Is there a way to verify Softdevice is correctly running?

[AndoniV]

Hello,

Our product is running on a nRF52832 with SDK 15.2.0 and softdevice 6.1.0 and I am wondering if there is a way of verifying that all BLE related functionality's are working properly in running context in order to address possible faults.

Thank you in advance!

Andoni 

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hello Andoni,

The SoftDevice (depending on the version) supports a large number of BLE features, so verifying that all BLE related functionality is working is a huge task. We do extensive testing and verification on the SoftDevice, so you should expect it to have very high quality. Of course, you need to test your product, including the SoftDevice functionality, but we do not have a specific test setup to recommend. This would typically also be a simpler setup as you will typically use a limited set of configurations etc compared to what the SoftDevice supports.

In general, depending on your project and your resources, you may have a test environment with an automated test that checks that your BLE device advertises (assuming it is a peripheral), connect to it, and checks do some tests, and disconnect, etc. You should also test with a set of different mobile phones etc. to ensure that there are no interoperability issues that may only manifest itself on certain devices.

Einar

[AndoniV]

Thank you for your prompt response Einar!

We do have a set of various integration tests for our product in which all works really well.

My question was more directed towards internal run-time firmware diagnostics to know the health of the SoftDevice which if understand correctly is not possible.

Any suggestions on how to achieve this?

Andoni

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi Andoni,

If you really need that you would have to build a test environment around it yourself. I am not sure that makes sense in an end product out in the field, but unfortunately, that is the only option as there is no self-test support in the SoftDevice.

Einar

[AndoniV]

Thank you so much for your support Einar, we are definitely making sure our test environment caters for most user cases and I understand this is a quite difficult task to diagnose faults of this type once our product is out in the wild.

Just as a final question, I understand that the SDK and SoftDevice are in constant improvement and we are a bit behind. How often would you consider to be safe to upgrade versions?

Andoni

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi Andoni,

I do not think you could say that updating at a certain frequency would be safer than others. I would say it depends on your requirements, and if there are any bugs you need fixed and/or additional features you want. What I can say though is that the nRF5 SDK has become quite mature, so you should not see very big differences going from 15.x.x up to the latest SDK, which is 17. So the migration should be quite straightforward. If it is worth it nor not depends on your preferences and requirements, though, so I cannot give any specific advice.