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Original question:

PACKET-SNIFFER: Sniffer tool for classic bluetooth

PACKET-SNIFFER: CC2540 Sniffer Dongle

Venkatraman Balakrishnan
Intellectual 360 points
Part Number: PACKET-SNIFFER
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: CC2540EMK-USB, CC2540

Hi,

    I am using the CC2540EMK-USB Dongle to sniff/capture BLE packets. I am currently using the Smart RF sniffer (1). 

ACTUAL BEHAVIOR:

With my initial set of tests, when I start a fresh capture, the sniffer tool does not seem to sniff/capture conenction packets/frames consistently i.e. once the sniffer tool sees the connection frames/packets, it consistently records every event from establishing connection, keep alive frames, read, write, notification, etc. But in most ocassions when it does not see any connection frame , then it stays not recording any of the connection frames irrespective of what is happening in the BLE device after that. I have to restart either my BLE central device or BLE peripheral device multiple times for the sniffer tool to see and populate the connection frames again.

EXPECTED BEHAVIOR:

The sniffer tool should always see and populate the connection frames.

Please let me know if this is a problem with the Dongle hardware or the sniffer software. Otherwise, is the sniffer expected to not capture frames consistently? 

  • 0
    TI__Mastermind 25810 points

    Hello,

    I've assigned an expert to comment.

  • 0 in reply to Ammar N
    TI__Genius 17265 points

    Hi,

    As you mentioned, if you miss the initial connection event, you will miss all follow-up messages. This is an issue you will see on all BLE sniffers since you will not know the connection information in order to follow it. In regards to missing the connection event, this is certainly something that will happen on all BLE sniffers from time-to-time, however there are things that you can try to minimize the rate of occurrence. 

    Are you in an area with a lot of noise on the 2.4G band? How far is your monitoring node from the two connecting nodes? Tinkering with those two things can often improve the results you see significantly.

    Best Regards,
    Alec

  • 0 in reply to Alec May
    Intellectual 360 points

    Yes, I am in an area with lot of noise on the 2.4G band. But the monitoring node (CC2540 sniffer dongle) is very close ~0.5 feet from the connecting nodes. I will try the setup in a noise free area and update my results.

    Secondly, I have attached an image that shows how I am analyzing the BLE packet/frame and its data.

    I would like to know if there is a better way to analyze the packet data. I am already aware that Wireshark is only supported by Smart RF Packet Sniffer 2. Is there any other better way the Smart RF Packet Sniffer (v1) represents the packet data, so that we can analyze the data as we do in Wireshark. Please let me know.

    Thanks