| Use HCI access to NimBLE controller |
| ----------------------------------- |
| |
| This tutorial explains how to use the example application ``blehci`` |
| included in the NimBLE stack to talk to the Mynewt NimBLE controller via |
| the Host Controller Interface. You may build the Mynewt image using a |
| laptop running any OS of your choice - Mac, Linux, or Windows. |
| |
| The host used in this specific example is the BlueZ Bluetooth stack. |
| Since BlueZ is a Bluetooth stack for Linux kernel-based family of |
| operating system, the tutorial expects a computer running Linux OS and |
| with BlueZ installed to talk to the board with the Mynewt image. |
| |
| .. contents:: |
| :local: |
| :depth: 2 |
| |
| Prerequisites |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| Ensure that you meet the following prerequisites before continuing with |
| one of the tutorials. |
| |
| - Have Internet connectivity to fetch remote Mynewt components. |
| - Have a board with BLE radio that is supported by Mynewt. We will use |
| an nRF52 Dev board in this tutorial. |
| - Have a USB TTL Serial Cable that supports hardware flow control such |
| as ones found at |
| http://www.ftdichip.com/Products/Cables/USBTTLSerial.htm to establish |
| a serial USB connection between the board and the laptop. |
| - Install the newt tool and toolchains (See :doc:`Basic |
| Setup <../../get_started/index>`). |
| - Install a BLE host such as BlueZ on a Linux machine to talk to the |
| nRF52 board running Mynewt. Use ``sudo apt-get install bluez`` to |
| install it on your Linux machine. |
| |
| Create a project |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| Use the newt tool to create a new project directory containing a |
| skeletal Mynewt framework. Change into the newly created directory. |
| |
| :: |
| |
| $ newt new blehciproj |
| Downloading project skeleton from apache/mynewt-blinky... |
| Installing skeleton in blehciproj ... |
| Project blehciproj successfully created. |
| $ cd mblehciproj |
| |
| $ newt upgrade |
| Downloading repository mynewt-core (commit: master) ... |
| apache-mynewt-core successfully upgraded to version 1.7.0 |
| |
| Create targets |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| You will create two targets - one for the bootloader, the other for the |
| application. Then you will add the definitions for them. Note that you |
| are using the example app ``blehci`` for the application target. Set the |
| bsp to nordic_pca10040. |
| |
| **NOTE:** The preview version, nRF52PDK, is no longer supported. If you |
| do not see PCA100040 on the top of your board, you have a preview |
| version of the board and will need to upgrade your developer board |
| before continuing. |
| |
| :: |
| |
| $ newt target create nrf52_boot |
| $ newt target set nrf52_boot app=@mcuboot/boot/mynewt |
| $ newt target set nrf52_boot bsp=@apache-mynewt-core/hw/bsp/nordic_pca10040 |
| $ newt target set nrf52_boot build_profile=optimized |
| |
| :: |
| |
| $ newt target create myble2 |
| $ newt target set myble2 bsp=@apache-mynewt-core/hw/bsp/nordic_pca10040 |
| $ newt target set myble2 app=@apache-mynewt-nimble/apps/blehci |
| $ newt target set myble2 build_profile=optimized |
| |
| Check that the targets are defined correctly. |
| |
| :: |
| |
| $ newt target show |
| targets/my_blinky_sim |
| app=apps/blinky |
| bsp=@apache-mynewt-core/hw/bsp/native |
| build_profile=debug |
| targets/myble2 |
| app=@apache-mynewt-nimble/apps/blehci |
| bsp=@apache-mynewt-core/hw/bsp/nordic_pca10040 |
| build_profile=optimized |
| targets/nrf52_boot |
| app=@mcuboot/boot/mynewt |
| bsp=@apache-mynewt-core/hw/bsp/nordic_pca10040 |
| build_profile=optimized |
| |
| Build targets |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| Then build the two targets. |
| |
| .. code-block:: console |
| |
| $ newt build nrf52_boot |
| <snip> |
| Linking ~/dev/blehciproj/bin/targets/nrf52_boot/app/boot/mynewt/mynewt.elf |
| Target successfully built: targets/nrf52_boot |
| |
