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Entering PTM over the air using the HCIExt_EnablePTM command

Other Parts Discussed in Thread: CC2541

My device contains a CC2541 BLE Module.  I would like to use Production Test Mode for some radio testing.  I understand there is a way to start this mode wirelessly, which would be ideal for me.  As I understand it, I should be able to connect to the device through BTool and then send the HCIExt_EnablePTM command.  But I'm not able to get that to work.  I'm connecting through BTool fine but when I send the HCIExt_EnablePTM command I get a response indicating Unknown HCI Command:

What am I doing wrong? 

One guess I have is that I saw the following in the TI BLE Vendor Specific HCI Guide, in the section on the HCIExt_EnablePTM command:

“This command is only available when the BLE Controller is built without external access to the Controller (i.e. when no transport interface such as RS232 is permitted).” 

My CC2541 Firmware does have UART communication enabled.  It requires a UART command to go into advertising mode - which is a precondition for a BTool connection.  If that is the problem, is there some other CC2541 Firmware readily available that I could load on the BLE Module which allows entry into PTM? 

Thanks,

Sasha

  • More information on PTM can be found on our wiki page:

    http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/PTM

  • Hi Willis + Co,

    This is Jennifer Wang, TSR working with Sasha.   Sasha is well aware of our Wiki page.  We need your help to further look into this specific issue. Please relook into the original post and leave comments on what might be causing the issue and if any solutions come to mind.

    Best,

    Jennifer Wang

  • Hi Sasha,

    The PTM mode can not be entered wirelessly. That's to say, you could implement a characteristic of your own which locally enables PTM on the OTA device, but the tests are not executable over the air.

    PTM mode is the same as DTM in that the device will accept HCI commands specific to RF PHY tests defined by the Bluetooth SIG, and which are transmitted serially by a Bluetooth tester such as ones by Anritsu or Rhode&Schwarz.

    If you are connected to the dongle in BTool, then the PTM/DTM commands will apply to the dongle, not the device connceted over the air. As such, if the USB dongle (as an example) is connected to BTool it is already running DTM-capable firmware (HostTestApp) and so enabling PTM makes no sense.

    To test your end-product without re-flashing it with HostTestApp, but instead having PTM capability on your production-image, you need to follow the instructions on our wiki page quoted by Willis1 above, with a Bluetooth tester connected to the device under test.

    The main point here is that with PTM, on reset, the application must make a choice of whether to activate standard BLE operation, or go into PTM mode.  These are mutually exclusive.

    Best regards,
    Aslak