Receive Advertisement Packet in Mesh Beaconing Example

[SHawY]

Hi,

Got some questions about receiving adv packet in Mesh Beaconing Example:

According to the description "The beaconing example also demonstrates the usage of the Packet RX callback. This functionality allows to receive all non-filtered, BLE-compliant advertisement packets in the application code. These packets are captured by @ref SCANNER". I expect getting the iBeacon advertising but during I run the example it's actually only received adv packet from another mesh node. I'm not sure if this is how the example exactly works. Is the example could scan and print all ble adv packet or I need implement it myself ?

[tesc]

HI,

The Beaconing example should print info for all packets received, as is. This is done in main.c with the function rx_cb, which is a callback function that gets registered by the line "nrf_mesh_rx_cb_set(rx_cb);" in mesh_init() also in main.c.

What does the output that you do get look like? Can you share it?

Regards,
Terje

[SHawY]

Hi Terje,

Here's what I got after I flash the example,

<t: 0>, main.c, 225, ----- Bluetooth Mesh Beacon Example -----
<t: 13436>, main.c, 231, Initialization complete!
<t: 18239>, advertiser.c, 323, advertiser_enable
<t: 18241>, prov_bearer_adv.c, 408, PB-ADV: context at 0x20002F64 added to bearer
<t: 18246>, mesh_app_utils.c, 65, Device UUID (raw): D5663AB3804DC24FB36A7B17B215CC75
<t: 18249>, mesh_app_utils.c, 66, Device UUID : B33A66D5-4D80-4FC2-B36A-7B17B215CC75
<t: 18257>, net_beacon.c, 368, net_beacon_enable
<t: 18263>, main.c, 260, Bluetooth Mesh Beacon example started!

And nothing print else while actually there are several ble device advertsing nearby. Until I turn on a mesh node I got this:

<t: 7783267>, net_beacon.c, 419, SNB RX ID: 54D021362603E40E ivu: 0 kr: 0 IV: 0
<t: 7783275>, main.c, 87, RX [@237524360]: RSSI: -20 ADV TYPE: 2 ADDR: [98:fe:b7:55:a6:eb]: 172B010054D021362603E40E00000000C1ABE802E7AEC2C7
<t: 8102924>, net_beacon.c, 419, SNB RX ID: 54D021362603E40E ivu: 0 kr: 0 IV: 0
<t: 8102932>, main.c, 87, RX [@247279514]: RSSI: -23 ADV TYPE: 2 ADDR: [98:fe:b7:55:a6:eb]: 172B010054D021362603E40E00000000C1ABE802E7AEC2C7
<t: 8454414>, net_beacon.c, 419, SNB RX ID: 54D021362603E40E ivu: 0 kr: 0 IV: 0
<t: 8454422>, main.c, 87, RX [@258006141]: RSSI: -24 ADV TYPE: 2 ADDR: [98:fe:b7:55:a6:eb]: 172B010054D021362603E40E00000000C1ABE802E7AEC2C7

The example should also advertise it's name("Nordic Semi Mesh") according to the instruction but I can't find such node in nRF Connect App.

[tesc]

Hi,

I have now tested the examples/beaconing/ example from the nRF5 SDK for Mesh v4.0.0, on an nRF52840 DK (the PCA10056 v1.0.0) and it works just as in the descriptions here. I get prints for advertising packets scanned from several other devices, and the device itself advertises as "Nordic Semi Mesh" as seen from nRF Connect for Android.

What board are you using?
What version of the nRF5 SDK for Mesh?
Have you done any modification to the example?
What version of nRF Connect, and on which device?

Regards,
Terje

[SHawY]

Hi Terje,

Thanks for answering. I'm using nRF52840 DK (the PCA10056 v1.1.0) ,nRF5 SDK for Mesh 4.0 and nRF Connect for Android v4.24.1. My device is OnePlus 7.

I have modified the RADIO_POWER to POS8DBM and RADIO_MODE to RADIO_MODE_NRF_62K5BIT in order to enable long range. 

I flashed another board with beaconing example, I notice that they can find each other and the advertisement packet contain the name"Nordic Semi Mesh". So actually it's advertising but I don't know why the App can't find it...

Update: I change the RADIO_MODE back to default RADIO_MODE_BLE_1MBIT and now the App can find the node. So this is the reason for discovering but the node still can't scan for other advertising packets. And I'm not quite understand why there's no problem using long range radio mode with other example but not the beaconing. Any help with that?

[tesc]

Hi,

Bluetooth mesh is actually only running on the 1Mbit mode from Bluetooth 4.2, and does not use neither 2Mbit nor long range features from Bluetooth 5. The advertising packet callback that you use for scanning while simultaneously running Bluetooth mesh, must use the same phy as used for the mesh protocol.

While it is possible to use the scanner from the nRF5 SDK together with the mesh stack from nRF5 SDK for Mesh, it is not recommended as it means radio time is then time-division multiplexed between mesh stack and BLE stack. (Only one of the stacks has access to the radio at any given point in time.)

You mention that you have no problem using long range with other examples, which other examples have you successfully used long range on?

Regards,
Terje