Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

ovrebekk — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 12:25:44 GMT

Thanks for the clarification. Discussing this with the SoftDevice developers they mentioned this is not expected behavior.

I have shared your code with them so they can help us look into it, and I will get back to you when they have something to share.

Best regards
Torbjørn

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

sascha — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 16:40:14 GMT

I've tested your modified example and can confirm that the problem is always preceeded by the "Will crash?" message. Currently, we workaround the issue the same way as you propose by implementing flow control and avoiding peripheral advertising and central connection to another peripheral at the same time. So, there's nothing that keeps us from using the device this way. My intention was just to try to clarify the reason of this behaviour.

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

ovrebekk — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 15:09:18 GMT

It seems I jumped to a conclusion too early, I also see the issue here.

Please find my modified version of the example attached:

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../260573_5F00_adv_5F00_test_5F00_blinky_5F00_v2.zip

I updated the example to detect whether or not you try to start advertising while the central is in the process of connecting to a peripheral.

If this happens the message "Will crash?" is printed to the log, which seems to occur every time the advertising start fails.

It is occasionally printed when the advertising starts successfully also.

Can you give this a go and see if the problem is always preceded by this message?

If so it should be possible to change the flow of the program to avoid starting advertising in the middle of a central connection operation.

Best regards
Torbjørn

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

sascha — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 17:30:07 GMT

I have tried this configuration:

#define NRF_SDH_BLE_PERIPHERAL_LINK_COUNT 2
#define NRF_SDH_BLE_CENTRAL_LINK_COUNT 2
#define NRF_SDH_BLE_TOTAL_LINK_COUNT 4

In this case p_app_ram_start points to 0x200034c0, so I encreased the RAM_START value. For example, I've tried configurations with much more memory allocated to SoftDevice than actually required

RAM_START=0x20008000
RAM_SIZE=0x8000

and

RAM_START=0x2000C000
RAM_SIZE=0x4000

but I still have the issue.

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

ovrebekk — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 10:39:21 GMT

Thanks for sharing the examples. Finally I was able to reproduce the issue.

I can reproduce it quite easily if I restart the ble_app_template board while it is connected, forcing a reconnect while the advertising board is running.

I believe the issue is related to trying to start advertising while the central is in the process of connecting to the template peripheral.

Increasing the link count for the peripheral and central seems to fix the issue, but I need some more time to figure out why this would solve it.

Please test this yourself:

Increase NRF_SDH_BLE_PERIPHERAL_LINK_COUNT in sdk_config.h to 2, increase NRF_SDH_BLE_CENTRAL_LINK_COUNT to 2, and increase the NRF_SDH_BLE_TOTAL_LINK_COUNT to 4. Then run the debugger, and increase the RAM allocation for the SoftDevice accordingly. After that see if you can spot the issue again.

Best regards
Torbjørn

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

sascha — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 09:05:32 GMT

Here are my projects for the PCA10040 DK.

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../8270.ble_5F00_app_5F00_template.zip

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../adv_5F00_test_5F00_blinky.zip

ble_app_template.zip is my other peripheral DK project to connect to. It is precompiled 'ble_app_template' example from 'ble_peripheral' folder from SDK 15.0.0 without any modifications.

adv_test_blinky.zip is project for the main issue, that connects to the other DK. Now when it's advertising, the LED1 is blinking. When advertising crashes, LED1 stops blinking.

Please, try first hex files from 'Output' directory (both Debug and Release are valid). I'm using it together with s132_nrf52_6.0.0_softdevice.hex.

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

sascha — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 08:53:06 GMT

Yes, this one was missing. Now it's back again somehow. I have tried Chrome and Safari yesterday, also reboot computer, it was missing. But only in this ticket, in the other tickets it was in place.

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

ovrebekk — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 07:58:54 GMT

Are you saying this upload button is missing?

Which web browser are you using?

Best regards
Torbjørn

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

sascha — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 08:56:52 GMT

Tried this, for me it opens 'Save as' dialog to save file on my local drive.

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

ovrebekk — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 07:37:47 GMT

It should be possible to drag drop the file from the Windows explorer into the message window when you write a reply, and it will be attached automatically.

Can you give this a try?

Best regards
Torbjørn

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

sascha — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 15:39:55 GMT

I've tried today to reproduce the crash with PCA10040 DK, the issue persists. Unfortunately I'm not able to attach my firmware files anymore in this topic. I use 'Insert->Image/Video/File' and normally there is a button 'Upload' right under 'URL' edit box, but now it disappeared, so I cannot upload a local file or even screenshot. I checked this feature in another tickets and I have the 'Upload' button there. Is there something I'm missing or how to enable file uploads in this ticket?

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

ovrebekk — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 12:34:06 GMT

Trying to reproduce it on a DK will be valuable, then it's easier to know what to look for.

If it only happens on the custom board then we should take a closer look at the hardware design. Possibly something like a noisy voltage supply or a misbehaving crystal oscillator could be causing issues for the Bluetooth stack.

