I am not able to stream audio from a LE AUDIO support smartphone to nrfConnect

[gabrielfreedom]

Hi all, I purchase two nrf5340 audio dk boards and configured one as a gateway and another as a headset, using cis or bis mode it was not possible to connect to a Android 13 smartphone that does support LE AUDIO and LC3 codec.

I am interested stream audio from the smartphone to the the audio dk through Bluetooth LE audio. Can you help me with some information of which mode or configuration this has to be done or is something wrong

I would appreciate any help.

(We tested the smartphone with another LE audio device and the attempt was successful)

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi, 

Which NCS are you using? The latest version v2.3.0 is released. Can you try it?

using cis or bis mode it was not possible to connect to a Android 13 smartphone that does support LE AUDIO and LC3 codec.

Are you able to see and connect nrf5340 audio DK with bis mode via nRF Connect mobile app?

Can you help me with some information of which mode or configuration this has to be done or is something wrong

See this answer, this, and this. 

We tested the smartphone with another LE audio device and the attempt was successful

What is the smartphone, Pixel 7? What is another LE audio device? 

Regards,
Amanda H.

[gabrielfreedom]

Hi, Amanda, thanks for the response, I am using NCS version prior to v2.3.0, but I can try with this latest version When setting the boards to work as CIS mode I am able to scan the boards through the cellphone but I can not pair/connect with nrf5340 When setting them as BIS mode it is not possible to scan, pair or connect with the boards. The smartphone I am using is a device that supports in fact LE AUDIO

Did you tested using Pixel 7 successfully? Which mode or configuration did you used? 

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi, 

gabrielfreedom said:

When setting the boards to work as CIS mode I am able to scan the boards through the cellphone but I can not pair/connect with nrf5340

Please be aware that LE audio is still a feature under development, so it won't support on the phone out of the box. It has to enable "developer options" in Android 13 for enabling the support of LE audio. As we know there still have some issues from the Android side that need to be fixed.  However, Android doesn't push bug fixes frequently, so the public release or beta release might still have issues. 

gabrielfreedom said:

When setting them as BIS mode it is not possible to scan, pair or connect with the boards.

Currently, Pixel 7 doesn't support BIS, only supports CIS. 

gabrielfreedom said:

The smartphone I am using is a device that supports in fact LE AUDIO

Which smartphone and OS version are you using? If you are using Android 13, please make sure to enable "developer options". 

Regards,
Amanda H.

[gabrielfreedom]

Hi, Amanda
Sorry, I misunderstood, I would like to say that actually when using the boards in BIS mode, I was able to see the boards using nrf Connect but I couldn't see them on the pairing screen.
For CIS mode it was not possible to scan the boards on nrf Connect or in the pairing screen

For the CIS configuration the enviromment was set:

• NCS version v2.3.0
• nrf5340_audio_dk_devices.json:

I used nrfjprog --recover --coprocessor CP_NETWORK && nrfjprog --recover  command to restore the board

And python buildprog.py -c both -b debug -d both --pristine -p to flash both of them

By using this configuration do you think we would have succeeded connecting/pairing with nrf5340?

For BIS mode the configuration was the same for CIS but the addition of CONFIG_TRANSPORT_BIS=y Kconfig option to the prj.conf file

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi, 

The reason why you can see BIS gateway ADV on nRFConnect on Mobile but not in the mobile phone scan/pairing window is that BIS ADV is using non-connectable advertising https://github.com/nrfconnect/sdk-nrf/blob/f60a02c9072972000e8c9bbb19ad8b4afecb4cb5/applications/nrf5340_audio/src/bluetooth/le_audio_bis_gateway.c#L195

For CIS, once the gateway and headset are booted up, the gateway will scan and bond with the headset. After the headset is bonded, the headset will use direct-advertisement, so it won't be seen from either nRFConnect on mobile or mobile phone scan/pairing window. 

If you want to use the mobile phone to connect the headset, please do not turn on the gateway since the gateway will scan and connect with the headset immediately. Press button 5 during boot up can erase the bonding info on the nRF5340 audon DK. 

-Amanda H.

[gabrielfreedom]

Hi, thanks
I followed the steps you mentioned and I succeeded. I was able to connect/pair with both boards using CIS mode

One thing I would like to mention is that after forgetting the boards from the cellphone, I could not scan them again on bluetooth pair screen.
So after forgetting the accessories on the smartphone I have to rebuild/reflash the board everytime to make them discoverable again

Is there a way to make them work properly without doing this whole process?

[Amanda Hsieh]

No, it has to erase bond information on both sides. 

-Amanda H.

[gabrielfreedom]

Hi, Amanda.
Just would like to let you know that I was able to stream media from music and videos to the boards successfully

For calls, I did not have the same result. Is this normal for the audio dk? We should not be able to stream audio call to the boards?