nRFsniffer 3.0.0 found but no data

[mcarland]

Hello,

I've been playing around with with the nRFsniffer for a couple weeks now. Adafruit was out of stock of the BlueFruit LE Sniffer so I ordered a BLE400 and a few Core51822 to play with. Before those arrived from China, the Adafruit part was back in stock, so I ordered one of those for good measure. So I'm swimming in hardware.

I had a difficult time programming the Core51822 with either the RasPi or BusPirate method using the 3.0.0 firmware. Likely my fault, but I waited for the Adafruit part. I had difficulty getting that working until I found a thread with a specific version of Wireshark that both didn't crash and would talk to nrfSniffer, and installed the exact API version Adafruit called for to go with the 2.0-beta1 firmware they shipped with.

Once I had my sniffing/decoding project done, I decided to not let well enough alone, and see if I could get going on a more recent version of Wireshark, and the 3.0.0 nrfSniffer firmware. In the meantime I had ordered an ST-Link V2, and now used it to program 3.0.0 into the Core51822. Installed the new Wireshark and sniffer API, and had no luck. At first the sniffer was not seen, don't recall the exact reason, but worked around that, and now the sniffer is seen, but no packets are reported. Plenty of Blinkenlights on the BLE400. Keeping the Wireshark/API version I had, I plugged the Adafruit part back in, and it still worked! So I can keep the more recent Wireshark. But why didn't the Core51822 work? I flashed the 2.0.0-beta1 onto it with the ST-Link V2, and then it worked great!

So I know I have a working setup, the remaining issue is why does 2.0.0-beta1 work for me, and 3.0.0 does not with everything else the same (using the 3.0.0 api installation).

Is there anything I can do to tell if the device is writing reasonable info? I tried connecting to it with Minicom and screen, but either have issues with the baud rate or don't get any data. Is there another diagnostic?

MacOS 10.15.2 (Catalina)

Wireshark 3.0.7

nrfSniffer API 3.0.0

BlueFruit LE Sniffer with firmware 2.0.0-beta1: works

Core51822/BLE400 with firmware 2.0.0-beta1: works (sniffer_pca10028_51296aa.hex)

Core51822/BLE400 with firmware 3.0.0: doesn't work (sniffer_pca10028_129d2b3.hex) - discovered but no packets

[run_ar]

Hi,

Which version of python do you have? If I remember correctly Catalina ships with Pythoon 2.7 while sniffer 3 requires version 3.

[mcarland]

Also, the only thing I am changing at this point is the firmware on the device. I am able to run the 3.0.0 api with the 2.0.0-beta1 firmware, so I think the Python should be happy.

I am wondering if there is a baud issue with the BLE400 usb chip. Is there a way I can verify I can get data at the correct baud rate through this board? Should I be able to `screen` to the device and see raw data?

[run_ar]

So, not familiar with the Core51822, But could if be that the newer sniffer sw has other hardware requirements. i.e. 32kHz source might have changed. Are you seeing any issues if you test with a nordic dk or dongle?

[mcarland]

I don't have either of those items. This is a hobby project so I'll have to figure out the hardware details this weekend. So I'm looking for an external 32kHz clock, any other hardware changes from 2.x to 3.0 I should look for?

[mcarland]

I found the schematic for the Core51822, it does have a 32kHz source. I had already verified that the TX/RX/RTS/CTS pins matched the dk. The BLE400 uses a CP2102GMR connected to P0.11/P0.09/P0.10/P0.08

Core51822 Schematic

BLE400 Schematic

There are a few sites that recommend the Core51822 for use with the sniffer code. If it no longer works with 3.0.0, I'll drop them a note so they can update the information.