Uart solution among more ble modules

[David Petrov]

Light switch, client, server and app nRF Mesh works. I replaced client with ble_app_uart_coexist, but I already donť see it in your nRF Mesh app on my phone. I would like configure it, but I donť know how. My goal is create mesh network, where I connect to one node with help app Serial BLE Terminal in phone and send serial packet to all others nodes to uart in network/connection. I hope that is clear what I think, create wireless system what transciver serial data, no problem when it will be low speed. In the best case send serial data to specific node in mesh network. Programmig is quite time consuming. Maybe great thing would be to have existing Mesh system able configurate with help AT commands. Example: app Serial BLE Terminal send serial packet "0x01, 0x02, ..." and I see it on uarts on others three BLE device. And when it would go with help AT commands configure name and password "mesh network" It would by great.

[Hung Bui]

Hi David, 

The ble_app_uart_coexist doesn't have the Proxy feature enabled. This is why you didn't see it using nRF Mesh app. 

More explanation and an example is provided here: https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/53837/including-nrf5-sdk-for-mesh-functionality-in-an-nrf5-sdk-example 

Please check the last reply. 

[David Petrov]

Hi :-) thank you, ble_app_uart_coexist_GATT works great. But what can I do, when I want to send serial data to next node in mesh network? Example: I connect to client (ble_app_uart_coexist_GATT) with ble uart terminal app, send serial data to its and I want this serial data to see even on light switch server. I see serial data on Client on the uart, but great would be to see this serial data even on the uart of server in the same time. Is possible share serial data in mesh network? 

[Hung Bui]

That you need to do some coding on the proxy node to forward the UART message to other nodes. You need to define your own protocol and how you would forward the message. 

Another option is not to use UART profile, and send data via Mesh instead. Not sure why you need the BLE UART here. 

[David Petrov]

We have developed a ble app in android with serial gatt profile for microchip on uart transparent mode. And looking for a way to send serial data to all uarts for our devices which can communicate by physical serial port. Simply to create network and reconnect all devices. We would like take your chip nRF52832 and connect it on our devices.

 

[Hung Bui]

Hi David, 

I don't see any problem with this. What you need to do is to create a custom model for UART data. When a node want to send data it can send to the proxy/coexist node. The proxy/coexist node then can cache the message and when the phone is connected it can start sending the data via BLE UART. Same for opposite direction, the proxy/coexist node convert the UART data to mesh and send it over mesh. 

[David Petrov]

Hi, it sounds like paradise music :-) I tried send data from app ble terminal via generic onoff client, it works. But I would appreciated you show me way or example from which I can be inspirate. I suppose, that is possible take model generic onoff, rename it and do something chages for uart model, right?

[Hung Bui]

I would suggest to get started with the simple_on_off model. We provide the model in \models\vendor\simple_on_off. Documentation is here : https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/com.nordic.infocenter.meshsdk.v4.0.0/md_models_vendor_simple_on_off_README.html?cp=7_2_2_3_1

Your job is to integrate this to the light switch example (you can choose to remove the generic on off if you want) 

After you have the simple on off working, you can easily convert it to do UART data.