RF-Star RF-DG-32B User manual

RF-DG-32B
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RF-DG-32B Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0 Sniffer
nRF52832 USB Dongle
User Guide
Version 1.2
Shenzhen RF-star Technology Co., Ltd.
Aug. 2nd, 2021

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Table of Contents
Table of Contents................................................................................................................................................................ 2
1 Description ........................................................................................................................................................................ 3
2 Preparation before Use ................................................................................................................................................ 4
3 Preparation for Development Environment .......................................................................................................... 5
3.1 Install Wireshark................................................................................................................................................. 5
3.2 Configure Wireshark Environment .............................................................................................................. 6
3.3 Install Python....................................................................................................................................................... 8
3.4 Install Pyserial v3.4 ........................................................................................................................................... 8
3.5 Parts of Solutions When Install in Windows 7 ......................................................................................10
4 Instruction for Use ........................................................................................................................................................12
5 Electrostatics Discharge Warnings ........................................................................................................................17
6 Revision History ............................................................................................................................................................18
7 Contact Us.......................................................................................................................................................................19

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1 Description
1. This Sniffer packet capture tool RF-DG-32B can be used to capture 1M bps data under the BLE5.0 protocol.
2. It is backward compatible with BLE 4.2 and can fully capture BLE4.2 data packets.
3. This tool supports capturing broadcast packets and data packets of our Nordic solutions nRF52810, nRF52832,
nRF52840 and TI solutions CC2640R2F, CC2642R, CC2652R and other series BLE5.0 modules. The new series
from Nordic need to be checked.
Bluetooth Protocol
Support or Not
Description
BLE4.2
Yes
RF-star Sniffer is backward compatible with BLE4.2
BLE5.0
1 Mbps
Yes
2 Mbps
No
If the user needs to work at 2 Mbps, adjust to 1 Mbps first
for data capture test. The 2 Mbps data cannot be captured.
Long range
No
nRF52832 chip does not support long range mode.
Extend packet
No
Nordic official firmware supports to capture the packet of
ADV_EXT_IND.
But the Wireshark cannot recognize the extend packets,
the users need to parse the data by themselves.
For the official reply about not being able to capture the extend packet, please check the following link:
https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/53885/rookie-seeking-help-to-receive-extended-adverts/217939#217939

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2 Preparation before Use
1. Prepare an RF-DG-32B and a Bluetooth slave device with data to be captured.
2. Download the Wireshark software to install and configure the environment.
Wireshark download address: https://www.wireshark.org/#download
3. Install the Python v3.7.x environment.
Python v3.7.x environment download address: https://www.Python.org/downloads/release/Python-378/
4. Download nRF Sniffer for Bluetooth LE v3.x.x environment.
Download address: https://www.nordicsemi.com/Software-and-tools/Development-Tools/nRF-Sniffer-for-Bluetooth-
LE/Download#infotabs
5. Download CP2102 driver.
Download link: https://www.szrfstar.com/downloadnda/712-cn.html

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3 Preparation for Development Environment
Download the above three APPs.
The compressed package file nrf_Sniffer_for_bluetooth_le_3.0.0_129d2b3 (hereinafter collectively referred to as the zip)
is decompressed as shown in the following figure:
Note: Do not change the installation steps, otherwise the installation may fail.
3.1 Install Wireshark
1. Double-click Wireshark-win64-3.2.2.exe to install, choose “next” all the way, and select the Wireshark Desktop Icon
to create a shortcut:

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2. As shown below, choose the install location:
3. As shown below, select USB Capture and install it:
4. The remaining steps just need to click next and yes until the installation is complete, and then restart the computer.
3.2 Configure Wireshark Environment
1. Open Wireshark -> help -> about Wireshark -> folder -> double-click to open Extcap path, as shown in the figure
below:

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2. Unzip the zip file and copy the four files in the extcap folder to the Wireshark extcap path just opened. Take the
global path as an example. The following figure shows the copied effect:
3. Then double-click the personally configured websites in Wireshark, as shown below:
4. Open the profiles folder under the pop-up folder.
5. Then copy the Profile_nRF_Sniffer_Bluetooth_LE folder in the decompressed zip file to the profiles folder, as shown
below is the effect of the copy:

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3.3 Install Python
1. Double-click Python-3.7.8.exe to install and keep clicking “next” until the following interface:
2. Here you need to select the option in the red box, that is, add an environment variable, and then click “next” until
the installation is completed.
3.4 Install Pyserial v3.4
1. Press the Windows key and R key to bring up the run, then enter cmd and press Enter to enter the command line
interface (note that running cmd as an administrator, the computer used for the demonstration is the administrator
by default. If not, please google "How to Run cmd as administrator "), enter" pip --version "command in the cmd
window to query the pip version of Python, as shown in the figure below, it means that pip has been started normally
and the version number is 20.1.1.

