There are ~100 Knowledge Base Articles (KBAs) in the Bluetooth section of the forum on a diverse range of sub-topics. We know they are sometimes challenging to find, especially when you don't know what exists (and therefore you don't search for it).
To simplify this task we have created a Bluetooth Knowledge Base Article List which has all the KBAs divided into sub-topics. This list only contains KBAs which are meaningful today, so you won't find anything related with SDK 1.x, BGScript or anything else which has been deprecated. Most of those KBAs are still here but their title has been marked with a "[Deprecated]" prefix and a Note pointing for a more updated KBA where applicable. This is to avoid confusing our customers into reading material which is no longer applicable.
It would be great to hear if you find this list useful and any thoughts you might have on how to improve it.
This version has some feature improvements, but these improvements required that we make some changes to the GATT attributes. Because of this, some phones may experience connection problems after the BGX13 firmware is updated.
Reason for Problem
Some mobile devices remember the GATT attributes of devices that have been paired or bonded in the past. When the GATT attributes are changed after the 1.2 update, the mobile device cached GATT information is misaligned between the two devices. This causes invalid handles to bluetooth services and characteristics. As a result attempts to connect to the device may no longer work, or some feature may not work such as sending or receiving data between a phone and the specific BGX for which this invalid bonding exists.
Invalid/misaligned bonding data must be cleared and then the bond should be re-established using the correct GATT attributes.
Solution
The problem may manifest in the following ways.
On iOS, you may see a message on the device details screen reading "SOME_OTHER_MODE".
On either Android or iOS, you may also see a password dialog appear at an inappropriate time or when no password has been set. You might also see that data is not being sent from the phone to the BGX or from the BGX to the phone.
To solve this problem, perform the following operations:
If you have access to the BGX command line interface such as through a Terminal emulator connected to the serial interface, enter the command 'clrb' to clear the bonding information from the BGX.
On your phone, open the Bluetooth Settings and locate the BGX device. Click a "i" icon, gear icon, or other details icon for the device in the Bluetooth settings and choose "Forget" or "Unpair".
On your phone, turn Bluetooth off and then back on. This has been particularly noted as a necessary step on iOS 13. Alternatively, you could reboot the phone itself. However, rebooting is not a substitute for "forgetting" the device in the Bluetooth settings.
Kill the BGX Commander app as you would any app on your iOS or Android phone.
Restart BGX Commander and re-connect to the device. It should work correctly now.
I was looking at the API notes for 2.13.0.0 and saw cmd_le_connection_read_channel_map() has been added. I was a little confused about what the return value means. If a channel is marked as Used, what exactly does that mean in this context? Does it mean the AFH algorithm is avoiding that channel as per KBA BT 0406?
Additionally, what is the bit order for the output in the 5-byte return?
In my project I would like to be able to put my MCU in deep sleep mode for a long period of time (about 1 day). In this mode the BLE loop is not even called. I am making use of the function :
gecko_peek_event()
So, after a certain amount of time, I call this script :
- Whenever I ask for how long I can sleep, I always end up having "131071999" which is 0x7cfffff.
- The time which is actually slept is always smaller than 131072 ms = 0x20000.
- The time actually slept is modulo 131072 ms. For example : if I want to sleep 131073 ms, it will sleep for only 1 ms. If I want to sleep 131071 ms, I will sleep for 131071. If I want to sleep (y*131072)+x, it will always sleep x ms.
Is it the normal behavior ? I have not seen anything regarding the "maximum" time the stack can sleep in the datasheets. Is it intentional or is it a bug from my program ?
points to iOS cable replacement apps. Several forum posts point to source code for this app, but the links seem invalid. Please point me to this app and source code for interfacing iOs to BLE113 using cable replacement profile.
I am using bgtool and ncp_btmesh_empty_target in my EVK. I want to know the details about passing parameters in the API commands. For example to initiate provisioning mode there is a command called gecko_cmd_mesh_prov_initialize_network(uint16 address,uint32 ivi);
In the above command what are the parameters can be passed to get command successful? I need some reference to use api commands and the parameter values.
Note: ncp_btmesh_empty_target code is not modified. Created by ide and used the same for testing.
I have been developing an application on a BGM13S32F512GA module. Using the Bluetooth SDK 2.12 stack I was able to link and run my program. The program uses the RTCC peripheral and defines the RTCC IRQ Handler. My understanding is that for the EFR32BG13 parts, that the RTCC is available for use the application. That certainly seems to be the case as I have been able to build and run the application.
Upon upgrading to version 2.13.0, it appears that the Bluetooth stack now uses a sleeptimer driver. For my part, the driver is targeted at the RTCC and defines the RTCC IRQ Handler. Consequently, when linking my application against the 2.13 SDK I get a duplicate definition of the handler.