Just let me know when you've had time to look into it.

Best regards
Torbjørn

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

sascha — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 14:44:20 GMT

It's interesting, because for me it happens often even on the first connect to the second kit. I'm using a custom board, logging over RTT, sdk_config.h is changed to correspond to the custom board pinout. I'll try to reproduce the issue on a standard DK as soon as I'm back in the office in January. If the issue persists on the DK, I'll send a pre-compiled hex file blinking on advertising crash and try to capture a sniffer log.

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

ovrebekk — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 11:09:32 GMT

Hi Sascha

For some reason I can't reproduce it here, I must have tried about 20-30 times (some times just resetting the second kit, other times turning it off for longer).

Are you running this on a custom board, or a standard DK?

In case it is a DK, do you have the version number and production date (printed on the large debugging chip on the board)?

Are you logging over RTT or over UART?
The sdk_config.h file has RTT enabled, but it seems you modified the UART settings at one point to change the TX pin.

Would you be able to capture a sniffer trace when the issue occurs?

If you don't have a professional BLE sniffer available there is a free version provided by us that only requires a devkit:
https://www.nordicsemi.com/Software-and-tools/Development-Tools/nRF-Sniffer-for-Bluetooth-LE

Best regards
Torbjørn

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

sascha — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 16:51:21 GMT

Hi Torbjørn,

thank you for help. There's no need to connect to the project with a phone as a central, just let it always advertise. Then power on your second kit and let the two boards to get connected. After that disconnect and connect again the second kit several times (I do it by switching on and off power supply for the second kit). At some point the advertising start function crashes in my project with error 8. For me it usually happens quite fast, only several connect-disconnect cycles to the second kit needed.

Best regards,

Sascha

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

ovrebekk — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 13:20:21 GMT

Jared is currently out in vacation, and I will help out with this case in the mean time.

I have got your code to build, and setup a separate kit to act as a BLE peripheral with the required ble_app_peer_mac_addr. I can see that my second kit connects to your project, and I can also connect to your project from my phone as a central, but I have yet to see the error that you report.

All I can see is that if I connect from the phone the advertising stops until I disconnect the phone again.

Is there a particular sequence I need to follow to reproduce the issue?

Best regards
Torbjørn

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

sascha — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 12:01:40 GMT

Please, find the minimal test project attached. The advertising timeout BLE_APP_ADV_FAST_TIMEOUT is set small here (300ms) that makes the issue easy to reproduce. To test the project an another peripheral that accepts connections is needed. It's MAC address is set in ble_app_peer_mac_addr structure. If advertising start chashes in time of central connection, then I additionally try to restart it after disconnect and it also crashes.

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../adv_5F00_test.zip

When the crash of advertising happens the Debug Terminal log looks like this:

<info> app: adv started
<info> app: adv timeout
<info> app: central connected
<info> app: adv start error = 8
<info> app: adv timeout
<info> app: on connect
<info> app: on disconnect
<info> app: adv restart error = 8

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

Jared — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 09:58:04 GMT

Understandable. Just update the thread when you have time, I'll be happy to help you then! :)

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

sascha — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 18:13:00 GMT

Jared,

thank you very much for support. I have lots of pressure at work these days, so will be able to create the minimal project reproducing the issue only in about two weeks. Please, let's postpone this thread until then.

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

Jared — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 10:06:46 GMT

Hi,

Could you upload a minimal project that will reproduce the issue on a development kit? I can make the case private first if you prefer it,

[quote user=""]Is it possible to make the central and the peripheral co-existing in the same device independently without any interference?[/quote]

Yes, this is done in the multirole example in the SDK.

regards

Jared

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

sascha — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 14:03:07 GMT

Hi Jared,

here is my configuration for the link count:

// <o> NRF_SDH_BLE_PERIPHERAL_LINK_COUNT - Maximum number of peripheral links. 
#ifndef NRF_SDH_BLE_PERIPHERAL_LINK_COUNT
#define NRF_SDH_BLE_PERIPHERAL_LINK_COUNT 1
#endif

// <o> NRF_SDH_BLE_CENTRAL_LINK_COUNT - Maximum number of central links. 
#ifndef NRF_SDH_BLE_CENTRAL_LINK_COUNT
#define NRF_SDH_BLE_CENTRAL_LINK_COUNT 1
#endif

// <o> NRF_SDH_BLE_TOTAL_LINK_COUNT - Total link count. 
// <i> Maximum number of total concurrent connections using the default configuration.

#ifndef NRF_SDH_BLE_TOTAL_LINK_COUNT
#define NRF_SDH_BLE_TOTAL_LINK_COUNT 2
#endif

The entire configuration file:

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../3858.sdk_5F00_config.h

RE: Advertising crash when central and peripheral run simultaneously on the same device

Jared — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 13:55:23 GMT

Hi,

Have you adjusted the link count in the sdk config file? Could you share your entire config file?

regards

Jared