Windows 8.1 BLE and UART/Serial Port Terminal Program

[TomR]

Hi, I have a project where I need to communicate using UART BLE between nRF51822 and a PC (MS Surface Pro 3) with Windows 8.1 and embedded BLE hardware.

I have programmed the nRF51822/nRF6310 Motherboard using the PCA10001 ble_app_uart program including modifications to be detected by the BLE in the Surface Pro PC.

Is there a way to communicate (Send and receive data) via a Terminal Program and not via the nRF UART program?

How can I use the BLE in my PC to communicate via a Terminal Program? (I need to communicate via the BLE in the PC and not via the dongle)!

Any suggestions, help, tips and hints are most appreciated.

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Information to forum users:

To compile the ble_app_uart program and use it on the nRF6310 motherboard with PCA10004 or PCA10005 you need to change some options in Keil From the menu go to):

Project -> Options for target 'nrf51822...' -> C/C++

Change the defined preprocessor symbols to:

BOARD_NRF6310 NRF51,DEBUG_NRF_USER, BLE_STACK_SUPPORT_REQD

To communicate directly to a bluetooth dongle (not PCA10000) on your computer you need to include a code snippet in the ble_app_uart software:

The code is put in the main.c file after the "Function for starting advertising" comment:

/**@brief Function for starting advertising. */ static void advertising_start(void) { ble_gap_addr_t m_ble_addr; uint32_t err_code; ble_gap_adv_params_t adv_params; err_code = sd_ble_gap_address_get(&m_ble_addr); APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code); err_code = sd_ble_gap_address_set(BLE_GAP_ADDR_CYCLE_MODE_NONE, &m_ble_addr); APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

• Start advertising

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From here I need help too...

The bluetooth dongle find the Nordic Hardware and I can do a pairing.

How can I communicate with a Terminal Program using a Bluetooth Dongle.

Windows 8.1 has direct support for Bluetooth BLE when you have a BLE-dongle, but how can I communicate via COM Port/UART using this option.

I have tried to connect COM-ports to the Terminal-program but nothing works.

Using the PC with the PCA10001 dongle and the Nordic nRFUart software works ok, but I need to communicate via an external bluetooth dongle.

Is there a quick and easy way to solve this problem, or do I need a separate COM Port/Uart-driver installed on the PC?

[Stefan Birnir Sverrisson]

Hi

I have used a PC terminal (RealTerm) to communicate with the UART. To communicate with the PCA10001 board, you can do that directly through the USB interface. On the nRF6310 motherboard, you need to connect the TX and RX pins as described here, and then connect a serial-to-serial (DB9) cable from the board to your PC (then connects on serial port #1 on the PC). Additionally, connect the CTS and RTS pins in a similar way as the RX and TX pins, look the pin settings in the ble_app_uart firmware (uart_conf.h) to see what pins are configured for the RTS and CTS. I have also done this successfully with a Serial-to-USB cable, which is convenient for PCs that do not have serial port connector (DB9) on the PC. If you use Serial-to-USB cable, you can open Device Manager on your PC to monitor what serial port pops up when you connnect the USB cable to the PC, then you configure your terminal program to connect on that serial port.

Below is my setting in the RealTerm terminal program when I have nRF6310 motherboard connected with a serial-to-serial cable to my PC and connect with the ble_app_uart firmware.