Advertising init as nonconnectable but still shows as connectable?

[AllenS]

I can not seem to figure out why when I init the advertising and then issue a start to the advertising the advertising beacon shows up as a connectable when viewing under nRFConnect app.

I have put the defines, and the two functions that I am using for advertising init and start.  I have included main as well.  All the other functions that have been omitted are the same as the ble_beacon_app example from SDK v17.1

#define APP_BLE_CONN_CFG_TAG            1                                  /**< A tag identifying the SoftDevice BLE configuration. */

#define NON_CONNECTABLE_ADV_INTERVAL    MSEC_TO_UNITS(5000, UNIT_0_625_MS)  /**< The advertising interval for non-connectable advertisement (100 ms). This value can vary between 100ms to 10.24s). */

#define APP_BEACON_INFO_LENGTH          0x18                               /**< Total length of information advertised by the Beacon. */
#define APP_ADV_DATA_LENGTH             0x16                               /**< Length of manufacturer specific data in the advertisement. */
#define APP_DEVICE_TYPE                 0x02                               /**< 0x02 refers to Beacon. */
#define APP_MEASURED_RSSI               0xC3                               /**< The Beacon's measured RSSI at 1 meter distance in dBm. */
#define APP_BATT_PCNT_LVL               80                                 /**< The percentage amount of battery left. */
#define APP_COMPANY_IDENTIFIER          0x0059                             /**< Company identifier for Nordic Semiconductor ASA. as per www.bluetooth.org. */
#define APP_PRD_ID_OFS                  0x00                               /**< Product ID Offset. */
#define APP_PCB_REV                     0x00                               /**< PCB Revision Level. */
#define APP_FW_MAJ_VERS                 0x00                               /**< Firmware Major Version. */
#define APP_FW_MIN_VERS                 0x80                               /**< Firmware Minor Version. */
#define APP_BEACON_UUID                 0x01, 0x12, 0x23, 0x34, \
                                        0x45, 0x56, 0x67, 0x78, \
                                        0x89, 0x9a, 0xab, 0xbc, \
                                        0xcd, 0xde, 0xef, 0xf0            /**< Proprietary UUID for Beacon. */

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// data structure intialization
  BLE_ADVERTISING_DEF(f_advertising);        //< Advertising module instance. 

  typedef struct{

    ble_advdata_manuf_data_t  f_manuf_specific_data;
    ble_advertising_init_t    f_init; 

  }f_ble_adv_data_t;

  static f_ble_adv_data_t         f_ble_data;
  
  static ble_advdata_manuf_data_t  f_manuf_data;   // This is where the advertising beacon data will be updated.
  
//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
static uint8_t m_beacon_info[APP_BEACON_INFO_LENGTH] =  /**< Information advertised by the Beacon. */
{
 APP_DEVICE_TYPE,     // Manufacturer specific information. Specifies the device type in this
                      // implementation.
 APP_ADV_DATA_LENGTH, // Manufacturer specific information. Specifies the length of the
                      // manufacturer specific data in this implementation.
 APP_BEACON_UUID,     // 128 bit UUID value.
 APP_PRD_ID_OFS,      // Manufacturer specific information.  Product ID offset value.
 APP_PCB_REV,         // Manufacturer specific information.  PCB Revision Level.
 APP_FW_MAJ_VERS,     // Manufacturer specific information.  Firmware Major Version
 APP_FW_MIN_VERS,     // Manufacturer specific information.  Firmware Minor Version
 APP_MEASURED_RSSI,   // Manufacturer specific information.  The Beacon's measured TX power in this implementation.
 APP_BATT_PCNT_LVL    // Manufacturer specific information.  The Beacon's measured Battery power in percent
};

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
static uint8_array_t ary_beacon_info = 
{
 .size   = 0x0001,          // Number of array entries
 .p_data = m_beacon_info    // pointer to the data
};

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
static void advertising_init(void)
{
 uint32_t      err_code;

 NRF_LOG_INFO("advertising_init");

 memset(&f_manuf_data, 0, sizeof(f_manuf_data));

 f_manuf_data.company_identifier      = APP_COMPANY_IDENTIFIER;
 f_manuf_data.data                    = ary_beacon_info;

 memset(&f_ble_data, 0, sizeof(f_ble_data));

 f_ble_data.f_init.advdata.name_type             = BLE_ADVDATA_NO_NAME;
 f_ble_data.f_init.advdata.include_appearance    = false;
 f_ble_data.f_init.advdata.flags                 = BLE_GAP_ADV_FLAG_BR_EDR_NOT_SUPPORTED;
 f_ble_data.f_init.advdata.p_manuf_specific_data = &f_manuf_data;

 f_ble_data.f_init.evt_handler                   = on_adv_evt;

 f_ble_data.f_init.config.ble_adv_fast_enabled   = true;
 f_ble_data.f_init.config.ble_adv_fast_interval  = NON_CONNECTABLE_ADV_INTERVAL;
 f_ble_data.f_init.config.ble_adv_fast_timeout   = 0;  // Never timeout

 err_code = ble_advertising_init(&f_advertising, &f_ble_data.f_init);
 APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

 ble_advertising_conn_cfg_tag_set(&f_advertising, APP_BLE_CONN_CFG_TAG);
}

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
static void advertising_start(void)
{
 ret_code_t err_code;

 NRF_LOG_INFO("advertising_start");

 err_code = ble_advertising_start(&f_advertising, BLE_ADV_MODE_FAST);
 APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
}

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
int main(void)
{
 // Initialize.
 log_init();
 timers_init();
 leds_init();
 power_management_init();
 ble_stack_init();
 advertising_init();

 // Start execution.
 NRF_LOG_INFO("Beacon example started.");
 advertising_start();

 // Enter main loop.
 for (;;)
   {
    idle_state_handle();
   }
}

I am running in Release mode and have tried Debug mode and get the same results.  The nRF_Log output is as below:

<info> app_timer: RTC: initialized.

