Software example for USB communication with a PC

[Alessio]

Hi,

looking for some examples I found this ticket but links inside seem not working.
https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/146/example-software-for-usb-communication-of-nrf24lu1p

I was looking for some example on how to interface a PC software with the USB dongle nRF24LU1P.
I'm trying to interface using winusbnet on a WPF application.
Thanks.

[ovrebekk]

Hi Alessio

Any particular reason you are using the nRF24LU1+, and not one of our newer parts such as the nRF52840 or the nRF52833?

The nRF24L series is very old at this point, and is not recommended for new designs. 

In the mean time I will check if we are able to dig out some of the old examples for the nRF24LU1+.  

Best regards
Torbjørn

[Alessio]

Hi Torbjørn

We've choose the nRF24 because it's not based on Bluetooth. Once nRF24 is configured, after switching devices on it just work . With Bluetooth there are compatibility issues, pairing procedures and so on.

[ovrebekk]

Hi Alessio

The nRF52 series includes a multi protocol radio and is not limited to Bluetooth only. 

If you are establishing communication between Nordic devices, and not smart phones, PC's etc, you can run a library called nrf_esb, which configures the radio to use the Enhanced Shockburst protocol. This is the same protocol used in the nRF24L series, but ported to run on the newer devices. 

I did some checking on what kind of software support we provide for the older parts, but unfortunately since these parts are deprecated we no longer make the examples available. 

Best regards
Torbjørn

[Alessio]

Regarding the main topic, the actual problem is at driver level where we're trying to prepare a inf file for deploing a winusb driver. But it doesn't work. If you have some example or guide on how to deploy USB driver even for similar devices I think it will help.

Thanks.

[ovrebekk]

Hi Alessio

You could have a look at an old snifferdemo that I made for the LU1+ back in the day:
https://github.com/NordicPlayground/nrf24lu1p-snifferdemo

It uses the Winusb/libusb driver, and the inf file is included in the repo. 

As far as I remember it was possible to manually edit the .inf file to allow you to change the PID/VID etc. 

Best regards
Torbjørn

[Alessio]

Hi Torbjørn,

thanks for your support.

As you probably know I opened another case on a similar topic. We found that there is a way where Windows can automatically install Winusb driver for a device relying on descriptors that are provided by the device. We prefer to choose that way instead of dealing with driver signature and installation. The link you provided can be useful anyway.

Best regards.

[ovrebekk]

Hi Alessio

Thanks for the information, I must admit I was not aware of this. 

After getting USB support back in the nRF52 series (the nRF51 series did not support it) most of the examples have been based on the CDC class, since this USB class doesn't require manual driver installation on most platforms, and provides functionality very similar to Winusb. Also, since a CDC device looks like a normal comport on the host side it is often easier to integrate with it from an application developer point of view (most development environments have some kind of serial class). 

Best regards
Torbjørn