RF-star RF-DG-40A Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0 nRF52840 USB Dongle User Guide
- June 6, 2024
- RF-star
Table of Contents
RF-DG-40A Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0 nRF52840 USB Dongle
RF-DG-40A Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0 nRF52840 USB Dongle User Guide
Version 1.1
Shenzhen RF-star Technology Co., Ltd. Nov. 25th, 2020
www.szrfstar.com
Table of Contents
RF-DG-40A
V1.1 – Nov. 2020
Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 1 1
Device Overview …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 2
1.1 Description………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2 1.2 Key
Features ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 2 1.3 Application
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2 2 Minimum Requirements
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3 3 Kit
Content……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 4 3.1
Hardware Content …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4 3.2
Download Content…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4 4 Getting
Started…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5 A How to
Build a Connection ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5 How to Read
and Write …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 9 5 ZigBee Sniffer
Packet Capture………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..11 5.1 Software
Preparation……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..11 5.2 Environment
Setup…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………12
5.2.1 Configure Wireshark Environment …………………………………………………………………………………..12
5.2.2 Burn Firmware to nRF52840 Dongle ………………………………………………………………………………14 5.2.3
Restart the Computer (It Must Be Done)………………………………………………………………………..15 6
Programming………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………16 7 Hardware
Description ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….17 7.1 Hardware
Drawings ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….17 7.2 Block
Diagram…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………18 7.3 SWD
Interface…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………19 7.4 Buttons and
LEDs…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..19 7.5
USB…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..20 7.6 External
Connections …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….20 8 Revision History
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………22 9 Contact
Us…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..23
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RF-DG-40A
V1.1 – Nov. 2020
1 Device Overview
1.1 Description
The nRF52840 Dongle is a small, low-cost USB dongle that supports Bluetooth® Low Energy 5, Bluetooth mesh, Thread, ZigBee, 802.15.4, ANT and 2.4 GHz proprietary protocols. The Dongle is the perfect target hardware for use with nRF Connect for Desktop as it is low-cost but still support all the short range wireless standards used with Nordic devices. The dongle has been designed to be used as a wireless HW device together with nRF Connect for Desktop as well as programming through nRFUtil. For other use cases please do note that there is no debug support on the Dongle, only support for programming the device and communicating through USB. It can also be used to develop code for the nRF52840 SoC mounted on the dongle. Programming is supported through a USB enabled bootloader. Connectors for external debuggers are available. It is supported by most of the nRF Connect for Desktop APPs and will automatically be programmed if needed. In addition custom applications can be compiled and downloaded to the Dongle. It has a user programmable RGB LED, a green LED, a user programmable button as well as 15 GPIO accessible from castellated solder points along the edge. Example applications are available in the nRF5 SDK under the board name PCA10059.
1.2 Key Features
Bluetooth 5 ready multiprotocol radio – 2 Mbps – Long Range – Advertising
Extensions – Channel Selection Algorithm #2 (CSA #2)
IEEE 802.15.4 radio support – Thread – Zigbee
Arm® CortexTM-M4 with floating point support DSP instruction set
Arm CryptoCell CC310 cryptographic accelerator 15 GPIO available via edge castellation USB interface direct to nRF52840 SoC Integrated 2.4 GHz PCB antenna 1 user-programmable button 1 user-programmable RGB LED 1 user- programmable LED 1.7 V ~ 5.5 V operation from USB or external NFC available
1.3 Application
Advanced wearables – Advanced personal fitness devices – Connected health
IoT – Connected home sensors and controllers
– Industrial IoT sensors and controllers Interactive entertainment devices
– Advanced remote controls – Gaming controllers
– Virtual/Augmented Reality applications
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2 Minimum Requirements
Before you start, check that you have the required hardware and software.
Hardware requirements PC with a standard type-A USB port RF-DG-40A Software
requirements nRF Connect for Desktop
Download address: https://www.nordicsemi.com/Software-and-tools/Development-
Tools/nRF-Connect-for-desktop/Download#infotabs Operating system: macOS,
Linux, or Windows 7 or later
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3 Kit Content
The nRF52840 Dongle consists of hardware (RF-DG-40A), access to application firmware examples, documentation, hardware schematics, and layout files.
