Linux Host + nRF52832 over UART; How may BLE devices can be connected in this case?

[Milan]

Hi Team,

For the board having Linux Host having nRF52832 interfaced over UART, what are the maximum number of BLE devices can be connected?

As per my understanding it will remain 20 as per the softdevice guidelines.

Is this a correct understanding?  What to do if 50 BLE devices need to be connected?

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

The SoftDevice has a limitation of maximum 20 connections. There is no way around this limitation.

[Milan]

Hi Einar,

Understood.

Can you guide me on how to interface the nrf52 with linux host over uart?

Below link seems not working.

https://www.nordicsemi.com/eng/nordic/Products/nRF51822/nRF5-BLE-Driver-Linux/47013

As per my understanding, Bluez will not work as nRF52 doesn't support the standard HCI commands.

Please provide some starting point to this. 

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

Nordic does not provide any code or examples that will let you use the nRF as a connectivity chip for Linux, Windows or similar. That is because these systems general require an HCI interface, which is not provided by the SoftDevice. You can use the pc-ble-driver, but this essentially gives you the SoftDevice API on the PC side, so you can only use SW written specifically for the pc-ble-driver/SoftDevice API.

An alternative could be to use for instance Zephyr, which can be used to implement the Host side of the HCI interface on the nRF, which matches with the controller on the PC side. Please note that this is not currently supported, but it should work (and have been done before).