NRF52840_PCA20035 on the NRF Thingy 91 does not have working Bluetooth Samples

[Niket Naidu]

I am looking for a way to interface with the onboard Bluetooth on the Thingy 91 as well. None of the examples (Peripheral NUS, Central NUS) etc currently work with Nrf52840_pca20035 config.

I have successfully managed to integrate the usb_uart_bridge to the peripheral_NUS and Central_NUS examples. However, when I try to run the example I get the error 
--> <err> bt_hci_core: No HCI driver registered

If there is any working BLE sample for the NRF Thingy 91 board please let me know. My use case is to send data from master(Mobile App or any other BT Microcontroller Master) to BT/BLE slave (Nordic NRF52840) which can then be sent to the cloud. 
1. Master to BLE Slave (Nordic NRF52840)
2. Send data from NRF52840 to NRF9160 on the NRF Thingy 91.

If no direct example exists, please paste relevant links so that I can research more (using the zephyr os).

Thanks,
Niket Naidu

[Didrik Rokhaug]

Hi.

The nRF Connect SDK does not yet fully support the nRF52 or Bluetooth, so there are no samples that work out of the box on the nrf52840_pca20035.

However, Sigurd has ported the lte_ble_gateway to the Thingy:91. For more information, and the patch files, see this answer: https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/52689/nrf9160-lte-sensor-gateway-on-thingy-91/225659#225659

Best regards,

Didrik

[Niket Naidu]

Thank you for your reply. Would it be possible to get the C code for this solution. I would like to understand how the hci driver for bluetooth has been setup and customize it as per my own needs.
Also is there a way to send the data from NRF52840 to NRF9160 on the Thingy 91?

[Didrik Rokhaug]

The code is in the linked answer. You can apply the patch files to your nRF Connect SDK installation using git.

 

Niket Naidu said:

Also is there a way to send the data from NRF52840 to NRF9160 on the Thingy 91?

 The nRF52840 and the nRF9160 are connected with 8 pins. P0.18-P0.25 on the nRF9160 is connected to P0.11, P0.15, P0.20, P0.21, P1.00, P0.25, P0.19 and P0.22 on the nRF52840. You can configure these pins as you like.

However, note that when using HCI, such as in the lte_ble_gateway sample, only the Bluetooth controller is running on the nRF52840. The Host layer is running on the nRF9160, which means that the data "already" is on the nRF9160. I.e. if you set up HCI correctly, it will look like you are running Bluetooth on the nRF9160, and it will not be necessary to think about the communication between the nRF9160 and nRF52840.

[Niket Naidu]

The Patch files uploaded here did the trick.

For future reference I will post my steps

I applied the appropriate patch using the `git apply <file>.patch` 

1. Flashed the hci_uart_usb_uart.hex as is to the NRF52840 chip.
2. The lte_ble_example puts the NRF Thingy in Central Mode (Scan and connect)
3. Modify the example `ble.c` by looking at the Peripheral_Uart example

4. Update your .conf files appropriately.

Now your bluetooth device is in advertising mode and a master can connect and send data to it.