Now your board has become a Bluetooth data sniffer. When the firmware finish flashing, you will also notice the button is enabled back. The button will be grayed off during this firmware programming period. Click this button to program the PCA10040 board with this sniffer firmware. The file memory layout display will be refresh with a orange block. Once you choose the hex file, you will be back onto the main window. Browse and select the correct hex file for this PCA10040 board. Now click on the button that says “Add HEX file”. After a few seconds, the connection will be ready, and you will notice that the button on the right column of the application is enabled. You should see success message in the Log messages below the application. This the board model of the nRF52 DK board that we are using. Once you are in the Programmer program, (top left corner) select the device that shows “PCA10040”. If you have not install nRF Connect, you can download from this Nordic website. Go to nRF Connect -> Programmer software. So prepare the hex file “sniffer_pca10056_xxxxxxx.hex”. Turn nRF52 DK into a Bluetooth Sniffer board The files is all inside the folder “ extcap” to be copy later into wireshark folder. It also contain some script program plugin for Wireshark software to work seamlessly with the nRF sniffer hardware.

This file is a firmware to program the hardware board and turns it into a Bluetooth sniffer tools for sniffing Bluetooth communication. Inside contains the *.hex file for the nRF Bluetooth board. sniffer_pca10031_129d2b3.hex (for nRF51 Dongle, small size).This is the hex files to turn the various Nordic nRF Bluetooth boards into a sniffer tool. You will notice that there is a folder named “ hex“. Download the latest nRF Sniffer “nrfsnifferforbluetoothle300129d2b3.zip” from Nordic website.

Wireshark packet sniffer tutorial