blinky app on android phone, I see the device Nordic_Blinky in the list and when I try to connect to it, I can see that LED1 turns off and LED2 turns on but the app says that Device does not have required service and disconnects (LED2 off, LED1 on).

- For ble_app_uart, I see similar problem. I can see the Nordic_UART device when I press connect in nRF UART 2.0 app but when I try to connect, it says Device does not support UART, disconnecting.

I am not sure what I am missing. I am trying to get started but kind of stuck. I was able to run normal blinky app without problem. I have also setup compilation and debugging environment with gcc and eclipse. All that seems to work with blinky but have not been able to get ble appls to work.

Please help !!!

Thanks.

[MartinBL]

Hi,

It seems to work just fine on my setup. I tried a

• PCA10056 v0.12.0 development kit
• Programming the S140 v6.0.0 standalone hex file and  "\ble_app_uart\pca10056\s140\armgcc\_build\nrf52840_xxaa.hex" separately
• Programming "\ble_app_uart\hex\ble_app_uart_pca10056_s140.hex" only (without also programming the S140 standalone hex file).
• UART 2.0 app for Android running on a Samsung Galaxy S8. 
• Installing first the blinky app and then the UART app.

I could possibly be some sort of caching issue and that the phone has previously bonded with your device and stored the attribute database. I.e. the phone believes that your device is still a blinky app, and doesn't bother to check whether things have changed. You can try to go to the BLE settings in on your phone and see if your devices shows up in the "Paired Devices" list. If it does you can try to un-pair it and try again. 

[sj_golf]

Thanks Martin,

I was finally able to get it working. Originally both ble_app_blinky and ble_app_uart were not working. I did couple of things:

- Changed nRF Power Source to USB and connected to USB port --> No LED.

- Changed SW6 to nRF Only and connected to MCU USB port --> no LED.

- Changed SW6 to nRF Only and connected to nRF USB port --> no LED.

- Put everything back to default (power source VDD, SW6 to Default).

After this, both apps are working fine. I am able to compile and load these apps with eclipse + gcc as well. Now, trying to figure out how to make the examples work in nRF only mode. So, I am good now but I am very curious as to what the problem was.

Do you have any hypothesis? May be one of the switch was not making good contact?

Thanks.

[MartinBL]

Great! I'm glad you solved it. 

sj_golf said:

Do you have any hypothesis?

I'm afraid I don't. The whole thing sounds quite strange, and it could very well have been a switch with a bad contact.

Please let us know if you have further problems.

Best regards
Martin