Windows 7 Desktop Platform using nRF51 USB Dongle(S120 or S130) C# platform

[lakshman]

Hi ,

I am planning to buy nRF51 USB Dongle(S120 SoftDevice or S130 SoftDevice) to discover BLE devices and to communicate bi-directional. I am planning to develop C# in desktop side & RFduino in peripheral side. Will you please point some sample example of how to use USB Dongle(USB-UART) with C# in desktop.

I am using visual studio 2010 for programming.

My requirement is I want to use BLE Central(Desktop Side) as dongle and I need to control the BLE. For example, I will write a C# application program to give command to BLE for Scanning. Once scanned I will select the BLE peripheral from the scan to do Data exchange.

Planning to connect One central with one peripheral. Like that, I will have more than 40 pairs.

Kindly advise.

Note:Initially I came up with a Gazell Network. But it wont work with many pairs. I need to assign address manually for each pair.

Thanks and Regards

Lakshman,PMP,PMI-RMP

[Susheel Nuguru]

There is a BLE driver for windows that can be used to interact with nRF chips. You can find it here. I never used C# before, but i think it is safe to assume that it gives you a way to interact with the drivers and libraries.

[lakshman]

Hi Arayan, Thanks for your reply. I don't need driver for windows since I am planning to use UART application to send and receive data.

Used ble_app_uart_s110_pca10028 example UART porgram as nRF51 UART slave.

I am facing issue when I use visual studio 2010 C# for programming. I am unable to get "START..." from nRF51 UART slave. My serial Port Configuration in C# program is

BaudRate  = 38400
DataBits   = 8
DiscardNull = False
DtrEnable = False
GenerateMember = True
Handshake = RequestToSend
Modifiers = Private
Parity = None
ParityReplace =63
Portname = COM89
ReadBufferSize = 4096
ReadTimeout = -1
ReceievedBytesThreshold = 1
RtsEnable = False
StopBits = One
WriteBufferSize = 2048
WriteTimeout = -1

But if i use Hypererminal with the same configuration below. I am able to get "Start..." from nRF51 UART slave.

Bits per Second = 38400
Data bits = 8
Parity = None
Stop bits = 1
FlowControl = Hardware

Kindly advise Thanks and Regards Lakshman,PMP,PMI-RMP

[Susheel Nuguru]

I am not an expert in microsoft API but I had a quick look into its documentation. Shouldn't be RtsEnable be set to true for handshake to work?

[lakshman]

Hi Aryan, Thank you very much for your reply. Yes initially I did RtsEnable = True & DtrEnable = True. But I didn't get the Start... from BLE UART.. After giving some delay in BLE UART I am able to see the Start....

As i am new to this forum.Kindly help me to close this issue & mark as right answer.

RtsEnable = True & DtrEnable = True and give some delay in BLE UART before printing "Start..."

Thanks Lakshman,PMP,PMI-RMP

[Susheel Nuguru]

Where did you add delay? can you please post the code snippet of this change. Also please mention which SDK version and hardware version you are using.