My question is: Has the RTCC been taken over by the Bluetooth stack? Am I now forced to either find another timing resource or re-code to use the same driver that the Bluetooth stack now seems to insist upon (assuming I can get the functionality from the driver that I want)?
I am trying to use a BLED112 dongle to write characteristic on a remote BLE device. The characteristic is 500 bytes long.
Using BGLIB, I see the 'prepare_write' and 'execute_write' commands allow you to queue up 18 bytes at a time with 'prepare_write' and at the end send the 'execute_write' command.
However, it appears that I get an error 0409 - prepare write queue full when queueing up more that 5 prepare writes, in order words trying to write more than 90 bytes (18 * 5) to the characteristic.
How can I use the BLED to write to this long characteristic? Is there a version of firmware for the dongle that has a larger prepare write queue size?
Hello, I have developed a chrome app that uses the Bluetooth API. It works great on Mac, but does not connect on Windows 10. This seems to be something specific to the BGX13P, since it can connect to other Bluetooth devices. The module is at v1.2.2045.0
An easy way to replicate this issue is to test the web bluetooth samples on Google chrome:
I've preloaded the sample with the service UUID and Characteristic for notifications. With BGX13 GPIO0 pin set for Connection Active, you should see this toggle once connected:
gfu 0 con_active
gdi 0 olo pp
Just click "Start Notifications", should see a pop-up, then pair to the BGX13P device. Again, must be on Google chrome for this.
So now I'm wondering if there's some settings in the BGX that are now allowing Windows to connect? Maybe something with security? Also, I only have access to a fairly old Windows 10 machine, so it is possible that is the issue. There's no error messages or anything, so no idea what's going on here.
I'm working on a new design and have some experience with the BGX13P module working as a device, but now I would like to use it as a central scanner for beacons. Is there a way to show the manufacture data from the discovered devices during a "scan all" command? If not, can other modules do this? Maybe the BGM13P?
Hello to the team, I start a new topic because I dint get a response
I use the 2.92 api 3 different advertise types (legacy, axtended and coded phy ) using the BT5 cmds
all work as expected but now I want to use user advertise data.
I came across with a strange problem , I cant use start_advertising cmd with bt5_set_advertise_data , in this way the stack advertise the default data,
after some testing I manage to advertise user data , but using the old set_mode cmd that it doesnt support advertise index, so I can configure only the advertise 0.
My connections are demonstrated at the attached file on the 1st page.
My goal is to flash the ncp-empty-target firmware from Bluetooth 2.12.3 SDK and then use BGTools to validate. So, I am having 2 errors:
1st – When I click at the Device Configuration in the Debug Adapters box in the Launcher Screen, I can see the following message:
No selected boards are compatible with the selected target part
At the Target Part, I have written: EFR32MG13P732F512GM48
And at Boards: Wireless Starter Kit Mainboard (BRD4001A Rev A01)
A print is available within the 2nd page of the attached file.
2nd – When I open the BG Tools although I follow the instructions from this forum thread https://www.silabs.com/community/wireless/bluetooth/forum.topic.html/bgtool_not_respondin-4LfT ; I can´t find a ncp-empty-target firmware for my chipset, this is shown at Second page from attached pdf file the last print screen image. After flashing with the image from App builder(Not the one specific for my chip), I get the following error message after opening the COM port:
Device not responding!
The device not responding. Check that:
-the kit is powered
-the module carrier is connected to the WSTK main board
-the baud rate is set correctly (default 115200)
Please, I have looked throw the Forum, there is at least one to two weeks I am stuck with this problem.
I have checked, re-checked, triple-checked the hardware connections.
We are using bluetooth low energy dongle BLED112-V1 in our test equipement with labview apis. We would like to customize the advetising data packet with 40 byte data payload. We would also like to customize the beacon name like ML-ASST in the data payload. Please let us know, how to achive this. Send us the reference documents if available.
Forum
Bluetooth Knowledge Base Article List
There are ~100 Knowledge Base Articles (KBAs) in the Bluetooth section of the forum on a diverse range of sub-topics. We know they are sometimes challenging to find, especially when you don't know what exists (and therefore you don't search for it).
To simplify this task we have created a Bluetooth Knowledge Base Article List which has all the KBAs divided into sub-topics. This list only contains KBAs which are meaningful today, so you won't find anything related with SDK 1.x, BGScript or anything else which has been deprecated. Most of those KBAs are still here but their title has been marked with a "[Deprecated]" prefix and a Note pointing for a more updated KBA where applicable. This is to avoid confusing our customers into reading material which is no longer applicable.
It would be great to hear if you find this list useful and any thoughts you might have on how to improve it.
Additionally please check out our Bluetooth training page -> https://www.silabs.com/support/training/bluetooth
BGX13 v1.2 Upgrade Issues
Problem
Some mobile devices may have connection problems after updating BGX13 to 1.2.2045.0.
