How to set VID and PID on a BLE HID device?

[Magoo]

Hello,

I am developing a composite HID peripheral based on the nRF52840 that can connect to a PC either via USB or BLE.

I am using SDK 15.0.0.

Regardless of the connection type (BLE or USB), the device is supposed to have exactly the same functionality (keyboard + mouse).

Our company has some assistive PC software that relies on identifying the device based on its VID and PID, in order to access the correct functionalities.

We would like to have that both interfaces (USB, BLE) expose the same VID / PID pair.

My problem is: how / where can VID and PID be configured on BLE?

While it was quite easy to find where to define the VID and PID for the USB connection (APP_USBD_VID and APP_USBD_PID respectively in sdk_config.h), I couldn't find where the same values are defined for BLE.

In the Device Manager of the PC I see that when connected over BLE, the device exposes VID = 0x40C8, PID = 0x0000.

But I could find no place where these values are defined, in order to modify them.

Can anyone kindly let me know where these values are stored and a code example on how to personalize them?

Many thanks!

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

VID/PID are USB concepts which you will not find in BLE. However, there is nothing preventing you from communicating the same data over BLE in an application specific way. For instance, if you want to be able to read this after connection to the device, you can make a custom service with a VID and a PID characteristic. And/of you cna add the information to the advertising packet as manufacturer specific data if you need this information before the connection is established.

[Magoo]

Dear Einar,

thank you for your quick reply.

In other words, you mean that the nRF chip currently does not send any VID/PID over BLE, and that the values shown in Windows Device Manager (VID = 0x40C8, PID = 0x0000.) have been arbitrarily assigned by Windows? Based on what information?

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

I don't know where Windows gets that number from, or why it refers to VID/PID for BLE devices. Can you show me where you see it (with a screenshot)?

[Magoo]

Certainly!

Here's a screenshot. In Device Manager, I right click on the Bluetooth keyboard implemented by my device and select Properties. The VID/PID values can be found in many property fields, for example in "Hardware Ids" (as shown in the screenshot).

Windows applications running on the PC can read these VID/PID values.

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

I see. I do not recognise all the numbers from the SDK example, but this is from the device information service. It makes sense to put your product ID there. If you refer to the HID keyboard (and mose) example in the SDK you will see this set of defines:

#define PNP_ID_VENDOR_ID_SOURCE             0x02                                       /**< Vendor ID Source. */
#define PNP_ID_VENDOR_ID                    0x1915                                     /**< Vendor ID. */
#define PNP_ID_PRODUCT_ID                   0xEEEE                                     /**< Product ID. */
#define PNP_ID_PRODUCT_VERSION              0x0001                                     /**< Product Version. */

And these are used in dis_init() where the Device Information Service is initialized.

[Magoo]

Thank you Einar!

Seeing your code snippet helped me find where these #defines are located.

Stupidly, I didn't find them because I searched for "VID" or "PID" respectively (in the USB examples, this is the way they are called).

I should have searched for "VENDOR_ID" / "PRODUCT_ID" instead!