alternate advertising packets with nRF52832, sdk15.0.0 , sd132 v6.0.0

RE: alternate advertising packets with nRF52832, sdk15.0.0 , sd132 v6.0.0

brokenArrow — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 06:42:56 GMT

SOLVED.

issue was a wrong initialization in the data structures passed in the

err_code = ble_advdata_encode(&advdata, m_adv_data.adv_data.p_data, &m_adv_data.adv_data.len);

when changing from iBeacon to custom advertising and vice versa.

(the m_adv_data.adv_data.p_data and m_adv_data.adv_data.len are static, retaining a wrong data size when toggling from one another kind of packets)

in the end it worked, on a time slice base, alternating the 2 packets (using just the same handler).

the only thing is that I have to call every time sd_ble_gap_adv_stop() before the ble_advdata_encode-sd_ble_gap_adv_set_configure and sd_ble_gap_adv_start() calls.

RE: alternate advertising packets with nRF52832, sdk15.0.0 , sd132 v6.0.0

Sigurd — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 13:17:00 GMT

What is the value of your "APP_IBCN_DURATION" ? Could you try setting it to 0 ?

RE: alternate advertising packets with nRF52832, sdk15.0.0 , sd132 v6.0.0

brokenArrow — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 13:00:19 GMT

still I get the error:

<info> app: FW_VER= nRF52DK_00.02.01
<info> app: log_init
<info> app: timers_init
<info> app: buttons_leds_init
<info> app: power_management_init
<info> app: ble_stack_init
<info> app: services_init
<info> app: advertising_init
<info> app: XX Demo started.
<info> app: Fast advertising.

...after 3 sec...

<info> app: stopping standard ADV
<info> app: init iBeacon
<error> app: Fatal error
<warning> app: System reset

...

i'm wondering if the two different configurations are "compatible" :

the custom advertisement is this:

static void advertising_init(void)
{
    ret_code_t             err_code;
    ble_advertising_init_t init;
    ble_advdata_manuf_data_t  manuf_data_res; // Variable to hold manufacturer specific data


    //manuf_data.company_identifier         = 0x0059; // Nordics company ID
    manuf_data_res.company_identifier       = 0xffff; //interoperability default value; not to be used in shipping end product
    manuf_data_res.data.p_data              = (uint8_t *)SerialNumber;
    manuf_data_res.data.size                = sizeof(SerialNumber)-1;

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

    init.advdata.name_type               = BLE_ADVDATA_FULL_NAME;
    //init.advdata.name_type               = BLE_ADVDATA_SHORT_NAME;
    //init.advdata.short_name_len          = 8;
    //init.advdata.include_appearance      = true;
    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;


    init.srdata.name_type               = BLE_ADVDATA_NO_NAME;    
    init.srdata.include_appearance      = true;  
    init.srdata.p_manuf_specific_data   = &manuf_data_res;
    //init.srdata.uuids_complete.uuid_cnt = sizeof(m_adv_uuids) / sizeof(m_adv_uuids[0]);//more_adv_uuids
    //init.srdata.uuids_complete.p_uuids = m_adv_uuids;
       

    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;

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

    ble_advertising_conn_cfg_tag_set(&m_advertising, APP_BLE_CONN_CFG_TAG);
}

while the beacon struct is written above in the first code snippet.

any comment?

RE: alternate advertising packets with nRF52832, sdk15.0.0 , sd132 v6.0.0

Sigurd — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 12:21:26 GMT

Hi,

The SoftDevice V6.0.0 can only configure one advertising set. Therefore, when starting the non-connectable advertising(iBeacon), the advertising handle should be the same as for the connectable advertising. (i.e. use m_advertising.adv_handle for both).

In your function, IBeacon_init() should configure the adv set like this:

    err_code = sd_ble_gap_adv_set_configure(&m_advertising.adv_handle, &m_adv_data, &m_adv_params);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

The function iBeacon_start() should look like this:

static void iBeacon_start(void)
{
    ret_code_t err_code;

    err_code = sd_ble_gap_adv_start(m_advertising.adv_handle, APP_BLE_CONN_CFG_TAG);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

    err_code = bsp_indication_set(BSP_INDICATE_ADVERTISING);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
}

And in timer_timeout_handler(), restart standard ADV like this:

      else  
      {
        
        NRF_LOG_INFO(" restart standard ADV");
        err_code = sd_ble_gap_adv_stop(m_advertising.adv_handle);
        if (err_code != NRF_ERROR_INVALID_STATE)
        {
            APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
        }
        err_code = ble_advertising_restart_without_whitelist(&m_advertising);
        if (err_code != NRF_ERROR_INVALID_STATE)
        {
            APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
        }

        flag =1;
      }

PS: I don't see that you set your timerCounter back to 0 anywhere, so it might overflow after awhile. You can also just adjust the timeout value for how often timer_timeout_handler is called, so you could consider removing the timerCounter.

Best regards,

Sigurd

RE: alternate advertising packets with nRF52832, sdk15.0.0 , sd132 v6.0.0

AmbystomaLabs — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 17:05:38 GMT

I know they added a snazzy way to timeslice two completely different BLE personalities together in recent SD but haven't had need to learn about it.

But, for what your needs appear to be, yes you can just run a timer and update the struct for the advertisement info and re-init advertisements. You don't have to stop advertising as you have shown. Doing that only will increase the power consumption. You only need to stop adverts if you change the advertising interval.

Just remember iBeacon adverts won't show up in iOS CoreBluetooth they will only show in CoreLocation. But I suspect you already knew that. And, Android doesn't care what you call it so no concerns there.

If you use radio notifications you can easily make it synchronous with the advertisements.