Easy ways to debug BLE connectivity issues

[morpho]

Are there any convenient ways to debug BLE connectivity issues? I have the service up and running but the connection on nRFConnect App doesn't quite go through: it remains stuck on "Connecting" state.

It was working all fine until of a sudden and I can't seem to figure out what went wrong

[Karl Ylvisaker]

Hello,

The most convenient way of debugging connectivity issues is to use the nRF Sniffer tool - are you already familiar with this? It is a powerfull tool to wield when developing and debugging with BLE, since it lets you monitor the on-air traffic.
It does however require an extra piece of hardware to act as the sniffer - you can see a list of supported devices in the sniffer's documentation.

Best regards,
Karl

[morpho]

Alright. It gets frustrating at times when you try to follow along and still don't make it through. I programmed the nRF Sniffer firmware but in wireshark, I don't see the nRF Sniffer COM PORT showing up. Plus I can't seem to get the interface toolbar as shown in the screenshot here. I also have the nRF Sniffer API folder which has a bunch of python files but the link you shared doesn't seem to talk about it. 

Also, in my case, BLE doesn't even connect. Do you still think nRF Sniffer tool would be useful? Can I not use nRF Connect on my desktop? Scan devices option is greyed out let alone any scanned devices

Any quick support is appreciated

[morpho]

Karl Ylvisaker said:

could you try this again after uninstalling and reinstalling the nRF Connect application for smartphone entirely?

I actually tried this the first time it happened, and it solved the issue but this time i have tried like 4-5 times to no avail

[Karl Ylvisaker]

morpho said:

I actually tried this the first time it happened, and it solved the issue but this time i have tried like 4-5 times to no avail

That sounds very peculiar indeed. I have not heard of anyone else experiencing this either yet, but I will file an internal ticket with the developers of the application so that they could be aware of it.

Before I do so, could you try to clear the app's cache too, to see if this perhaps fixes the issue?
And just to have it confirmed, the issue is that the view in the screenshot you sent does not change to 'connected' right? It only ever says 'connecting' when this happens?

Best regards,
Karl

[morpho]

Yes, it says Connecting even though I think it's connected as mentioned earlier. How do you clear the app's cache? In settings?

[Karl Ylvisaker]

Thank you for confirming - I'll write this up in the internal ticket.

To clear an app's cache in iOS you should see a "Clear cache" option when navigating to the app in Settings. I do not have an iOS device myself, but I am making an assumption that this should be an available option for all apps.

Best regards,
Karl

[Karl Ylvisaker]

But, getting back to your original question - we should proceed to look at getting your sniffer up and running in order to properly being able to see what is being transmitted on-air between your devices. This will greatly help any BLE related debugging effort.

Do you have an additional device that you may use as the sniffer's connectivity device for your connection?

Best regards,
Karl

[morpho]

I already mentioned the issues I had with setting up the sniffer. I don't see any relevant option to select the nRF device in wireshark despite copying the Profile_nRF_Sniffer_Bluetooth_LE dir into the profiles folder of wireshark