Making a BLE iBeacon with GAP & GATT profiles on N52832 (nRF52-Development Kit)

RE: Making a BLE iBeacon with GAP & GATT profiles on N52832 (nRF52-Development Kit)

Ameer Usman — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 06:03:46 GMT

I followed your steps and go it working 🙂

Also had to change #define NRF_SDH_BLE_PERIPHERAL_LINK_COUNT to 1 in sdk_config.h

Also thank you for the tip on starting the NRF_LOG_ENABLED & NRF_LOG_BACKEND_RTT_ENABLED, helps you see more clearly the steps

Also I was using SDK_15.3.0 and the steps worked fine with it.

Kudos Simon

Regards,
Ameer

RE: Making a BLE iBeacon with GAP & GATT profiles on N52832 (nRF52-Development Kit)

Simon — Mon, 30 Sep 2019 12:54:14 GMT

I was able to make it work by following the suggestions in this ticket. I did the following:

Opened the example C:\Nordic\SDK\nRF5_SDK_15.0.0_a53641a\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_beacon_case
Enabled RTT logging (Which will make you able to see what to set RAM start and RAM size to)
- Set NRF_LOG_BACKEND_RTT_ENABLED to 1 in sdk_config.h
- Set NRF_LOG_ENABLED to 1 in sdk_config.h
Inside advertising_init(..) I changed m_adv_params.properties.type from BLE_GAP_ADV_TYPE_NONCONNECTABLE_NONSCANNABLE_UNDIRECTED to BLE_GAP_ADV_TYPE_CONNECTABLE_SCANNABLE_UNDIRECTED
Started a debug session
- Debug--> Go --> Press green arrow
Got the following logging:

<warning> nrf_sdh_ble: Insufficient RAM allocated for the SoftDevice.
<warning> nrf_sdh_ble: Change the RAM start location from 0x200018A8 to 0x20001D88.
<warning> nrf_sdh_ble: Maximum RAM size for application is 0xE278.
<error> nrf_sdh_ble: sd_ble_enable() returned NRF_ERROR_NO_MEM.
<error> app: Fatal error

Changed RAM start and RAM size to respectively 0xE278 and 0x20001D88 by following the steps in https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/33945/connectable-beacon
- In the Project Explorer window, right click on "Project 'ble_app_beacon_pca10040_s132'" an click on Options
- Remember to choose common
Build and flash the example, and it should work

Best regards,

Simon

RE: Making a BLE iBeacon with GAP & GATT profiles on N52832 (nRF52-Development Kit)

Ameer Usman — Mon, 30 Sep 2019 10:33:12 GMT

This question asks similar to my query. I followed the steps in the replies but still it gave an error code:
https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/33945/connectable-beacon

RE: Making a BLE iBeacon with GAP & GATT profiles on N52832 (nRF52-Development Kit)

Ameer Usman — Mon, 30 Sep 2019 09:57:15 GMT

I am getting an error at line 900 but I am unable to read the code returned from running the function "able_advdata_encode(....)".

I have also attached the main.c file which is a merger of ble_app_bms and adding ble_app_beacon functions into it.

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../3821.main.c

RE: Making a BLE iBeacon with GAP & GATT profiles on N52832 (nRF52-Development Kit)

Ameer Usman — Sun, 29 Sep 2019 05:56:47 GMT

What I want is to have GAP Profiles being broadcast simultaneously with an iBeacon packet. I was hoping for a starting point of how I should do that. As the ble_app_beacon example has a lot of header files missing for the inclusion of GAP profiles so I was hoping to take the ble_app_bms as a starting point and add an iBeacon into it but I am having difficulty with it.

RE: Making a BLE iBeacon with GAP & GATT profiles on N52832 (nRF52-Development Kit)

Simon — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 13:20:35 GMT

I am not sure if I understand you correctly. What do you mean by adding GAP and GATT profiles to the iBeacon packet?

The GAP profile is a layer of BLE that is responsible for connecting two or more BLE devices, which includes scanning, advertising and link establishment. Broadcasting an iBeacon packet (advertising) is controlled by the GAP layer.

However, inclusion of services and characteristics happens on the GATT layer, and you don't include it in the advertising packet (iBeacon packet). The link you provided (ble characteristics tutorial) explain thoroughly how this works.

If you would like to put in your custom data into the iBeacon packet, you can use the AD type 0xFF («Manufacturer Specific Data»). Take a look at this thread, where I explain more around the advertising packet.

If anything is unclear, please tell me, and I will elaborate more.

Best regards,

Simon