connectivity FW API

[yes]

Hi,

I try to build a simple BLE central device from nRF52840 dongle.

Using Nordic's nrf Connect desktop application I upload connectivity FW.

I want to replace nrf Connect with simple application which shall act as central device.

Is there a documentation of connectivity FW API?

Is there an "out of the box" FW version + windows driver (Windows 10) for nrf 52840 / 52832 which implements generic PC application central device?

thanks in advance

[Turbo J]

There is an USB HCI example firmware from the zephyr project for the 5840 chip. That turns the dongle/DK into an "BT LE USB stick".

Unfortunately it exposes a problem in the windows drivers: They require bluetooth classic support, and thus won't work with the BTLE-only nordic chip. Linux BlueZ stack does not have this problem.

This precludes "out of the box" windows support - you always need an application and custom communication between the app and the device.

[yes]

Our devices, which are based on nrf52832 & nrf52840 chips, act as BLE servers

For testing them in lab and at production we need PC application which act as server for few device.

For early development stages we used generic usb BLE dongle but it support only BLE 4.0 and we must test it with BLE 4.2 and above

 I didn't find any "out of the box" BLE 4.2 dongle (based on Nordic chips or other chip manufacturers) which can be used with Windows generic BLE API as central device.

Do you have any suggestions for "in-house" easy implementation? 

[Edvin]

As Turbo J says, it isn't really straight forward, but I believe that the HCI example from Zephyr is the closest you get to a "standard bluetooth dongle". 

Really, it depends a bit on what you are trying to do. You can use the dongle together with the SDK as a BLE peripheral (/server), but I am not sure I know what your purpose it. If it is to test a central, then you can look into our pc-ble-driver, which is what nRF Connect for Desktop is using. Maybe that is what you are looking for, but I am not sure.