nRF52840 MDK USB Dongle Documentation

The nRF Sniffer for 802.15.4 is a debugging tool for IEEE 802.15.4-based protocols like Thread and Zigbee. It provides near real-time packet capture of wireless traffic between devices, including encrypted links.

Users can capture packets using two primary methods:

1. Wireshark: Using the provided extcap plugin to capture and visualize traffic.
2. Python Scripting: Installing the sniffer as a Python module to automate captures or integrate with custom scripts.

The sniffer can report metadata such as channel, Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), and Link Quality Indicator (LQI). Captured data includes source/destination addresses, PAN IDs, and packet payloads.

This project demonstrates a basic OpenThread network using CoAP (Constrained Application Protocol) for resource access:

• Thread CoAP Client: Uses the Zephyr CoAP API to access resources on a server. It includes a Multiprotocol Bluetooth LE extension using the Nordic UART Service (NUS), allowing control of LED states via Bluetooth LE within a Thread network.
• Thread CoAP Server: Exposes specific CoAP resources on the Thread network:
  • /light: Controls LED0 (Red).
  • /provisioning: Used for performing provisioning tasks.

Communication can be performed via unicast (to a specific paired node) or multicast (to all nodes in the network).

The nRF Connect SDK is a unified software development kit designed for building low-power wireless applications on Nordic Semiconductor devices, including the nRF52, nRF53, and nRF91 series. When used with the nRF52840 MDK USB Dongle, it provides an extensible framework for both memory-constrained and complex applications.

Key components integrated into the SDK include:

• RTOS: Zephyr™ real-time operating system.
• Protocol Stacks: Bluetooth® Low Energy, Bluetooth mesh, Matter, Thread/Zigbee, and LTE-M/NB-IoT/GPS (TCP/IP).
• Middleware: CoAP, MQTT, LwM2M, and various hardware drivers.
• Security: Trusted Firmware-M and the MCUboot secure bootloader.

The nRF52840 MDK USB Dongle is a low-cost development platform based on the Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 multiprotocol SoC. It is designed in a USB dongle form factor and can be used as a multiprotocol node (Bluetooth LE, Thread, Zigbee, 802.15.4, ANT, 2.4 GHz proprietary) or as a Network Co-Processor (NCP) connected to a PC via USB.

Key Hardware Capabilities:

• SoC: Arm® Cortex-M4 with FPU (64 MHz), 1 MB Flash, 256 KB RAM.
• Connectivity: 2.4 GHz Transceiver (+8 dBm TX Power), Integrated USB 2.0 Full-speed Controller, Integrated NFC-A Tag.
• Peripherals: Up to 12 GPIOs via edge pins, Arm Serial Wire Debug (SWD) port, programmable user button, and RGB LED.
• Power: 3.3V regulator (1A peak) with VBUS & VIN Power-Path Management.
• Programming: Shipped with UF2 Bootloader for drag-and-drop programming over USB.

The ADC sample demonstrates the use of the ADC driver API. It performs the following actions:

• Reads ADC samples from one or more configured channels.
• Prints the raw readings and the corresponding millivolt (mV) values to the console.
• Converts raw readings to millivolts if the reference voltage is available.

The Thread Co-processor sample implements the Radio Co-processor (RCP) architecture within the Zephyr environment. It is a customized version of the standard Zephyr OpenThread Co-Processor sample, optimized for the nRF Connect SDK requirements.

Key enhancements include:

• Increased Mbed TLS heap size.
• Lowered main stack size to provide more space for user applications.
• Support for Thread 1.2 features.
• Removal of obsolete configuration options.
• Vendor hooks: Allows users to extend handled properties with customized functionalities for the co-processor architecture.

The Zigbee Lighting demo demonstrates a basic Zigbee network using three distinct device roles:

• Zigbee Network Coordinator: Acts as the network coordinator and supports network steering commissioning.
• Zigbee Light bulb: Acts as a Zigbee Router and implements the Dimmable Light device specification (Zigbee Home Automation profile).
• Zigbee Light switch: Acts as a Zigbee End Device and implements the Dimmer Switch device specification. It can control devices with Level Control and On/Off clusters. It also includes a Multiprotocol Bluetooth LE extension using the Nordic UART Service (NUS) to control the bulb via Bluetooth LE in a Thread network.

To analyze network traffic, you can use the nRF Sniffer for 802.15.4.

The NFC URI record sample demonstrates how to use an NFC tag to expose a URL to NFC-enabled polling devices using the NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF).

Behavior:

• On startup, the sample initializes the NFC tag and generates an NDEF message containing the URL https://makerdiary.com.
• The application listens for NFC events.
• Visual Indicator: The Red LED turns on when an NFC field is detected and turns off when the field is removed.

Critical Requirement: This sample requires the UF2 Bootloader version 0.7.1 or higher. Older versions of the UF2 Bootloader use the NFC1 and NFC2 pins for GPIO functionality, which will conflict with this sample.

The USB HID Mouse sample demonstrates the Zephyr project's USB Human Interface Device (HID) driver.

Behavior:

• Enumerates the board as a mouse.
• Maps the onboard button to a left mouse click.
• Optionally supports a right mouse button (depending on board hardware).
• Provides X-axis and Y-axis movement.
• Remote Wakeup: If the USB peripheral driver supports it, clicking the button will perform a wakeup request if the USB bus is in a suspended state.

If your Bluetooth Low Energy Controller supports Extended Scanning, you can enable this functionality in the BLE Observer sample.

To enable it during the build process, use the following overlay configuration: -- -DOVERLAY_CONFIG=overlay-extended.conf

Alternatively, you can enable CONFIG_BT_EXT_ADV directly in the project configuration file.