Sending commands to nRF52840 via React Native mobile application

RE: Sending commands to nRF52840 via React Native mobile application

Hung Bui — Thu, 03 Jan 2019 16:29:27 GMT

Please test with our example with no modification first.

Then please follow this guide to debug.

RE: Sending commands to nRF52840 via React Native mobile application

qmorrison — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 16:15:48 GMT

Hi Hung, sorry for the delay, I was on holiday/vacation. I've tried this with the nRF Connect Mobile app and the device connects and then disconnects immediately. I used the ble_app_template_pca10056 as my base. I'm also flashing my custom service program to an nRF52840 via SEGGER studio

RE: Sending commands to nRF52840 via React Native mobile application

Hung Bui — Fri, 28 Dec 2018 07:09:57 GMT

Hi Morrison,

Could you try again with the nRFConnect app on the phone ?

Which firmware did you base on to add your vendor specific services ? I would suggest you to test with the ble_app_uart example in our SDK.

RE: Sending commands to nRF52840 via React Native mobile application

qmorrison — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 01:21:46 GMT

Update: I've created a custom service and characteristic for the nRF52840 board with S140. The program compiles and I'm able to download the program to my nRF52840 board. When I download the program to my board, it begins advertising as indicated by LED1 blinking. I'm also able to scan and see the device in the list of discovered devices, with my custom name and 128 bit Vendor Specific UUID.

The problem is, when I try to connect to it, it disconnects everytime, and I get the following error:

Any help is greatly appreciated, it seems I am very close to where I need to be I just cannot for the life of me figure out why this is happening. Will gladly share my custom service's .c and .h files, as well as my main.c

RE: Sending commands to nRF52840 via React Native mobile application

qmorrison — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 17:02:23 GMT

Yes I'm very new to Embedded Development. I've tested the examples in the nRF5 SDK, but creating my own examples is another matter. I guess my question is, how do I create custom services and characteristics, which I found a tutorial on yesterday.

When I successfully wrote to the boards, the process was as follows:

1. Plug nRF52840 or nRF52832 or nRF52840 Dongle into my PC via USB.

2. Open nRF Connect BLE App. Select the connected board from the dropdown. I'm presented with a prompt saying "Device must be programmed. Do you want to proceed?". I assume this loads some type of firmware onto the board? Not sure which firmware though.

3. Click on Server Setup in the top navigation bar, then add a new Service with custom 16 bit UUID and a characteristic with custom 16 bit UUID. Click Apply to Device.

4. Click on the COG icon next to the device in nRF Connect and then click Start Advertising. Once the device is advertising, I'm able to scan for it via my React Native app and write to that custom service and characteristic via react-native-ble-manager write() function, which takes the device ID, service UUID, characteristic UUID and the data.

When I tried these steps with the Dongle, I would complete steps 1-3, but then when I advertise from the Dongle it doesn't show up in scans. The other two boards do.

Also, I'm not sure where you got Mesh SDK proxy example from, as I haven't mentioned that here.

In any case, I've run through the tutorial on https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/tutorials/b/bluetooth-low-energy/posts/ble-services-a-beginners-tutorial and successfully created a custom service but that is for SDK v15.0.0, while we're on the latest SDK version (15.2.0). I attempted to run the same tutorial with v15.2.0 but it seems entire directories have been renamed from v15.0.0 to v15.2.0 and I'm not sure of all the locations those directories are referenced. I would get a file or directory doesnt exist error, which referenced header files found in SDK_Root/components/libraries/experimental_log. This directory seems to have been renamed in v15.2.0, but I'm not sure where in the ble app template these files are referenced in order to run the same tutorial on v15.2.0.

RE: Sending commands to nRF52840 via React Native mobile application

Hung Bui — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 05:09:30 GMT

Hi Morrison,

Please clarify which firmware you run on the nRF5 devices ?

When you mentioned "unsuccessfully on the Dongle" what happened ? How did you prepare and program the dongle, which dongle ?

My understanding is that you want to connect to a nRF5 from the phone and send some data/commands to the nRF5 ?

If you are new to the app development, I would strongly suggest you to get started with the examples in the nRF5 SDK first before you try with the mesh SDK proxy example.

RE: Sending commands to nRF52840 via React Native mobile application

qmorrison — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 16:44:39 GMT

Update: I've successfully written the data I need to a custom characteristic on both an nRF52832 and nRF52840 board, but unsuccessfully on the Dongle. I connected the two boards via USB and opened nRF Connect, then did a Server Setup and defined custom services and characteristics. Once that was done I advertised from the board and was able to connect and write to the board's characteristic. My question now is, how do I build an application that does this? Are there any good examples on creating custom services and characteristics via code in an IDE and not via the GUI in nRF Connect?