nRF52840 Dongle BLE Connectivity Example integration with BLE peripheral Communication example

[Esteban]

Hi everyone,

I found this example in the SDK for the nRF52840 Dongle: nRF5_SDK_15.0.0_a53641a\examples\connectivity\ble_connectivity\pca10059\ser_s140_usb_hci.

With this example, the dongle is recognized as a virtual COM port when running the application, but I can't do much else with it and I can't really find more documentation on the info center to understand this code.

Can anyone please give me pointers on how to integrate the example above with a uart or ble communication example to be able to read and write from a PC?

I have tried to #DEFINE BOARD_PCA10059 on an example for the PCA10056 but I haven't had any real success with that. Or maybe I have to do some other type of configuration?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

The connectivity example is for using the nRF52840 as a connectivity chip. If you want to use it from a PC, then the pc-ble-driver is probably what you want. Currently you should use the v2.3.2 tag of the pc-ble-driver as the master does not have support for the nRF52840 dongle. You should use this version on the PC, and the connectivity firmware connectivity_6.0_1m_with_s140_usb_6.0.hex from here (same tag) instead of the one from the SDK (that you referred to). The pc-ble-driver variant is based on the SDK connectivity firmware, but with some changes.

[Esteban]

Hi Einar,

I don't see a  "connectivity_6.0_1m_with_s140_usb_6.0.hex" in the hex folder when I look under tag 2.3.2. Can you provide a direct link to it?

I see a connectivity_1.2.3_usb_with_s132_3.1.hex but I don't expect that to work since it's for Soft device 132. I tried either way to merge this hex file with my application using mergehex but it says there are conflicts.

I also tried flashing the zip package in the examples to the dongle with success, I checked on my terminal and the dongle is on a loop sending a hex string but it doesn't do much else.

I'm close but I still need some pointers. Thanks!

[Esteban]

Based on the instructions in the install document, it says that when you install the latest version of nRFConnect v2.4, the needed drivers are installed. But when I look at devices and printers it says that there isn't anything installed to identify it.

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

Ah, ignore the file name. It was a copy past error on my part. It should be connectivity_1.2.3_usb_with_s132_3.1.hex, which you can find here. It is intended for the nRF52840 even though it uses the S132 SoftDevice. (We do not have a tested S140 SoftDevice connectivity firmware that work with pc-ble-driver).

[Esteban]

Einar, can you provide a link or a location in the sdk to the project file, (keil or ses) for connectivity_1.2.3_usb_with_s132_3.1.hex? Thank you.

[Einar Thorsrud]

The connectivity project in the SDK need to be slightly modified to work with the pc-ble-driver. Therefore, you should get the SDK and apply the patch as described under Compiling the connectivity .hex files if you want to build it yourself. Alternatively you can simply use the precompiled connectivity firmware which already has the needed modifications, as you can find here.