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

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

Magoo — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 17:34:00 GMT

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!😉

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

Einar Thorsrud — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 07:57:42 GMT

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.

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

Magoo — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 14:36:45 GMT

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.

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

Einar Thorsrud — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 13:41:35 GMT

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)?

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

Magoo — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 13:29:13 GMT

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?

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

Einar Thorsrud — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 13:12:51 GMT

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.