Easiest way to make a Long Range Beacon with nRF52840?

RE: Easiest way to make a Long Range Beacon with nRF52840?

Vidar Berg — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 12:24:36 GMT

The same .hex will probably run fine on the 5284 DK, but you need to connect another USB cable to the nRF USB port to get the log messages.

Below is the source code if you want to see the changes I made. It's based onthe usbd_ble_uart example in sdk 15.3.0 (\examples\peripheral\usbd_ble_uart)

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../usbd_5F00_ble_5F00_uart_5F00_lr_5F00_scanner.zip

RE: Easiest way to make a Long Range Beacon with nRF52840?

CraigE — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 11:50:04 GMT

I'm trying to reproduce this from examples, to run on the nRF52840 DK, but I am really struggling.

Could you please talk me through the steps you took to achieve this? I feel there is a lot of specific advice on these forums across many many varying SDKs/soft devices, but a distinct lack of tutorials in anything.

RE: Easiest way to make a Long Range Beacon with nRF52840?

CraigE — Thu, 01 Aug 2019 14:32:21 GMT

Thank you! This is exactly the kind of tool I was looking for!

RE: Easiest way to make a Long Range Beacon with nRF52840?

Vidar Berg — Thu, 01 Aug 2019 13:49:30 GMT

It should work with those parameters. You may change the output power after you have added the adv. set as well to increase the range further. The output power is 0 dBm by default.

eg.,

err_code = sd_ble_gap_adv_set_configure(&m_adv_handle, &m_adv_data, &m_adv_params);
APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

err_code = sd_ble_gap_tx_power_set(BLE_GAP_TX_POWER_ROLE_ADV, m_adv_handle, 8); //+8dBm
APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

Also, I saw from your other post that you wanted to use a 52840 dongle for scanning. We don't have any ready-made examples for it, but you can try the hex file attached below. I based it on the usbd_ble_uart example and changed it so that it will only scan for coded PHY advertisement packets and print the address and RSSI of those packets over the USB interface.

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../beacon_5F00_lr_5F00_scanner_5F00_w_5F00_s140.hex

Expected output when you connect a serial client to the vcom port

RE: Easiest way to make a Long Range Beacon with nRF52840?

CraigE — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 14:06:30 GMT

In my case it I'd like to test this for an application.

Thanks for the threads. I've been changing some of the parameters based on what I've read.

Seems like the below parameters compile and run, but I don't know if they actually work on BT5 yet!

    m_adv_params.primary_phy     = BLE_GAP_PHY_CODED;
    m_adv_params.secondary_phy   = BLE_GAP_PHY_CODED;
    m_adv_params.scan_req_notification = 0;

    m_adv_params.properties.type = BLE_GAP_ADV_TYPE_EXTENDED_NONCONNECTABLE_NONSCANNABLE_UNDIRECTED;
    m_adv_params.p_peer_addr     = NULL;    // Undirected advertisement.
    m_adv_params.filter_policy   = BLE_GAP_ADV_FP_ANY;
    m_adv_params.interval        = NON_CONNECTABLE_ADV_INTERVAL;
    m_adv_params.duration        = 0;       // Never time out.

RE: Easiest way to make a Long Range Beacon with nRF52840?

awneil — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 11:39:07 GMT

[quote userid="82165" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/50464/easiest-way-to-make-a-long-range-beacon-with-nrf52840/201540"]it seems the default is not Long Range? [/quote]

Indeed - normally that is exactly what you don't want from a beacon!

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/50365/looking-for-products-that-use-the-nrf52840/201296#201296

A few threads on long-range beacons:

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/search?q=beacon%20long%20range

and long-range in general:

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/44867/long-range-setup-for-nrf52840/176189#176189

RE: Easiest way to make a Long Range Beacon with nRF52840?

CraigE — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 11:35:42 GMT

I have found the beacon example, but it seems the default is not Long Range? I guess I was asking if there were any BT5 feature specific examples too. If not, where do the changes need to be made?

RE: Easiest way to make a Long Range Beacon with nRF52840?

awneil — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 11:32:52 GMT

[quote userid="82165" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/50464/easiest-way-to-make-a-long-range-beacon-with-nrf52840"]what's the best example to start from[/quote]

Err - the one that's called, "Beacon..." ?!

https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/com.nordic.infocenter.sdk5.v15.3.0/examples_ble_peripheral.html