NRF_ERROR_CONN_COUNT returned when setting # peripherals connection > 1

[thin_ice]

Hello, 

I have read numerous posts about  NRF_ERROR_CONN_COUNT but yet able to solve this solve, my setup is NRF52840 Dongle as central and I want to connect to multiple Heart rate sensors peripheral.

Using nRF Connect BLE app, I was able to connect 2+ peripherals but using nrf-pc-ble-driver I could not initialize the ble stack without an error.

nRF Connect BLE app:

Will automatically program connectivity software for me, its output:

14:22:23.121

Validating connectivity firmware for device with serial number C3E20E0A4F63...

14:22:23.134

Connectivity firmware is valid.

14:22:23.134

Connectivity firmware version: ble-connectivity 0.1.0+Aug-14-2018-15-12-51. SoftDevice API version: 3. Baud rate: 1000000.

14:22:23.135

Opening adapter connected to /dev/ttyACM0

14:22:23.650

Successfully opened /dev/ttyACM0. Baud rate: 1000000. Flow control: none. Parity: none.

14:22:23.651

Reset performed on adapter /dev/ttyACM0

14:22:24.212

Adapter connected to /dev/ttyACM0 opened

nrf-pc-ble-driver,

I use heart_rate_collector_v3, it is the only version that worked for me, all other api version (v2, v5, v6) did not work out of the box.

I modify the following code

#define MAX_PEER_COUNT 2            /**< Maximum number of peer's application intends to manage. */

#if NRF_SD_BLE_API <= 3
    ble_enable_params.gap_enable_params.periph_conn_count   = 2;
    ble_enable_params.gap_enable_params.central_conn_count  = 2;
    ble_enable_params.gap_enable_params.central_sec_count   = 2;

    err_code = sd_ble_enable(m_adapter, &ble_enable_params, app_ram_base);
#else
    err_code = sd_ble_enable(m_adapter, app_ram_base);
#endif

And the error came from

err_code = sd_ble_enable(m_adapter, &ble_enable_params, app_ram_base);

[Edvin]

And what was your err_code?

[thin_ice]

Hello Edvin, the error code was 18 which corresponds to 

NRF_ERROR_CONN_COUNT

Failed to enable BLE stack. Error code: 18

[Edvin]

Hello,

I am sorry. I should have spotted this earlier. The S132 v3 supports up to 8 connections, but only 1 connection as a peripheral. 

If you check out the s132 v3 softdevice specification you can see on page 40 that this softdevice supports up to 8 central connections, but only one peripheral connection. This means that you can't set:

ble_enable_params.gap_enable_params.periph_conn_count = 2;

Best regards,

Edvin

[thin_ice]

In this case, I compiled the connectivity hex files for pc-ble-driver, programmed connectivity_x.x.x_1m_with_s140_6.1.0.hex to my nRF52840 DK, then tried heart rate collector v6. It did not work out of the box (nothing changed in code) and here is the output:

Info: Successfully opened /dev/ttyACM1. Baud rate: 1000000. Flow control: none. Parity: none.

Status: 6, message: Target Reset performed
Status: 7, message: Connection active
Status: 4, message: Error sending packet to target. Code: 0x802a
Scan start failed with error code: 32773

Process finished with exit code 5

In fact, I tried various combination of connectivity SD version and pc-ble-driver collector version, none would work for S140 v6. Any tips ?

[thin_ice]

Do you have a connectivity firmware that is based on s140 v6 for pca10056 or pca10059 that I can test ? I found connectivity_4.0.0_1m_with_s140_6.1.0.hex from github and it produced the same error.