Control Mesh devices from outside the mesh network

[crypt3d]

Hi, is it possible to control mesh devices from outside the network ? My idea is to control the light servers inside mesh network via the user interface provided by Home Automation platform running on Raspberry Pi. That means the Home Automation platform would be client which is outside of mesh network.

1. One approach I could think of was to use Raspberry Pi itself as both provisioner and client, and automate the provisioning with PyACL. Pi would be connected via J-Link to DK board (inside mesh network) running Serial example from documentation. So, the DK board would act as gateway on the Pi side and relay for the mesh network. How feasible is this setup with the available tools and SDK ?

EDIT : 

2. I know this isn't directly related to Nordic Semiconductor. Still, is it possible to use bluez insted of PyACL ? There's an example on PyACL under the Mesh SDK 2.1.1 documentation but couldn't find anything on bluez. 

[tesc]

Hi,

For PyACI you need a UART connection to an nRF device. If you use a DK connected by USB to a PC or RPi, you will have UART through the on-board J-Link programmer. While PyACI is written for an interactive shell, it is possible to use the API programmatically from Python as well, see Automating Nordic BLE Mesh Provisioning.

I do not have any experience with bluez and Bluetooth mesh, but if Bluetooth mesh is supported then using bluez would be possible as well, yes. I know there are people who have used bluez for BLE in the past, for nRF related projects. E.g. using an nRF51 or nRF52 Dongle for BLE connectivity for an RPi with an application using bluez.

Regards,
Terje

[crypt3d]

Hi,

Thank you for your response. Another rookie question, what's the difference between PyACL and this nodejs library ? 

Many Thanks

[tesc]

Hi,

I am afraid that project seems a bit outdated. Apparently it used the serial interface as well, but for an earlier version of the nRF5 SDK for Mesh.

Please note that the NordicPlayground github account is for "emerging and unsupported projects." There may be value in the projects there, but they are not officially supported like the projects on the NordicSemiconductor account.

Regards,
Terje