3.1 Hardware Content The nRF52840 Dongle hardware consists of the board (RF- DG-40A).
Figure 1. RF-DG-40A (Front)
Figure 2. RF-DG-40A (Back)
3.2 Download Content
The nRF52840 Dongle downloadable content consists of a software tool,
application firmware examples, and hardware files. Software nRF Connect for
Desktop
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4 Getting Started
Complete a few steps to set up the hardware and install the required software. Before you start, check Minimum requirements on page 3.
A How to Build a Connection
Connect the Dongle RF-DG-40A to a computer and get started with nRF Connect
for Desktop. 1. Download and install nRF Connect for Desktop.
This includes the driver for the nRF52840 USB Device Firmware Upgrade (DFU)
feature. For documentation on the tool, see nRF Connect. 2. Insert the
nRF52840 Dongle in a USB port on your computer. The status light (LD2) starts
pulsing red, indicating that the Dongle is powered up and is in bootloader
mode. After a few seconds, the computer will recognize the Dongle as a USB
composite device. The driver needed for the nRF52840 USB DFU feature is also
installed. 3. Open nRF Connect for Desktop, choose Bluetooth Low Energy. If
there is no Open choice, you need to install, see as follows:
4. After installation, click Open and the following interface will appear. At this time, you need to select the corresponding Dongle device to use normally.
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5. Click Select device to pop up the device name, and then click Select the corresponding device (the device name actually corresponds to the MAC address of the device).
6. After selecting the device successfully, the following interface will appear. You can click Generic Access to view the information about the device as the host. Then click Start scan to start scanning the broadcast device.
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7. After clicking Start scan, the scanned devices will be listed in the window on the right.
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8. If there are too many devices to find a specific device, you can click the small triangle of Option and enter the device name or MAC address in the filter box to filter the redundant devices. Check “Sort by signal strength” to select whether the signals are arranged in descending order from strong to weak.
9. Click Connect to specify the slave, and the interface is as follows:
10. Multi connection operation: just click Connect in the scan window on the right (without disconnecting the currently connected device), you can connect multiple slaves.
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How to Read and Write
1. Device read operation. For example, to read the 8902 channel of the 8900
service, you only need to click the arrow to complete the reading, provided
that the characteristic value of the service has a read attribute.
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2. Device write operation. For example, to write 17 bytes of 0xff to 8901 channel of 8900 service, just fill in the data in the box in the figure and click the button indicated by the arrow, provided that the characteristic value of the service has write attribute.
3. Receive a notify message. For example, to receive the notify notification of 8900 service from 8901 channel, you need to click the button indicated by the arrow to receive the message of the channel, provided that the characteristic value of the service has the notify attribute.
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5 ZigBee Sniffer Packet Capture 5.1 Software Preparation
Official ZigBee Sniffer firmware Download address:
https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/nRF-Sniffer-for-802.15.4
Wireshark 2.4.5 and above version Download address:
https://www.wireshark.org/#download
Pay attention to the following points when installing Wireshark 1. Click
“Wireshark Desktop Icon”.
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2. Click “USBPcap” and install.