SIlicon Labs recently updated the firmware for BGX13 to version 1.2.2045.0.
https://docs.silabs.com/gecko-os/1/bgx/latest/release-notes
This version has some feature improvements, but these improvements required that we make some changes to the GATT attributes. Because of this, some phones may experience connection problems after the BGX13 firmware is updated.
Reason for Problem
Some mobile devices remember the GATT attributes of devices that have been paired or bonded in the past. When the GATT attributes are changed after the 1.2 update, the mobile device cached GATT information is misaligned between the two devices. This causes invalid handles to bluetooth services and characteristics. As a result attempts to connect to the device may no longer work, or some feature may not work such as sending or receiving data between a phone and the specific BGX for which this invalid bonding exists.
Invalid/misaligned bonding data must be cleared and then the bond should be re-established using the correct GATT attributes.
Solution
The problem may manifest in the following ways.
On iOS, you may see a message on the device details screen reading "SOME_OTHER_MODE".
On either Android or iOS, you may also see a password dialog appear at an inappropriate time or when no password has been set. You might also see that data is not being sent from the phone to the BGX or from the BGX to the phone.
To solve this problem, perform the following operations:
Also refer to https://docs.silabs.com/gecko-os/1/bgx/latest/firmware-update#problems-after-upgrade
Tips for troubleshooting and asking questions
1. Clarify to yourself what the specific issue is.
2. Apply basic troubleshooting:
3. Consult the datasheets and reference manuals. Sources include:
4. Search to see if someone has asked the same question already.
5. Include the relevant parts of your development setup in the problem description. Examples include:
6. Include steps to reproduce the problem or specific conditions the problem occurs in.
7. Be patient and avoid making duplicates of your question.
For general community usage please refer to the Silicon Labs Community Guidelines.
Quick question about new feature in 2.13.0.0
I was looking at the API notes for 2.13.0.0 and saw cmd_le_connection_read_channel_map() has been added. I was a little confused about what the return value means. If a channel is marked as Used, what exactly does that mean in this context? Does it mean the AFH algorithm is avoiding that channel as per KBA BT 0406?
Additionally, what is the bit order for the output in the 5-byte return?
Thanks!
EFR32BG1B : gecko_sleep_for_ms() is time limited
Hi,
In my project I would like to be able to put my MCU in deep sleep mode for a long period of time (about 1 day). In this mode the BLE loop is not even called. I am making use of the function :
So, after a certain amount of time, I call this script :
This is the result :
- Whenever I ask for how long I can sleep, I always end up having "131071999" which is 0x7cfffff.
- The time which is actually slept is always smaller than 131072 ms = 0x20000.
- The time actually slept is modulo 131072 ms. For example : if I want to sleep 131073 ms, it will sleep for only 1 ms. If I want to sleep 131071 ms, I will sleep for 131071. If I want to sleep (y*131072)+x, it will always sleep x ms.
Is it the normal behavior ? I have not seen anything regarding the "maximum" time the stack can sleep in the datasheets. Is it intentional or is it a bug from my program ?
Thanks.
BLE113 Cable replacement app for IOS
Hello,
https://silabs-prod.adobecqms.net/documents/public/application-notes/AN981.pdf
points to iOS cable replacement apps. Several forum posts point to source code for this app, but the links seem invalid. Please point me to this app and source code for interfacing iOs to BLE113 using cable replacement profile.
With best regards,
Faizal.
wt32i - how to hook up playsound to an evenet.
Hi,
is there an easy way to hook up playsound command to an event like connect (in iwrap 6.2)?
Thank you,
Hynek
Reference to use BLE Mesh BGAPI commands
Hi,
I am using bgtool and ncp_btmesh_empty_target in my EVK. I want to know the details about passing parameters in the API commands. For example to initiate provisioning mode there is a command called gecko_cmd_mesh_prov_initialize_network(uint16 address,uint32 ivi);
In the above command what are the parameters can be passed to get command successful? I need some reference to use api commands and the parameter values.
Note: ncp_btmesh_empty_target code is not modified. Created by ide and used the same for testing.
Use of RTCC by Bluetooth SDK 2.13
I have been developing an application on a BGM13S32F512GA module. Using the Bluetooth SDK 2.12 stack I was able to link and run my program. The program uses the RTCC peripheral and defines the RTCC IRQ Handler. My understanding is that for the EFR32BG13 parts, that the RTCC is available for use the application. That certainly seems to be the case as I have been able to build and run the application.
Upon upgrading to version 2.13.0, it appears that the Bluetooth stack now uses a sleeptimer driver. For my part, the driver is targeted at the RTCC and defines the RTCC IRQ Handler. Consequently, when linking my application against the 2.13 SDK I get a duplicate definition of the handler.
