how to enter beacon config mode

[John]

Hi, it says that I have to put my beacon into beacon config mode in order to configure beacon device through the app. How do I enter beacon config mode in my nRF51dk? When I tried to update the beacon, I couldn't detect the it. I tried pressing button 1 and button 2 but nothing changed.

[kaku]

Hi,

Do you want to change your Beacon's advertisement packet like UUID, Major, Minor, Tx Power etc from iPhone/Smartphone on remote ? If so, you may have some valued options.

Note: If you use ble_app_beacon example code in SDK, you cannot enter beacon configuration mode since it just sends advertisement packets without connection.

Here is just outlook proposal:

1)Use DFU bootlaoder

Program both Softdevice S110 and dfu bootloader on nRF51-DK board, then nRF51 enters DFU mode and can connect iPhone/Smartphone, then update your configured firmware over OTA DFU from iPhone/Smartphone.

2)Create your custome service and profile

In general, Beacon just sends advertisement packet without connection. If you want to change configuration on remote, once you need to connect between central(iPhone/Smartphoe) and peripheral(nRF51-DK), then for example, the central issues commands(write request) for peripheral and you may store the updated configuration value into internal flash area in nRF51, then nRF51 restarts with new advertisement packet. Like this scenario, you need to create custome service and profile.

In my experience, 1) is quite simple since you can just use dfu bootloader sample code in current SDK and also Master Control Panel,/nRF Tool Box/DFU loader APPS with iPhone/Android.
If you choose 2), you would need to create your own customer service and profile, it may need to learn Bluetooth core specification and SDK codes.

I hope this is just help for you.

[Stefan Birnir Sverrisson]

Hi John

Yes, the beacon example in the SDK seems to be a lot more simple then the beacon app for the beacon kit. It simply advertises, but is not tuned for any update/configuration capability.

As an option, I suppose you could port the beacon app for the beacon kit to the nRF51 DK board. Should be a matter of remapping buttons and leds to the nRF51 DK board.

Update 23.2.2015 The nRF51 SDK can be found here. If you download the zip file you will find the beacon app for the nRF51 DK under \nRF51_SDK_7.2.0_cf547b5\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_beacon\pca10028\s110\arm.

You will most likely not see any leds light up on the nRF51 DK when using the beacon app from the "nRF51822 Beacon v1.1.0" installation. That is mainly because of two things

• The Beacon kit has RGB leds but the nRF51 DK has on/off leds.
• The LEDs and Buttons on the nRF51 DK are mapped to different GPIO pins then on the Beacon kit.

So to see what GPIO pins on the nRF51 are mapped to the LEDs on the nRF51 DK, look at the \nRF51_SDK_7.2.0_cf547b5\examples\bsp\pca10028.h file, where all button and led mappings are set for the PCA10028 board.

In the beacon app for the PCA20006 (the beacon kit), you will see that the RED, GREEN and BLUE is assigned for pins 16, 12 and 15 respectively in file \nRF51822 Beacon v1.1.0\Source Code\examples\bsp\pca20006.h

To get started, you can modify the beacon_setup function in the \nRF51822 Beacon v1.1.0\Source Code\nrf51_beacon\ble_app_beacon\main.c file to toggle pin 21 (LED 1 on the nRF51 DK board) instead of calling the led_softblink_start function. Do that with first enabling GPIO pin 21 as output in , and then toggling it:

nrf_gpio_cfg_output(21);
nrf_gpio_pin_toggle(21);

[John]

HI Stefan, I wasn't able to find the beacon project for nrf51822. Do you know where can I get it? If not, how should I modify my current beacon project?

[John]

Hi Kaku, I followed instruction1. I got an error while selecting a dfu device. It says "Required DFU service not available on peripheral". Actually, it'd be nice if I could port the beacon app for the beacon kit to my board because I can still use the app.

[arsalanjun]

Hi, I would like to use the Experimental Blinky appliaction on the PCA20006 Beacon Kit. What should I change in the code to light up the LEDs on the Beacon kit?

This is my code. Is it correct?

// arsalan changing code for Beacon Kit PCA20006
#define ADVERTISING_LED_PIN             16
#define CONNECTED_LED_PIN               12
#define LEDBUTTON_LED_PIN               15
#define LEDBUTTON_BUTTON_PIN            8
//#define ADVERTISING_LED_PIN             BSP_LED_0_MASK
//#define CONNECTED_LED_PIN               BSP_LED_1_MASK
//#define LEDBUTTON_LED_PIN               BSP_LED_2_MASK
//#define LEDBUTTON_BUTTON_PIN            BSP_BUTTON_0