3. Python 2.7 and above development environment. Python 3.7 version is used here. Shenzhen RF-star Technology Co., Ltd.
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Download address: https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-374/ Click
“next” at each step when installing python
5.2 Environment Setup 5.2.1 Configure Wireshark Environment
1. Open Wireshark -> help -> about Wireshark -> folder -> double-click to
open extcap path, as shown in the figure below:
2. Unzip the nRF-Sniffer-for-802.15.4-master.zip file and copy the “nrf802154_sniffer.py” and “nrf802154_sniffer.bat” files in the nrf802154_sniffer folder to the Wireshark extcap path just opened. As shown in the figure below:
No matter how complicated the environment is, the operation can work as long as there are two files. 3. Open wireshark to set the parameters, click Ctrl + Shift + P to enter Wireshark preferences. Search Protocols ->
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IEEE 802.15.4, click Decryption Keys, edit the decryption key to the following
settings: “Decryption key”: 00112233445566778899 aabbccddeeff “Decryption key
index”: 0 “Key hash”: Thread hash
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4. Search Protocols -> Thread “Thread sequence counter”: 00000000 Click “Use PAN ID as first two octets of master key” Click “Automatically acquire Thread sequence counter”, as shown in the figure below:
5. Search Protocols -> 6LoWPAN Click “Derive ID according to RFC 4944”
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“Context 0”: fdde:ad00:beef:0::/64 “Context 1”: 64:FF9B::/96 for working
with Nordic Thread Border Router “Context 2”: Native IPv6 global prefix that
is being propagated in the Thread Network.
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6. Search Protocols -> CoAP “CoAP UDP port to”: 61631
5.2.2 Burn Firmware to nRF52840 Dongle
1. Insert the nRF52840 Dongle into the USB port. 2. Press the reset button to
enter DFU mode. LD2 LED starts to flash blue. 3. Enable nRF Connect for
Desktop, and enable the Programmer. 4. Select Nordic Semiconductor DFU
Bootloader from the device list. 5. Click to add the hexadecimal file, and
then select “nrf802154_sniffer_dongle.hex” in the nrf802154_sniffer folder
under the nRF-Sniffer-for-802.15.4-master folder. 6. Make sure that the
beginning of the firmware map address is 0x00001000. If the wrong hexadecimal
file is selected,
the MBR part may be overwritten. 7. Click to write to the updated firmware. 8.
Remove the dongle from the USB port and plug it in again. Do not press the
“reset” button.
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5.2.3 Restart the Computer (It Must Be Done).
1. Restart the computer. 2. Plug the nRF52840 Dongle with the firmware into
the computer. 3. Then open wireshark, it will identify a nRF sniffer for
802.15.4 device.
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4. Set the corresponding ZigBee channel. 5. Click start to grab the ZigBee communication package under the current channel.
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6 Programming
The nRF52840 Dongle can be programmed through the built-in USB bootloader.
Before you start, check Getting started on page 3. To program the Dongle, it
must be in bootloader mode. The Dongle can be made to enter bootloader mode in
one of the two ways: Trigger the nRF52840 USB DFU endpoint. The firmware to
support this is embedded in all nRF Connect for Desktop apps for the nRF52840
Dongle. If you add the DFU Trigger Library (USB) to your custom device
firmware, you will be able to trigger the DFU from nRF Connect for Desktop
without using any buttons. For documentation, see DFU Trigger Library (USB),
which is part of the nRF5 SDK v15.2.0. For Dongles with applications missing
the USB DFU endpoint: Press the RESET button.
When the nRF52840 Dongle has entered the bootloader mode, LD2 pulses red. The Dongle is now ready for programming. All the nRF Connect for Desktop apps require specific firmware to be present on the nRF52840 Dongle to function correctly. The apps will update the firmware if needed. If you want to upload a custom firmware to the Dongle, you can do this by using the dedicated Programmer programming app, or nrfutil.
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7 Hardware Description
The nRF52840 Dongle can be used as a development platform for the nRF52840 SoC. It features user configurable LEDs and a button as well as multiple GPIOs available along the board edges. In addition to radio communication, the nRF52840 SoC can communicate with a computer through USB.
7.1 Hardware Drawings
The nRF52840 Dongle hardware drawings show both sides of the RF-DG-40A board.
Figure 3. RF-DG-40A Dongle (Front)
Figure 4. RF-DG-40A Dongle (Back)
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www.szrfstar.com The PCB footprint is as follow:
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Figure 5. RF-DG-40A PCB Footprint
7.2 Block Diagram
The block diagram illustrates the nRF52840 Dongle functional architecture.
