Using the nRF52840 dongle to write a text file to pc

RE: Using the nRF52840 dongle to write a text file to pc

Einar Thorsrud — Sun, 14 Nov 2021 16:04:43 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="Joseph91"]the idea is that we would be able to plug in the dongle to any computer and be able to save the data. [/quote]

I do not see how that is possible, without any user interaction. And we certainly do not provide anything that can be used to control a PC via USB in the SDK. Perhaps some forum members have some suggestions, though.

[quote user="Joseph91"]Going back to python, is there anyway to be able to bind python modules to the dongle? [/quote]

I am not sure exactly what you refer to here? But if you configure USB CDC ACM the dongle will be a COM port seen from the PC, and you can interface this with pySerial as suggested.

[quote user="Joseph91"]have started to look into pc-ble-driver-py.[/quote]

This is for serializing the SoftDevice / bluetooth APIs. Is that what you want? Mu initial understanding was that you just want to log data from the dongle to the PC? If so, the pc-ble-driver is not what you want.

RE: Using the nRF52840 dongle to write a text file to pc

Joseph91 — Fri, 12 Nov 2021 16:38:02 GMT

Ok thank you! Writing a python script that interfaces with the COM port is something that my team has begun to consider, but is not an ideal solution because the idea is that we would be able to plug in the dongle to any computer and be able to save the data. Going back to python, is there anyway to be able to bind python modules to the dongle? I have started to look into pc-ble-driver-py. I know thats for python to be able to talk to the board, so I was hoping their might be someway to use that for my purposes.

RE: Using the nRF52840 dongle to write a text file to pc

Einar Thorsrud — Fri, 12 Nov 2021 08:03:35 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="Joseph91"]I am unable to use nRF connect.[/quote]

I see, so nRF5 SDK then (if you mant not able to use the nRF Connect SDK).

[quote user="Joseph91"]The USB CDC ACM example was one of the first examples I looked at when starting the project; however, it seemed to only write to the serial port instead of saving the data. [/quote]

Yes, we do not have any solution for you that will save the data on the PC. This is probably the best approach though as it gives you the data stream on the PC so that you can do whatever you want with it.

[quote user="Joseph91"]I guess that is were I am getting stuck, I am struggling to understand how to actually save the data from the serial port. [/quote]

You mentioned python before, so I would suggest that you make a small python script that interfaces with the COM port to receive the data and write it to a file. The pySerial module is nice for this.

RE: Using the nRF52840 dongle to write a text file to pc

Joseph91 — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 20:57:15 GMT

Thanks! I am unable to use nRF connect. The idea behind the project would be to plug the dongle into any pc and be able to log and save the data without installing and applications. The USB CDC ACM example was one of the first examples I looked at when starting the project; however, it seemed to only write to the serial port instead of saving the data. I guess that is were I am getting stuck, I am struggling to understand how to actually save the data from the serial port.

RE: Using the nRF52840 dongle to write a text file to pc

Einar Thorsrud — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 11:44:42 GMT

Hi,

Are you using the nRF Connect SDK? If so, the USB CDC ACM Sample Application is probably the most minimal example that shows this. If you are using the nRF5 SDK you can refer to the USB CDC ACM Example.

RE: Using the nRF52840 dongle to write a text file to pc

Joseph91 — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 20:15:30 GMT

Thank you, so the nRF will be physically connected through the computers USB port. Are you aware of any examples I could play around with to get familiar with this concept? As someone who is new to this, I really appreciate any and all help. Thanks again!

RE: Using the nRF52840 dongle to write a text file to pc

Einar Thorsrud — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 14:03:30 GMT

Hi,

There is no standard way to access or write to files on a computer from BLE. I suspect one of the simplest methods would be to use the Nordic UART service, and implement a client for this on the PC side, and dump he received data to a file.

Or is this a question about how to log data from a nRF that is physically connected to the PC? If so, some form of logging via UART or USB would make sense, and again, dump the data to a file.