My question is: Has the RTCC been taken over by the Bluetooth stack? Am I now forced to either find another timing resource or re-code to use the same driver that the Bluetooth stack now seems to insist upon (assuming I can get the functionality from the driver that I want)?
BLED112 dongle write characteristic >90 bytes. Prepare write queue full.
I am trying to use a BLED112 dongle to write characteristic on a remote BLE device. The characteristic is 500 bytes long.
Using BGLIB, I see the 'prepare_write' and 'execute_write' commands allow you to queue up 18 bytes at a time with 'prepare_write' and at the end send the 'execute_write' command.
However, it appears that I get an error 0409 - prepare write queue full when queueing up more that 5 prepare writes, in order words trying to write more than 90 bytes (18 * 5) to the characteristic.
How can I use the BLED to write to this long characteristic? Is there a version of firmware for the dongle that has a larger prepare write queue size?
BGX13P Connection to Windows 10 Chrome Bluetooth
Hello, I have developed a chrome app that uses the Bluetooth API. It works great on Mac, but does not connect on Windows 10. This seems to be something specific to the BGX13P, since it can connect to other Bluetooth devices. The module is at v1.2.2045.0
An easy way to replicate this issue is to test the web bluetooth samples on Google chrome:
https://googlechrome.github.io/samples/web-bluetooth/notifications.html?service=331a36f5-2459-45ea-9d95-6142f0c4b307&characteristic=a73e9a10-628f-4494-a099-12efaf72258f
I've preloaded the sample with the service UUID and Characteristic for notifications. With BGX13 GPIO0 pin set for Connection Active, you should see this toggle once connected:
gfu 0 con_active
gdi 0 olo pp
Just click "Start Notifications", should see a pop-up, then pair to the BGX13P device. Again, must be on Google chrome for this.
So now I'm wondering if there's some settings in the BGX that are now allowing Windows to connect? Maybe something with security? Also, I only have access to a fairly old Windows 10 machine, so it is possible that is the issue. There's no error messages or anything, so no idea what's going on here.
BGX13P Central Scan command to return Manufacturer Data?
advertise user data on 2.9.2 sdk
I use the 2.92 api 3 different advertise types (legacy, axtended and coded phy ) using the BT5 cmds
all work as expected but now I want to use user advertise data.
I came across with a strange problem , I cant use start_advertising cmd with bt5_set_advertise_data , in this way the stack advertise the default data,
after some testing I manage to advertise user data , but using the old set_mode cmd that it doesnt support advertise index, so I can configure only the advertise 0.
user advertise data work
user advertise data doesnt workI cant use start advertising , so I cant use user advertise data on other types of advertise like , coded phy or extended advertise
Problem with BG Tool to work with EFR32MG13P732F512GM48 and ncp-empty target firmware
Hello, I need to apply the EFR32MG13P732F512GM48 chip for Bluetooth 2.4GHz Brazilian Telecommunications Certification at ANATEL.
For that I am using the EFR32MG13P732F512GM48 chip attached to the Wireless Starter Kit Mainboard (BRD4001) throw an Alternative Interface (Simplicity Debug Adapter Board Interface) = (Mini Simplicity Connector 10 pins) as shown in https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/application-notes/an958-mcu-stk-wstk-guide.pdf ; section 4.1.1 .
My connections are demonstrated at the attached file on the 1st page.
My goal is to flash the ncp-empty-target firmware from Bluetooth 2.12.3 SDK and then use BGTools to validate. So, I am having 2 errors:
1st – When I click at the Device Configuration in the Debug Adapters box in the Launcher Screen, I can see the following message:
At the Target Part, I have written: EFR32MG13P732F512GM48
And at Boards: Wireless Starter Kit Mainboard (BRD4001A Rev A01)
A print is available within the 2nd page of the attached file.
2nd – When I open the BG Tools although I follow the instructions from this forum thread https://www.silabs.com/community/wireless/bluetooth/forum.topic.html/bgtool_not_respondin-4LfT ; I can´t find a ncp-empty-target firmware for my chipset, this is shown at Second page from attached pdf file the last print screen image. After flashing with the image from App builder(Not the one specific for my chip), I get the following error message after opening the COM port:
Please, I have looked throw the Forum, there is at least one to two weeks I am stuck with this problem.
I have checked, re-checked, triple-checked the hardware connections.
Best Regards, thank you for your time!
How to customize BLE data payload on BLED112-V1 BLE dongle
Hello,
We are using bluetooth low energy dongle BLED112-V1 in our test equipement with labview apis. We would like to customize the advetising data packet with 40 byte data payload. We would also like to customize the beacon name like ML-ASST in the data payload. Please let us know, how to achive this. Send us the reference documents if available.
Regards,
Ramesh Shinde
Sr. Hardware Engineer
Microlise
Email: ramesh.shinde@microlise.com