Changing device name dynamically

[moroboshidan]

Hi, sorry for adding more posts on the same issue, but I don't see any of the posts that speaks to my current situation. I'm using nRF51822 and SDK 12.3.0, and I'm trying to implement the functionality of changing device name while the device is still connected to the phone. I'm using NUS service to send the command to the device. Here is my snippet of my code in nus_data_handler:

uint32_t err_code = sd_ble_gap_device_name_set(&sec_mode, device_name, length);
APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

advertising_init();
err_code = ble_advertising_start(BLE_ADV_MODE_FAST);
APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

And here is the snippet of the function advertising_init():

static void advertising_init(void){
	ble_advdata_t          advdata;
	ble_advdata_t          scanrsp;
	ble_adv_modes_config_t options;

	// Build advertising data struct to pass into @ref ble_advertising_init.
	memset(&advdata, 0, sizeof(advdata));
	advdata.name_type          = BLE_ADVDATA_FULL_NAME;
	advdata.include_appearance = false;
	advdata.flags              = BLE_GAP_ADV_FLAGS_LE_ONLY_GENERAL_DISC_MODE;

	memset(&scanrsp, 0, sizeof(scanrsp));
	scanrsp.uuids_complete.uuid_cnt = sizeof(m_adv_uuids) / sizeof(m_adv_uuids[0]);
	scanrsp.uuids_complete.p_uuids  = m_adv_uuids;

	memset(&options, 0, sizeof(options));
    options.ble_adv_whitelist_enabled      = true;
    options.ble_adv_directed_enabled       = true;
    options.ble_adv_directed_slow_enabled  = false;
    options.ble_adv_directed_slow_interval = 0;
    options.ble_adv_directed_slow_timeout  = 0;
    options.ble_adv_fast_enabled           = true;
    options.ble_adv_fast_interval          = APP_ADV_FAST_INTERVAL;
    options.ble_adv_fast_timeout           = APP_ADV_FAST_TIMEOUT;

	uint32_t err_code = ble_advertising_init(&advdata, &scanrsp, &options, on_adv_evt, ble_advertising_error_handler);
	APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
}

adversiting_init() works fine so far in my code, but ble_advertising_start() is returning error code of 18, which means NRF_ERROR_CONN_COUNT: The limit of available connections has been reached; connectable advertiser cannot be started. Then my device will be disconnected with status code of 0x8. I can reconnect back to the device, but the advertised device name is still the same, and even the value in device name characteristic is not changed. Does anyone know what happened here? 

[Vidar Berg]

Hi,

You can't start connectable advertising while connected unless you have a project that supports multiple connections, hence the NRF_ERROR_CONN_COUNT error. But It should be sufficient to call  sd_ble_gap_device_name_set(); and advertising_init(); The new device name will be used when your device starts advertising after the phone has disconnected.

Best regards,

Vidar

[moroboshidan]

Thanks Vidar! I have figured out the issue. I need to disconnect first and then reinitialize and restart advertising after ble_evt_dispatch() returns. I set a flag in nus_data_handler to be true when the device name changed and check at the end of ble_evt_dispatch() if the state is disconnected and the flag is true. If so, set the flag to false and reinitialize and restart advertising.