32.0 MHz 32.768 kHz
USB
GPIOs
+5 V
Button
nRF52840
NFC
IPEX Connector
Low-pass Filter
Antenna Matching
PCB Antenna
Reset
Power Supply
Figure 6. Block Diagram of RF-DG-40A
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7.3 SWD Interface
On the back side of the nRF52840 Dongle, there are connection points for the
SWD interface. The dongle is equipped with a footprint for two different
connectors. On footprint P1, a standard 2×5-pin pin header with a 1.27 mm
pitch can be soldered. On footprint J2, it is possible to connect a TC2050
cable from Tag-Connect.
Figure 7. SWD Interface Connectors For instance, a Nordic development kit can
be used as a programmer for the Dongle.
7.4 Buttons and LEDs
The nRF528540 Dongle is equipped with a green LED (LD1), a multicolor RGB LED
(LD2), a user configurable button (SW1), and a reset button (SW2). The LEDs
and buttons are connected to dedicated I/Os on the nRF52840 SoC.
Figure 8. nRF52840 Dongle Buttons and LEDs
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Part
Description
GPIO
SW1
Button
P1.06
SW2
Reset
P0.18
LD1
Green
P0.06
LD2
Red
P0.08
LD2
Green
P1.09
LD2
Blue
P0.12
The buttons are active low, which means that the input will be connected to ground when the button is activated. The
SW1 button has no external pull-up resistor, but the reset button (SW2) has a 10 k pull-up resistor. To use SW1, P1.06
must be configured as an input with an internal pull-up resistor.
The LEDs are active low, which means that writing a logical zero ‘0’ to the output pin will illuminate the LED.
7.5 USB
The nRF52840 Dongle features a USB-A-type connector printed on the circuit
board.
Figure 9. USB Port
7.6 External Connections
The nRF52840 Dongle has 15 GPIOs in addition to the ground, power, and SWD
connections along the castellated edges. The castellated edge holes have a
pitch of 0.1 inches (2.54 mm) and a row spacing of 0.6 inches (15.24 mm)2,
making it suitable for stripboard connection. Test points for additional nine
GPIOs are available on the back side of the circuit board, leaving a total of
24 GPIOs accessible. Note: There is no reverse voltage protection on the power
connections.
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The SWD connections are located 0.2 inches (5.08 mm) away from the GPIOs with a row spacing of 0.4 inches (10.16 mm)
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8 Revision History
Date
Version No. Description
Author
2020.04.17
V0.1
The initial version is released.
Aroo Wang
2020.04.23
V1.0
Add SWD interface specification.
Aroo Wang
2020.09.17
V1.1
Add ZigBee Sniffer packet capture instructions. Update pin diagram.
Aroo Wang
2020.11.25
V1.1
Change the error description of the LED color when entering Aroo Wang
BootLoader
Note: 1. The document will be optimized and updated from time to time. Before
using this document, please make sure it is
the latest version. 2. To obtain the latest document, please download it from
the official website: www.szrfstar.com.
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9 Contact Us
SHENZHEN RF-STAR TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. Shenzhen HQ: Add.: Room 601, Block C, Skyworth Building, High-tech Park, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China Tel.: 86-755-3695 3756 Chengdu Branch: Add.: No. B3-03, Building No.1, Incubation Park, High-Tech District, Chengdu, Sichuan, China, 610000 Tel.: 86-28-6577 5970
Email: sunny@szrfstar.com, sales@szrfstar.com Web.: www.szrfstar.com
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References
- 📧sunny@szrfstar.com
- 蓝牙串口模块BLE_ZigBee_UWB_WiFi射频模块_蓝牙方案商_无线模块厂商|信驰达
- 蓝牙串口模块BLE_ZigBee_UWB_WiFi射频模块_蓝牙方案商_无线模块厂商|信驰达
- GitHub - NordicSemiconductor/nRF-Sniffer-for-802.15.4: nRF-based 802.15.4 sniffer (firmware and software)
- nRF Connect for Desktop - Downloads - nordicsemi.com
- Python Release Python 3.7.4 | Python.org
- Wireshark · Go Deep
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