Is there a way to control the unprovisioned device (a light) with nrf5 sdk for mesh?

RE: Is there a way to control the unprovisioned device (a light) with nrf5 sdk for mesh?

Young — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 14:43:28 GMT

Hi Hung,

Thank you.

RE: Is there a way to control the unprovisioned device (a light) with nrf5 sdk for mesh?

Hung Bui — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 13:32:58 GMT

Hi,

You just need to define the function to be called when the provisioner send "identify" . It's the input to mesh_provisionee_prov_start() function that's called inside start(). You can find device_identification_start_cb() is provided. You just need to provide the function (to blink an LED for example) into .prov_device_identification_start_cb

RE: Is there a way to control the unprovisioned device (a light) with nrf5 sdk for mesh?

Young — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 12:16:57 GMT

Hi Hung,

Thanks for your suggestion.

I noticed that the way (blink) to identify the unprovisioned device is implemented in light_switch example, but not implemented in light_lightness, light_ctl examples. so how to identify the unprovisioned device with these examples? Maybe I missed much about the sdk, but could you pls give any suggestion? Thank you in advance!

RE: Is there a way to control the unprovisioned device (a light) with nrf5 sdk for mesh?

Hung Bui — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 08:08:07 GMT

Have you considered the RSSI solution I mentioned about ? If you want to set 20 pcs the light to one network, you just bring them closer to the phone, then you should be able to select only them.

RE: Is there a way to control the unprovisioned device (a light) with nrf5 sdk for mesh?

Young — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 08:00:56 GMT

Hi Hung,

Thanks so much for your patience for my question. Yes, you're right.

We're trying to figure out a solution for the situation like this:

In the manufactory, there are 100 same lights. We plan to create 5 mesh networks and each mesh network will include 20 lights. After these lights are powered up, we will use smartphone (nRF5 mesh app) to provision for every light and make each light into the corresponding network. If connect to every light to identify, maybe it would take too much time, so we meet the original question.

If there isn't another way, the sample way (connect and identify) we have to use.

RE: Is there a way to control the unprovisioned device (a light) with nrf5 sdk for mesh?

Hung Bui — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 07:27:23 GMT

Please correct me if I'm wrong. So the problem here is that all of the nodes look identical from the outside, there is no serial number or anything. And you want to provision a particular node and you don't know the MAC address or the serial number of the node , correct ?

If it's the case you can use RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) . So if you want to provision a device, you can just pick it up , and bring it close to the phone. On the phone you only show the device with the RSSI higher than a certain level (very close to the phone). This way you can provision the device without the need to connect to every single one.

RE: Is there a way to control the unprovisioned device (a light) with nrf5 sdk for mesh?

Young — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 02:50:19 GMT

Hi Hung,

Thanks for your answer.

I understand the way you mentioned. That is to say that in order to find A4, the phone (nRF Mesh app) needs to connect to every unprovisioned node to identify and try to see if it is the node which I want to provision. If there were many unprovisioned nodes (not just 10), it would not be a good way.

Is there a way to identify the unprovisioned node without connection?

I searched and found the similar ticket, How to identify a non provisioned node with the Thingy mesh demo - Nordic Q&A - Nordic DevZone - Nordic DevZone (nordicsemi.com), but didn't find the Link Establishment Request and cannot open the link page "latest mesh sdk" (maybe it's too old). I am using nRF5 sdk for mesh v5.0.0.

Any suggestion would be very appreciated.

Thank you.

RE: Is there a way to control the unprovisioned device (a light) with nrf5 sdk for mesh?

Hung Bui — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 14:31:39 GMT

What you can do is to click on the App to select A4 , then when it's connected to the phone (nRF Mesh app) you click on Identity. Then A4 will start to blink (if you implement that on a nRF52 DK kit the LED 1 to LED4 will start blinking). Then you would know which in the 10 nodes is A4 and can take the device.

RE: Is there a way to control the unprovisioned device (a light) with nrf5 sdk for mesh?

Young — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 12:40:58 GMT

Hi Hung,

Thanks so much for your quick reply.

As you said, there are 10 unprovisoned nodes A1-A10 (10 lights). Now I just want to provision for A4, but I don't know which one is A4, so before provisioning, I need to find A4. Maybe it is more clearly.

RE: Is there a way to control the unprovisioned device (a light) with nrf5 sdk for mesh?

Hung Bui — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 12:31:19 GMT

Please be aware that BLE_GAP_EVT_SCAN_REQ_REPORT would trigger when there is any central that doing active scanning. So you will response to any phones, laptops, anything that can send a scan request. Not ideal solution.

But I still don't really understand what you want to do .

Let's say you have 10 unprovisioned nodes A1 to A10 and 10 provisioned node B1 to B10. You can see the list of all the unprovisioned node A1 to A10.

What you do mean by "I want to figure out a method to find the specific unprovisioned node to provision" ?

If you want to provision A4 you just connect to A4 and click identify the A4 node will response.

On the opposite, if you just hold a node and you want to know which node address is this, you can use RSSI on the phone to check which node is the closest to you.

RE: Is there a way to control the unprovisioned device (a light) with nrf5 sdk for mesh?

Young — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 12:19:57 GMT

Hi Hung,

Thanks for your reply.

I am using nrf5 sdk for mesh v5.0.0 and nrf5 sdk v17.0.2.

In fact, I want to select a specific unprovisioned node (a light) from all the unprovisioned nodes, because I want to divide all unprovisioned nodes into a few networks. However these nodes are in the same state, e.g. off, so I want to figure out a method to find the specific unprovisioned node to provision.

According to what you said "If you do provisioning you can find that after you connect to the unprovisioned node you can click Identify and the node will start blinking.", actually it is not possible to connect all unprovisioned nodes one by one.

I just thought of the BLE_GAP_EVT_SCAN_REQ_REPORT event. The provisioner (smartphone) just sends scan request but not connect request later and see if the corresponding node's state is changed (toggled). When the unprovisoned node received the scan request which is sent to itself, it toggles the state (on/off), and then I can know if this node is the node which I want to provision. But if the node is a provisioned node and received a scan request, it will do nothing.

Is it practicable? or Is there a better way to implement the functionality?

Additionally I am reading the light_switch sample, I didn't find where BLE_GAP_EVT_SCAN_REQ_REPORT event is handled in the sample.

Thanks for any suggestion.

RE: Is there a way to control the unprovisioned device (a light) with nrf5 sdk for mesh?

Hung Bui — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 11:51:02 GMT

Hi Young,

Could you give some more information on what you plan to do ?

Are you planning to be able to control a node without connecting to it ?

If you do provisioning you can find that after you connect to the unprovisioned node you can click Identify and the node will start blinking.

I don't think using BLE_GAP_EVT_SCAN_REQ_REPORT event to react would be a good idea. Your device will response to all of the central device around because there is no payload inside the scan request.