Device driver for sniffer on nRF52840 dongle

[PAF]

I am using sniffer v3.1. I have installed the sniffer code on a nRF52840 dongle (PCA100059). When I insert this into the PC with windows 8.1 it appears as "nRF Sniffer for Bluetooth LE " in device manager (under Other devices) but driver is missing and no COM port is created.

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The drivers for this device are not installed. (Code 28)

There are no compatible drivers for this device.

To find a driver for this device, click Update Driver.

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"Update Driver" does not work either. 

Are there any device drivers which can be used for this? Or the device does not enumerate properly?

Regards

PAF

[Karl Ylvisaker]

Hello PAF,

I am sorry to hear that you are having issues with this.
The following should not be necessary with windows version later than Windows 7, but if you could please give the following a try, and let me know if this resolves your issue:

If you are running Windows 7, on first run CDC ACM driver installation is needed. To install the driver on Windows 7, follow these steps:

• Open Device Manager
• Right-click the development kit (look for the name "nRF52 ..." depending on the example)
• Click "Update Driver Software..."
• Click "Browse my computer for driver software"
• Click "Browse..." and choose the folder SDK/examples/usb_drivers
• Click "Ok"
• Click "Next"
• Click "Install"
• Click "Close"

As mentioned I have only ever heard of this being an issue with Windows 7 and older, but let us give this a try.

Looking forward to resolving this issue together!

Best regards,
Karl

[PAF]

Hello Karl,

unfortunately I tried that before and it did not work that is why I raised that ticket. The device enumerates with VID_1915 and PID_522A and the driver you are referring to is VID_1915 and PID_521A so Windows does not find the proper driver when pointing to SDK/examples/usb_drivers. Any other sugestions?

I used latest SDK I found (nRF5_SDK_17.0.2_d674dde)

Best Regards
PAF

[Karl Ylvisaker]

Hello again PAF,

Could you also confirm for me that you have followed all the steps of the Sniffer installation guide?
Could you also specify exactly how and what you programmed the nRF52840 Dongle with?

This might seem trivial, but I would like to rule out the installation as a potential error source.

Best regards,
Karl

[PAF]

Hello Karl, 

I went exactly the procedure shown in Sniffer Instalation guide (even three times). 

1. installed nRF connect
2. installed Programmer
3. downloaded nRF Sniffer Bluetooth LE (3.1)
4. chosen nrf_sniffer_for_bluetooth_le_3.1.0_7cc811f\hex\sniffer_nrf52840dongle_nrf52840_7cc811f.hex file
5. pressed write
6. after reboot device enumerates with VID_1915 and PID_522A and can not find the valid driver. 

Hope this helps.

Best Regards
PAF

[Karl Ylvisaker]

Thank you for clarifying, PAF.

I have tried this on my end, using Windows 10, and I am unfortunately not seeing this issue.
To rule out the hardware being at fault, do you have access to a non-Windows 8 PC which you could test the sniffer on?
I will discuss this with a colleague that knows more about windows 8's drivers than me on Monday.

Best regards,
Karl