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Bluetooth not connecting

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?

  • does not seem to connect on Windows machine

    What "Windows machine" ?

    but connects on Mac

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

    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.

    Disappointed

  • 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 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.

  • Are you using Windows 8 or Windows 10?

      - you do realise that Windows 7 does not support BLE (even if the hardware is there) ?

    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

    Really?

    Open mouth

    Surely, if the computer has BLE (both HW and SW), it should have no problems?

    How is this any different from mobile phones / tablets?

  • I'll update my last comment. We have noticed issues with some Windows 8 computers connecting directly to an nR5 52 DK because of the BLE driver used on the Windows 8 side.

    Like you mentioned, in Windows 7, there was not standard API for BLE, which is one of the reasons why we decided to use an nRF5 device as a connectivity chip.

    My guess is that the Bluetooth drivers on Windows or Android were more updated from the start compared with Windows 7?

    However, this should work better on Windows 10, due to updated drivers.

    Also, by using the connectivity chip solution, we control both sides of the link, making it easier to debug any potential issues.

    Of course, if you want to save on cost or not have a dongle sticking out of the PC, we do have a or some examples that should run directly from the Bluetooth chip on Windows 8/10, such as the HID mouse example. It may also work out of the box on a Mac. I am however not sure if this has been tested extensively.

  • awneil said:
    How is this any different from mobile phones / tablets?

     Also, most BLE examples have been tested extensively with nRF Connect for Mobile on multiple smartphones, so the nRF5 examples should work out of the box on most smartphones.

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