nRF Sniffer intercept ADV, SCAN and CONNECT packages but no data packages

[Zitter]

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Hi,

I have a BLE thermometer I want to snif using nRF-Sniffer and Wireshark.

Unfortunately I'm unable to sniff the data, I only see the initial "hand-shake".

Process:

a) I start RF-Sniffer and then Wireshark

b) I initialize pairing between the themometer and an iOS device.

What I see:
Approx. 35 packages are exchanged as the pairing is initialized (screenshot below). Most are ADV packages but there are also some SCAN packages too and then finally a CONNECT package. After that all goes silent.

After the pairing: On the iOS device I can see that the temparature changes up and down as I apply different temperatures on thermometer - i.e. data most be exchanging between the devices. Unfortunately I'm unable to intercepting any of those data packages.

The set-up:

• nRF51 dongle - PCA10031

• nRF-Sniffer 1.0.1_1111

• Wireshark 1.12

The thermometer and the Ios device is placed on a table approx. 15 cm appart with the nRF51 dongle placed in the middle between them

Any suggestiongs would be highly appreciated...

Note: I have also tested another BLE device (i.e. a heart rate monitor) with the same iOS device and same set-up. Here I see a flood of data packages being intercepted. I therefore assume that there is something special about this particular thermometer that I am overlooking. But what might it be?

Capture 2 (used at forum).pcapng

[Hung Bui]

@Zitte: Please use Wireshark v1.10

[Hung Bui]

@Zitte: Do you have the problem when using with Wireshark v1.10 ? It's pretty strange that you don't have any data after they get connected. Is the BLE thermometer running on a Nordic's chip ? Or it is from other vendor ?

Our sniffer was made to sniff communication from peripheral running on our chip.

[Zitter]

Hi Hung,

Thanks for helping out and the suggestion. I've now had the chance to try it out with Wireshark v1.10.14. The result is unfortunately exactly the same.

Regarding the chip used by the peripheral, I don't know yet which chip is used in the device as the devices is enclosed and not easily disassembled. I will try and find out.

[Hung Bui]

@Zitter: Could you attach the full sniffer trace you have with the Broadcom BCM20732 chip to your question ?

it's pretty strange that the sniffer managed to catch connect request but not managed to follow it.

Have you tried without pairing with the device ?

Just want to mention here that we made and only test the sniffer for using with our BLE device, no test has been done on other vendor's chip.

[Zitter]

Hi Hung. I've attached the capture/trace. I'm not sure what you mean by "tried without pairing the device"?