Bluetooth not connecting

[bscdb]

Hi,

1. I tried flashing all ble codes to my nrf kit. It does not seem to connect on Windows machine but connects on Mac. My other nrf kit connects perfectly fine. What is the fix?

2. When my other nrf device is visible on Mac, it displays duplicate names, so its confusing which one to connect to?

[awneil]

bscdb said:

does not seem to connect on Windows machine

What "Windows machine" ?

bscdb said:

but connects on Mac

So have you tried using the debugger in the two cases to see what's different / where it goes wrong ?

bscdb said:

When my other nrf device is visible on Mac, it displays duplicate names

That is expected behaviour!

The Mac only displays the name which the peripheral provides - so the only way around this is to give your peripherals distinct names.

On Android, you can see the MAC address - but iOS does not allow this.

[Bjørn Kvaale]

1) Are you using Windows 8 or Windows 10? Which nRF5 example have you tested with?

2) Are you connecting directly from the Mac or Windows Bluetooth settings to the nRF52 DK? When you change the device name of the nRF52, it may be that you need to clear bluetooth cache (just try turning Bluetooth off for about 10 seconds & then turning Bluetooth on again) on your Mac to see the updated device name.

In general, we do not advise connecting from a computer (Windows or Mac) directly to an nRF52 DK device because the Bluetooth chip on your computer may have issues connecting to the nRF5 device.

Update: Slightly misleading comment above. Thanks for picking it up awneil! You can connect some examples directly to a Windows computer (such as HID mouse), however most examples have not been tested directly with the computer's Bluetooth chip. If they have been tested with nRF Connect for Desktop, an nRF5 device was used as a connectivity chip in most examples.

If possible, we recommend connecting your computer to an nRF52840 dongle for example (or an nRF5 DK) to use as a connectivity device between the computer <-> BLE <-> nRF52 DK. You can then easily test using nRF Connect for Desktop BLE app for example.

Another thing you can test is to connect to the nRF52 DK via your mobile phone nRF Connect for Mobile app just to see that the connection to the DK is succesfull. If this is the case, the issue most likely lies on the Windows/Mac side.

[Nguyen Hoan Hoang]

I am not a Windows user, not sure how to flush the cache.  What does that firmware supposed to do ?  Have you check for a Windows update.  Early Windows 10 does not work well with BLE as I know.

[bscdb]

I was trying with ble hid examples. I think both boards have same firmware with same bluetooth name and different physical address. Windows is somehow restricting this duplication even if I try changing the name in firmware.

[Nguyen Hoan Hoang]

I see HID has a different behaviour.  Either Keyboard our Mouse HID, it require a pairing.  I have not work with HID.  Windows seems to have problems with HID keyboard.  I saw the similar behaviour when a friend of mine tried to connect an Apple BLE keyboard to Windows.  It took a while to get it connect properly.  Also if there are other PC or Host device in the surrounding.  It may have a race bonding of multiple host trying to connect to the same HID keyboard.  Causing the PC to connect/disconnect constantly.  

[Bjørn Kvaale]

Which version number does it say on the line below PCA10040 on the white sticker on the two nRF52 DKs (e.g. v1.2.1)?

[Bjørn Kvaale]

@bscdb Which version of Windows 10 are you using? If it is an early version of Windows 10, it may not work all too great as Nguyen Hoan Hoang mentioned. 

Also, have you tried to turn off Bluetooth for about 10 seconds & then turn it back on. That is how you clear Bluetooth cache on smartphones at least. I am assuming it is the same in Windows.

[bscdb]

1. I just bought a new Windows 10 laptop.

2. The nrf52832 board which does not give problems is v.0.9.0. The one not connecting to Windows PC is v.1.2.4 (which I recently bought)

3. I tried erasing the chip using JLink & nrfStudio

4. I dont think debugging the code would help coz the v.1.2.4 board connects to nrfConnect so clearly there is no issue with the firmware or flashing different soft device or different hex file.

5. If I change the bluetooth device name, the board will show up with 2 names - the old one & the new one and connects to one of them and keeps toggling between paired & connected states. After I remove and uninstall both device names & restart both PC & board, same behavior repeats.

6. I understand that I should not directly wire up nrf board to Windows PC but that is bound to happen sometime. There should be a fix for that. I'll have to flash the code through USB.