<info> app: advertising_init

<info> app: Beacon example started.

<info> app: advertising_start

<info> app: Fast advertising.

On the nRF Connect app I am seeing under Raw:

0x02010404FF590002

I am seeing a five second advertisement so I know that parameter is being respected in the init sequence.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[AllenS]

I implemented the async timed advertise update function and have run into two issues.

1. On the first update attempt the nRF Log dumps out and ERROR 12

<info> app_timer: RTC: initialized.

<info> app: advertising_init

<info> app: Beacon example started.

<info> app: advertising_start

<info> app: Adv data update started.

<error> app: ERROR 12 [NRF_ERROR_DATA_SIZE]

on this line of code:

err_code = ble_advdata_encode(&advdata, m_adv_data.adv_data.p_data, &m_adv_data.adv_data.len);

The only things that changed were the one uint8_t data in the beacon that represents the battery percentage and further in the code which encode buffer to point to when the encode function is called.  Below is the code from the handler:

   uint32_t err_code;
   uint8_t loc_index = BATT_VAL_OFFSET_IN_BEACON_INFO;

   NRF_LOG_INFO("Adv data update started.");

   /* This is an [in][out] variable used by the encode function */
   m_adv_data.adv_data.len = BLE_GAP_ADV_SET_DATA_SIZE_MAX;

   m_beacon_info[loc_index] = app_Batt_PCnt; // Batt percent value

   /* Swap adv data buffer - from API doc: "In order to update advertising
      data while advertising,new advertising buffers must be provided" */

   if (f_enc_idx & 1)
     {
      m_adv_data.adv_data.p_data = &m_enc_advdata[0][0];
     }
   else
     {
      m_adv_data.adv_data.p_data = &m_enc_advdata[1][0];
     }

   ++f_enc_idx;

   /* Go encode the updated beacon data for the buffer that was selected */
   err_code = ble_advdata_encode(&advdata, m_adv_data.adv_data.p_data, &m_adv_data.adv_data.len);
   APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

   err_code = sd_ble_gap_adv_set_configure(&m_adv_handle, &m_adv_data, NULL);
   APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

   NRF_LOG_INFO("Advertising payload updated.");

The advertising_init code initializes the structures and calls the same encode function and does not seem to have a problem with the data sizes.  See the code snippet below:

// ble_advdata_t advdata;  // moved to a global position

 // flags must be this for beacon to work properly
 uint8_t       flags = BLE_GAP_ADV_FLAG_BR_EDR_NOT_SUPPORTED;

 // Changing to this flag causes an ERROR 7 to occur if m_adv_params.duration = 0
 //   Even if you change the duration to 5 you still see nothing on nRF Connect App
 //uint8_t       flags = BLE_GAP_ADV_FLAGS_LE_ONLY_LIMITED_DISC_MODE;

 ble_advdata_manuf_data_t manuf_specific_data;

 manuf_specific_data.company_identifier = APP_COMPANY_IDENTIFIER;

 manuf_specific_data.data.p_data = (uint8_t *) m_beacon_info;
 manuf_specific_data.data.size   = APP_BEACON_INFO_LENGTH;

 // Build and set advertising data.
 memset(&advdata, 0, sizeof(advdata));

 advdata.name_type             = BLE_ADVDATA_NO_NAME;
// advdata.name_type             = BLE_ADVDATA_FULL_NAME;
 advdata.flags                 = flags;
 advdata.p_manuf_specific_data = &manuf_specific_data;

 // Initialize advertising parameters (used when starting advertising).
 memset(&m_adv_params, 0, sizeof(m_adv_params));

 m_adv_params.properties.type = BLE_GAP_ADV_TYPE_NONCONNECTABLE_NONSCANNABLE_UNDIRECTED;
 m_adv_params.p_peer_addr     = NULL;    // Undirected advertisement.
 m_adv_params.filter_policy   = BLE_GAP_ADV_FP_ANY;
 m_adv_params.interval        = NON_CONNECTABLE_ADV_INTERVAL;
 m_adv_params.duration        = 0;  // Never time out.  Must be zero for beacon to work properly

 err_code = ble_advdata_encode(&advdata, m_adv_data.adv_data.p_data, &m_adv_data.adv_data.len);
 APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

 err_code = sd_ble_gap_adv_set_configure(&m_adv_handle, &m_adv_data, &m_adv_params);
 APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

2. When trying to actually debug the code I run into this error:

<info> app_timer: RTC: initialized.

<info> app: advertising_init

<info> app: Beacon example started.

<info> app: advertising_start

<info> app: Adv data update started.

<error> app: SOFTDEVICE: ASSERTION FAILED

It just so happens inside of the advertising update function on line:

err_code = ble_advdata_encode(&advdata, m_adv_data.adv_data.p_data, &m_adv_data.adv_data.len);

Any ideas on how to get past both these issues?