Test procedure for any BLE mesh using PCA10059 nRF52840 USB dongle

[Sridhar Jonnavittula]

Hi,

I want to use nRF52840 USB dongle in my setup with other PCA10056 boards. I have seen that in link https://www.nordicsemi.com/eng/Products/nRF52840-Dongle it is mentioned that it can support bluetooth mesh. While I am browsing in devzone it is mentioned like "But unfortunately, the Mesh SDK does not support the nRF52840 Dongle(PCA10059) as of now". So how can I proceed to use nRF52840 USB dongle for bluetooth mesh?

Thanks,

Sridhar

[Bjørn Kvaale]

Hi Sridhar,

You can naturally use the mesh sdk on the 52840 dongle. You will just need to change the board header file to point to the pca10059 header file instead of the pca10056 board. You will most likely also need to change the led initialization to point to the dongle LEDs instead of the 52840 dev kit. Do you want to use the dongle as a client or server in the mesh network? I have the light swich server example that works perfectly for the server on the dongle if you are interested.

Kind Regards,

Bjørn

[Sridhar Jonnavittula]

Hi Kvaale,

1. I just wanted to involve nRF52840 dongle in mesh network with nRF52840 PDK and nRF52840 DK. If dongle act as server then I can make use of DKs as provisioner and client. Please give me the working example you have. 

2. Another issue I want to raise to you(may or may not be out of this context) is, if I use two DKs as light switch client and server by programming as it is using Mesh SDK and then scan using nRF Mesh android app both are not visible. Other way I tried is program proxy light switch client, proxy light switch server on two DK and then scan. Now both are visible and can able to add only proxy server to mesh network but proxy client is also visible but cant add to mesh network.

Thanks,

Sridhar

[Sridhar Jonnavittula]

Ok. I am using SES IDE and erasing chip every time.

Bjørn KvaaleI took proxy server example and kept under Mesh sdk/examples/light_switch/ folder with different name. Opened SES project and while compiling it is throwing errors for all files under Application folder as incorrect path. So I removed and replaced each file under Application folder by searching one by one in Mesh SDK. Out of files, boards.c is replaced by SDKv15.0.0. Programmed using nrfutil tool over USB DFU but not able to see in nRF Mesh Android app.

Did I do correct?

[Bjørn Kvaale]

May I ask why you are programming via usb dfu? Why not just program via the ses project? If you have successfully done a DFU, you might need to reset the board before you can see it in nRF Mesh Android app. Also, you could just unzip the mesh sdk one more time & use the light switch proxy example there. That should definitely work.

[Sridhar Jonnavittula]

I dont have SEGGER JLink 10 pin cable and it is must for SES programming right. That is the reason I use GCC cmake Unix to generate proxy_server_nrf52840_xxAA_s140_6.0.0.hex and generating package by giving command:

nrfutil pkg generate --hw-version 52 --sd-req 0x00 --softdevice  C:\Users\THIS\Downloads\nRF5_SDK_15.0.0_a53641a\components\softdevice\s140\hex\s140_nrf52_6.0.0_softdevice.hex --application-version 1 --application dongle_proxy_server_nrf52840_xxAA_s140_6.0.0.hex --sd-id 0xA9 pkg.zip

Programming command: nrfutil dfu usb_serial -pkg pkg.zip -p COM9

Reset the board after this and it is not visible.

[Bjørn Kvaale]

I would recommend you to get a 10 pin swd cable & program the dongle via a dev kit for example. If you want to debug the dongle while it is running mesh, you require some kind of segger j-link to see the rtt logging. You could also try programming via nRF Connect for Desktop Programmer app. Maybe you want to try this before you program via the swd cable & nrfjprog.

[Sridhar Jonnavittula]

Ok. Thanks for your support. I will try with cable and come back about that. 

One more doubt is nRF Connect for Desktop Programmer app is capable to write either MBR/SD or application. Both are not possible to write at a time and cant append application after softdevice. So SD is needed for Mesh right? So we cant use desktop app right?

[Bjørn Kvaale]

Yes, you should be able to write mbr, sd & application using the programmer app on nrf connect for desktop. If you are programming via the usb, the dfu will occur in two steps, but you should be able to add two hex files to the programmer app & then program the dongle. It should also be possible to program the dongle via the 10 pin SWD cable.