Nordic has supported the nRF Connect Desktop tool to run as the BLE Peripheral role or BLE Central Role. This blog is to provide the demo how to compile the HEX to run on the nRF52840 DK or nRF52840 dongle.

nRF Connect for Desktop

Cross-platform development software for Bluetooth Low Energy and cIoT

nRF Connect for Desktop is a cross-platform tool that enables testing and development with Nordic’s products for Bluetooth® Low energy and cellular IoT. It allows easy setup of connections with other devices and uses these connections to read and write the external nodes. 

Highlights

Bluetooth Low Energy

  • Easy-to-use cross platform application for Bluetooth LE connectivity testing
  • Supports auto detection of connected Nordic kit and automatic FW uploading
  • Supports LE Security introduced in Bluetooth 4.2
  • Up to 8 concurrent Bluetooth LE connections
  • Max 8 concurrent central connections
  • Max 1 peripheral connection
  • Scans for Bluetooth LE devices
  • Parses advertisement data
  • Shows RSSI value
  • Connects to any connectable Bluetooth LE device
  • Discovers and parses services and characteristics
  • Getting started assistant for installing the development tools and nRF Connect SDK for nRF5340 SoC and nRF52 Series SoCs
  • One-step toolchain manager for installing development tools and nRF Connect SDK for nRF5340 SoC and nRF52 Series SoCs

https://www.nordicsemi.com/Software-and-tools/Development-Tools/nRF-Connect-for-desktop

https://nordicsemiconductor.github.io/pc-nrfconnect-docs/supported_apps.html

nRF Connect Bluetooth Low Energy

Inside the nRF Connect Desktop, it includes the BLE

nRF Connect Bluetooth Low Energy is a cross-platform tool that enables testing and development with Bluetooth Low Energy (previously called Bluetooth Smart). It allows easy setup of connections with other devices and use these connections for reading and writing to the external nodes.

https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/pc-nrfconnect-ble

Youtube Videos related to the nRF Connect Desktop

How to install the nRF Connect Bluetooth Low Energy

How to use nRF52840 USB Dongle and nRF Connect for emulating a BLE peripheral

How to Compile the BLE Connectivity HEX

Step 1:

Download the nRF5 SDK 15.3 (https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF5_SDK/nRF5_SDK_v15.x.x/)

Step 2:

Unzip the file and download the big patch inside the folder

You can find the big patch here: https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/pc-ble-driver/tree/master/hex

Step 3:

Go into nRF5_SDK_15.3.0_59ac345 folder, and copy nRF5_SDK_15.3.0_connectivity.patch there.

Still inside that folder call “git apply nRF5_SDK_15.3.0_connectivity.patch –ignore-whitespace”

git apply nRF5_SDK_15.3.0_connectivity.patch --ignore-whitespace

Step 4:

Compile the \nRF5_SDK_15.3.0_59ac345\examples\connectivity\ble_connectivity\pca10040\ser_s132v3_hci\ with armgcc or ses — NRF52832 DK

\nRF5_SDK_15.3.0_59ac345\examples\connectivity\ble_connectivity\pca10056\ser_s132v3_hci\ with armgcc or ses — NRF52840 DK

Note: currently, it works with softdevice S132v3.0 in this version.

Step 5:

Flash \nRF5_SDK_15.3.0_59ac345\components\softdevice\s132v3\hex softdevice

Step 6:

Flash the newly compiled hex file in ser_s132v3_hci

You can also refer to the instruction from the github as below.

There is an instruction on how to build the .hex file here: https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/pc-ble-driver/blob/master/README.md#Compiling-connectivity-hex-files

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