How to connect 6 nrf52840 boards on a board as central and send data via serial UART?

[RicardoFranco]

Good afternoon.
I need to make a network 5 or 6 nrf52840 boards connected as peripherals on a single central board, also of nrf52840.
Each board will read a sensor, and send the data by BLE to the central.
The data received by the exchange will be passed through the standard USB UART that appears on the PC when we plug the DK-52.
Where can I find software that does this?

[Marjeris Romero]

Hi Ricardo,

I will recommend you to download our nRF5 SDK and start out taking a look at the UART/Serial port emulation over BLE example for peripheral devices here, and the for central devices, here. The examples are in the SDK folder under the following paths <InstallFolder>\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_uart for the peripheral devices and <InstallFolder>\examples\ble_central\ble_app_uart_c  for the central device.

Best Regards,

Marjeris

[RicardoFranco]

Hi msromero,

I tried to do this, but i can't communicate using a simple terminal.

[awneil]

Please give details of what, exactly, you tried.

Have you remembered to program the SoftDevices?

The screenshots show that the code is, at least, starting - as it has sent messages to your terminals.

Have you used the debugger to see if the nRF is actually receiving anything from the terminal?

The documentation (linked above) describes what should happen.

Are you using the correct newline character?

Have you tested the peripheral with nRF Connect?

[RicardoFranco]

I recorded both boards using a J-link, and then I used the created COM port to try to perform the communication.
I'm not using a debug interface, just trying to bridge the BLE to UART as suggested in the Nordic documentation.
Do I need to set a special parameter in my terminal to send and receive this data?

[awneil]

RicardoFranco said:

I'm not using a debug interface

Why not?

Debugging is a key part of development - you are going to need it ... !

Unanswered questions:

awneil said:

Have you remembered to program the SoftDevices?

Are you using the correct newline character?

Have you tested the peripheral with nRF Connect?

[awneil]

awneil said:

Debugging is a key part of development

Also, following what happens in the debugger is a good way to understand what the code is doing.

This will help you enormously when it comes to adapting the code to send your own data.

[RicardoFranco]

I'm using nRF Connect v2.6.1.
Yes, I recorded the Softdevice correctly.
My question is:
Is the BLE -> UART link visible on the automatically generated COM port, or should I use a USB / Serial adapter on a couple of devKit pins?
I can establish the link, but I can not see the data I send.
I need a simple script. A file version to write to the central, which receives several simultaneous connections and sends through a UART interface, and a version for the peripherals to connect to the central.

[awneil]

Your screenshot shows two Nordic_Blinky peripherals.

As the linked documentation says, the NUS example should appear as Nordic_UART.

RicardoFranco said:

I need a simple script. A file version to write to the central, which receives several simultaneous connections and sends through a UART interface, and a version for the peripherals to connect to the central.

It is your job to develop that.

As already explained, the Nordic UART examples give you a starting point from which to work - but they are not ready-made solutions.