Evaluation of BLE5 extended advertisement with nRF52832

[karanbakshi]

Hi All,

I want explore BLE5 extended advertisement with nRF52832.

Using "ble_peripheral\ble_app_blinky" code from SDK16.0.0, facing "NRF_ERROR_INVALID_PARAM(7)" error in response to sd_ble_gap_adv_set_configure. Following is a source code of advertisement initialization.

Please draw my attention where I am making mistake.

#define ADV_MFG_DATA_SIZE 10
uint8_t gu8ar_mfg_adv_data[ADV_MFG_DATA_SIZE] = {0};

static void advertising_init(void)
{
    ret_code_t    err_code;
    ble_advdata_t advdata;
    ble_advdata_t srdata;	
	
    ble_uuid_t adv_uuids[] = {{LBS_UUID_SERVICE, m_lbs.uuid_type}};

    // Build and set advertising data.
    memset(&advdata, 0, sizeof(advdata));
    advdata.name_type          = BLE_ADVDATA_FULL_NAME;
    advdata.include_appearance = true;
    advdata.flags              = BLE_GAP_ADV_FLAGS_LE_ONLY_GENERAL_DISC_MODE;

	//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
	ble_advdata_manuf_data_t manuf_data;
	for(uint8_t i=0;i<ADV_MFG_DATA_SIZE;i++) gu8ar_mfg_adv_data[i]=i+1;
    manuf_data.company_identifier = 0x0437;		
    manuf_data.data.size = sizeof(gu8ar_mfg_adv_data);	
    manuf_data.data.p_data = gu8ar_mfg_adv_data;
	advdata.p_manuf_specific_data = &manuf_data;

	//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
	
    memset(&srdata, 0, sizeof(srdata));
    srdata.uuids_complete.uuid_cnt = sizeof(adv_uuids) / sizeof(adv_uuids[0]);
    srdata.uuids_complete.p_uuids  = adv_uuids;
	
    err_code = ble_advdata_encode(&advdata, m_adv_data.adv_data.p_data, &m_adv_data.adv_data.len);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

    err_code = ble_advdata_encode(&srdata, m_adv_data.scan_rsp_data.p_data, &m_adv_data.scan_rsp_data.len);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

    ble_gap_adv_params_t adv_params;

    // Set advertising parameters.
    memset(&adv_params, 0, sizeof(adv_params));

    adv_params.primary_phy     = BLE_GAP_PHY_AUTO;
	adv_params.secondary_phy   = BLE_GAP_PHY_AUTO;
    adv_params.duration        = APP_ADV_DURATION;
    adv_params.properties.type = BLE_GAP_ADV_TYPE_EXTENDED_CONNECTABLE_NONSCANNABLE_UNDIRECTED;
    adv_params.p_peer_addr     = NULL;
    adv_params.filter_policy   = BLE_GAP_ADV_FP_ANY;
	adv_params.set_id          = 4;
    adv_params.interval        = APP_ADV_INTERVAL;

    err_code = sd_ble_gap_adv_set_configure(&m_adv_handle, &m_adv_data, &adv_params);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
}

[Edvin]

Hello,

It is a bit tricky to set it up the way that you are doing it here, it seems. I suggest that you use the advertising module.

If you look in the example ble_app_rscs from DK16.0.0 this is an example that will use extended advertising by default. If you look in advertising_init(), it says:

init.config.ble_adv_extended_enabled = true;

and then

err_code = ble_advertising_init(&m_advertising, &init);

This is not possible when using sd_ble_gap_adv_set_configure() directly. This setting is stored in the ble_advertising_init_t init.

Search for "ble_adv_extended_enabled" in this project, and you can see where it is set. The structs are a bit different, using the ble_advertising_init_t type, so I haven't looked into the details, but it includes ble_advertising_init_t and ble_advertising_t, where the scan response is located in ble_advertising_t->adv_data.scan_rsp_data, which is different from ble_advdata_t.

Take a look at that example, and see if you can get it up and running from there.

Best regards,

Edvin

[karanbakshi]

Thanks Edvin.

I have used example ble_app_rscs and able to evaluate extended advertisement. My next plan is to perform following. 

1) Want to use chained advertisement to broadcast up to 1650 bytes. How can I do it with existing example?

2) To evaluate high speed data transfer at 2 Mbps. Can I do it with existing example? If yes then how?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Bipin Patel

[Edvin]

Hello,

If you use extended advertising you can hold up to 255 bytes of payload data per packet. However, transferring data via advertising packets is not a very reliable way of doing so. You have no way of knowing whether an advertisement packet is received correctly, or received at all from the peripheral. If you want to transfer data, I suggest that you enter a connection.

[karanbakshi]

Hi Edvin,

I just want to evaluate feature of extended advertisement for data >255 bytes using chained advertisement if possible with SDK and SD. In my actual application I will not use it.

Can you also suggest evaluate high speed data transfer at 2 Mbps. Can I do it with existing example? If yes then how?

Regards,

Bipin Patel

[Edvin]

Hello,

Currently this is not possible with the softdevice. Please see this ticket. The maximum supported length is 255 bytes.

Best regards,

Edvin

[karanbakshi]

Thanks Edvin for clarification on chained advertisement.

Can you suggest me how can I evaluate high speed data transfer at 2 Mbps. Can I do it with existing example? If yes then how?

Regards,

Bipin