| $ newt build myble2 |
| <snip> |
| Linking ~/dev/blehciproj/bin/targets/myble2/app/apps/blehci/blehci.elf |
| Target successfully built: targets/myble2 |
| $ |
| |
| Create the app image |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| Generate a signed application image for the ``myble2`` target. The |
| version number is arbitrary. |
| |
| .. code-block:: console |
| |
| $ newt create-image myble2 1.0.0 |
| App image succesfully generated: ~/dev/blehciproj/bin/targets/myble2/app/apps/blehci/blehci.img |
| |
| Load the bootloader and the application image |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| Make sure the USB connector is in place and the power LED on the board |
| is lit. Use the Power ON/OFF switch to reset the board after loading the |
| image. |
| |
| Load the bootloader: |
| |
| .. code-block:: console |
| |
| $ newt load nrf52_boot |
| Loading bootloader |
| $ |
| |
| Load the application image: |
| |
| .. code-block:: console |
| |
| $ newt load myble2 |
| Loading app image into slot 1 |
| $ |
| |
| Establish serial connection |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| Attach a serial port to your board by connecting the USB TTL Serial |
| Cable. This should create /dev/ttyUSB0 (or similar) on your machine. |
| |
| **Note** Certain Linux OS versions have been observed to detect the |
| nrf52 board as a mass storage device and the console access doesn’t work |
| properly. In that case try powering the nrf52 board from your monitor or |
| something other than your Linux computer/laptop when you set up the |
| serial port for HCI communication. |
| |
| Open Bluetooth monitor btmon |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| ``btmon`` is a BlueZ test tool to display all HCI commands and events in |
| a human readable format. Start the btmon tool in a terminal window. |
| |
| :: |
| |
| $ sudo btmon |
| [sudo] password for admin: |
| Bluetooth monitor ver 5.37 |
| |
| Attach the blehci device to BlueZ |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| In a different terminal, attach the blehci device to the BlueZ daemon |
| (substitute the correct /dev filename for ttyUSB0). |
| |
| :: |
| |
| $ sudo btattach -B /dev/ttyUSB0 -S 1000000 |
| Attaching BR/EDR controller to /dev/ttyUSB0 |
| Switched line discipline from 0 to 15 |
| Device index 1 attached |
| |
| The baud rate used to connect to the controller may be changed by |
| overriding the default value of 1000000 in the |
| ``net/nimble/transport/uart/syscfg.yml``. Settings in the serial |
| transport ``syscfg.yml`` file can be overridden by a higher priority |
| package such as the application. So, for example, you may set the |
| ``BLE_HCI_UART_BAUD`` to a different value in |
| ``apps/blehci/syscfg.yml``. |
| |
| If there is no CTS/RTS lines present in the test environment, flow |
| control should be turned off. This can be done with -N option for |
| btattach. **Note:** -N option came with BlueZ ver 5.44. |
| Also, modify the value of ``BLE_HCI_UART_FLOW_CTRL`` in the |
| ``nimble/transport/uart/syscfg.yml`` to ``HAL_UART_FLOW_CTL_NONE``. |
| |
| Start btmgmt to send commands |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| |
| In a third terminal, start btmgmt. This tool allows you to send commands |
| to the blehci controller. Use the index number that shows up when you |
| ``btattach`` in the previous step. |
| |
| :: |
| |
| $ sudo btmgmt --index 1 |
| [sudo] password for admin: |
| |
| Set your device address (you can substitute any static random address |
| here). |
| |
| :: |
| |
| [hci1]# static-addr cc:11:11:11:11:11 |
| Static address successfully set |
| |
| Initialize the controller. |
| |
| :: |
| |
| [hci1]# power on |
| hci1 Set Powered complete, settings: powered le static-addr |
| |
| Begin scanning. |
| |
| :: |
| |
| [hci1]# find -l |
| Discovery started |
| hci1 type 6 discovering on |
| hci1 dev_found: 58:EF:77:C8:8D:17 type LE Random rssi -78 flags 0x0000 |
| AD flags 0x06 |
| eir_len 23 |
| <snip> |