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2. Enter “Python -m pip install --upgrade pip” command to update pip, as shown below, the update is successful (pls
note the number of “-“ in the code).
Note: If failed, the following will be shown:
Then, pls enter “Python -m pip install -U pip” command, update the pip, then successfully installed.
3. Enter the "cd C:\Program Files\Wireshark\extcap" command to locate the cmd interface to the "C:\Program
Files\Wireshark\extcap" directory, if you use the global path before. Note that at this time, the extcap directory of the
Wireshark installation directory is just our Where you copy the five files here, the Wireshark installation directory is
different, this path may be different, please adjust it by yourself, as shown below after switching:
4. After adjusting the directory, enter the command “pip install -r requirements.txt”, then the installation of pyserial v3.4
will start.
5. The following figure shows the success:

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Note:
To execute this command, the cmd operation interface must be located under the corresponding path selected in chapter
3.2 (global path extcap or personal path extcap ", that is, under the current operating directory, there must be a text file
containing "requirements.txt", etc. Files, as shown below:
3.5 Parts of Solutions When Install in Windows 7
In the Window 7 environment, when using Python 3.7.x and Sniffer 2.0 provided by the current official website, it is easy
to encounter the situation that Python cannot be upgraded during the installation process or the Sniffer port cannot be
recognized by Wireshark after the installation environment. According to the installation environment provided by the
installation manual, some problems that may occur during the installation process are explained as follows:
1. The Windows 10 system uses the latest configuration environment Python 3.7.x and Sniffer 2.0, and it is
recommended to use the combination of Python 2.7.16, Wireshark 3.0.13, and Sniffer 2.0 for Window 7 to build a
packet capture environment. Sniffer cannot be used mainly in three aspects: the failure to upgrade the pip version
in the Python environment, the failure to install the pyserial v3.4 script, and the problem of driver installation.
2. After installing Python on Windows 7, the upgrade of Python often fails. First, run the CMD terminal with administrator
privileges, and execute "pip --version" to query the current version of pip in Python.
pip update issue:
To update pip to the latest version, use the command:
python –m pip install ––upgrade pip
Note: There are two consecutive "-" before the upgrade command upgrade.
If the update fails at this step, try switching the update command:
python -m pip install -U pip
python -m pip install -U --force-reinstall pip

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3. Pyserial v3.4 installation problem:
On the premise of configuring the Wireshark file, the terminal interface executes the following command in the
command directory to install Pyserial v3.4:
pip install -r requirements.txt
Note: The script file installation failure is mostly due to network problems.
4. Before using Sniffer, ensure that the relevant drivers are installed successfully
Serial port driver CP2102: If the driver is not installed successfully, it will directly cause Wireshark to not recognize
the Sniffer port. When the Sniffer is plugged into the computer, you can check whether there is a CP2102 port in the
port column of the device manager in the Windows system as shown below:
Note: If the above port can be successfully identified, it means that the Sniffer computer-side serial port driver has
been successfully installed.
USBPCAP packet capture tool: This tool appears in the Wireshark software installation process, although its
installation does not directly affect the Wireshark software to identify Sniffer, that is, whether there is a Sniffer port,
it will affect the subsequent packet capture, you need to follow the manual step by step Install the plugin tool.
Note: Npcap and wincap are also used as packet capture plug-ins. Npcap is an upgraded version of wincap. In the
Window 7 environment, if the previous Python environment and pyserial v3.4 are installed correctly, some ports
cannot be recognized. You can try to install winpcap to solve it.
If the above methods cannot solve the problem, you can try to uninstall all previous installations and rebuild the
configuration environment.

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4 Instruction for Use
1. After the software is successfully installed, connect the RF-DG-32B to the PC via USB, open Wireshark, and select
nRF Sniffer COMx.
2. Select -> View -> Interface Toolbar -> nRF Sniffer in the toolbar, the following interface will appear (by default, all
BLE broadcast signals are captured).

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3. Select any RF-star BLE slave development board to power on for broadcasting.
4. Capture the data packets of the specified MAC address device.
You can check the device's MAC address through the APP, as shown below:
As shown in the red box in the figure below, click the device filter drop-down box to select the device with the

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corresponding MAC address. After selecting the fixed device, only the data packets related to the device will be
captured.
5. After Wireshark selects the MAC address device, the broadcast packet, scan request packet and scan response
packet of the device will be captured.
6. The data packets that the device communicates with any master can be captured, including the connection

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process and the data packets after the connection.
Double-click any packet to view the specific content. For example, the device captures the broadcast packet as
follows:
7. When a connection event occurs, all data communication processes of the connection process can be captured.
After connecting the device, the APP interface is displayed as follows:

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Use the serial assistant to send the ASCII code “123456” to the BLE transparent transmission module. After receiving,
the BLE module will forward the data to the APP. The data captured by Sniffer is the data sent by BLE to the APP, as
shown in the following figure:
Similarly, we can capture the data packets sent by the APP to the BLE module. The data captured by Sniffer after
sending “0x123456” to the RF-Star transparent transmission module using APP is shown in the figure below.

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5 Electrostatics Discharge Warnings
The module will be damaged by the discharge of static. RF-star suggests that all modules should follow the 3 precautions
below:
1. According to the anti-static measures, bare hands are not allowed to touch modules.
2. Modules must be placed in anti-static areas.
3. Take the anti-static circuitry (when inputting HV or VHF) into consideration in product design.
Static may result in the degradation in performance of the module, even causing the failure.

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6 Revision History
Date
Version No.
Description
2020.03.26
V1.0
The initial version is released.
2020.08.14
V1.0
Update the environment version.
2020.11.27
V1.1
Add the chapter of Parts of Solutions When Install in Windows 7.
2021.08.02
V1.2
Update some screenshots.
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.rfstariot.com and www.szrfstar.com.

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7 Contact Us
SHENZHEN RF-STAR TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
Shenzhen HQ:
Add.: C601, Skyworth Building, High-tech Park, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
Tel.: [phone]
Chengdu Branch:
Add.: N2-1604, Global Center, North No. 1700, Tianfu Avenue, Hi-Tech District, Chengdu, Sichuan, China, 610095
Tel.: [phone]
Email: [e-mail], [e-mail]
Web.: www.rfstariot.com, www.szrfstar.com