Android-nRF-Toolbox/README.md

# nRF Toolbox

The nRF Toolbox is a container app that stores your Nordic Semiconductor apps for Bluetooth Low Energy 
in one location. 

It contains applications demonstrating standard Bluetooth LE profiles: 
* **Cycling Speed and Cadence**, 
* **Running Speed and Cadence**, 
* **Heart Rate Monitor**, 
* **Blood Pressure Monitor**, 
* **Health Thermometer Monitor**, 
* **Glucose Monitor**,
* **Continuous Glucose Monitor**,
* **Proximity Monitor** - supports multiple connections.

Since version 1.10.0 the *nRF Toolbox* also supports the **Nordic UART Service** which may be used 
for bidirectional text communication between devices.

**Note:** To get a smaller version, with only the DFU profile, switch to the *only_dfu* branch 
(this branch is not maintained anymore, so you have to update it on your own).

### How to import to Android Studio

The production version of nRF Toolbox depends on 
[Android BLE Library](https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/Android-BLE-Library/) and demonstrates 
use of the Android BLE Common Library (ble-common module), which provides parsers for common profiles 
adopted by Bluetooth SIG. Both libraries are available on jcenter.

You may also include the BLE Library and BLE Common Library as modules. Clone the library project 
to the same root folder.

If you are having issue like [#40](https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/Android-nRF-Toolbox/issues/40) 
or [#41](https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/Android-nRF-Toolbox/issues/41), the correct folders 
structure should look like this:

![Folders structure](resources/structure.png)

If you prefer a different name for BLE library, update the
[*settings.gradle*](https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/Android-nRF-Toolbox/blob/master/settings.gradle) 
file.

*DFULibrary* folder is optional, as the library is downloaded from jcenter repository automatically. 
Clone it only when you want to modify the code (not recommended).

If you get ["Missing Feature Watch" error](https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/Android-nRF-Toolbox/issues/41#issuecomment-355291101), 
switch the configuration to 'app'.

### BleManager and how to use it

There are 4 different solutions how to use the manager shown in different profiles. 
The very basic approach is used by the BPM, HRM and GLS profiles. Each of those activities holds a 
static reference to the manager. Keeping the manager as a static object protects from disposing it 
when device orientation changes and the activities are being destroyed and recreated. However, this 
approach does not allow to keep the connections in background mode and therefore is not a solution 
that should be used in any production-ready application.

A better implementation may be found in CSC, RSC, HTM and CGM. The `BleManager` instance is maintained 
by the running service. The service is started in order to connect to a device and stopped when user 
decides to disconnect from it. When an activity is destroyed it unbinds from the service, but the 
service is still running, so the incoming data may continue to be handled. All device-related data 
are kept be the service and may be obtained by a new activity when it binds to it in order to be 
shown to the user.

As a third, the Proximity profile allows to connect to multiple sensors at the same time. It uses a 
different service implementation but still the `BleManager` is used to manage each connection. 
If the [useAutoConnect(boolean)](https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/Android-BLE-Library/blob/e95a814f4c0ecd08a75e5f0e53c68e2b8dbdf70c/ble/src/main/java/no/nordicsemi/android/ble/ConnectRequest.java#L198) 
method returns `true` for a connection, the manager will try to reconnect automatically to the device 
if a link was lost. You will also be notified about a device that got away using 
`onDeviceDisconnected(ConnectionObserver.REASON_LINK_LOSS)`.

The `BleMulticonnectProfileService` implementation, used by Proximity profile, does not save addresses 
of connected devices. When the service is killed it will not be able to reconnect to them after it's
restarted, so this feature has been disabled. Also, when user removes the nRF Toolbox app from 
Recents, the service will be killed and all devices will be disconnected automatically. To change 
this behaviour a service would have to either save the addresses and reconnect to devices after it 
has restarted (but then removing the app from Recents would cause disconnection and immediate 
reconnection as the service is then killed and moved to another process), or would have to be 
implemented in a way that is using another 
[process](https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/service-element.html#proc). 
Then, however, it is not possible to bind to such service and data must be exchanged using a 
[Messenger](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Service.html#RemoteMessengerServiceSample). 
Such approach is not demonstrated in nRF Toolbox.

At last, the `BleManager` can be accessed from a `ViewModel` 
(see [Architecture Components](https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/architecture/index.html)). 
Check out the [Android nRF Blinky](https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/Android-nRF-Blinky) app 
for sample code. 

### Nordic UART Service

The UART profile allows for fast prototyping of devices. The service itself it very simple, having 
just 2 characteristics, one for sending data and one for receiving. The data may be any byte array 
but it is very often used with just text. Each UART configuration in the nRF Toolbox consists of 
9 programmable buttons. Each of them, when pressed, will send the stored command to the device. 
You may export your configuration to XML and share between other devices. Swipe the screen to 
right to show the log with all events.

Since nRF Toolbox version 1.16.0 the UART profile supports also Google Wear OS devices (watches). 
If you have a Wear OS watch, the application will automatically be installed on it after you install 
or update the application on the phone. Before you start playing with the watch, please open the 
UART profile on the phone so it could share your configurations to all wearables.

Android Wear 2.0 support has been added in nRF Toolbox version 2.2.2. Now, after installing the app 
on the phone, you will be notified on the watch to download the watch-APK onto the watch. The app on 
the watch is not standalone. UART configurations must be configured on the phone.

The wearable application may work in 2 modes: as a remote control of the phone, or directly connected 
to a UART device.

1. Connect your phone to the UART device. After few seconds you should get a notification on the 
watch that your device is now connected. Swipe it left to see Disconnect button (will send a message 
to the phone to terminate the connection with UART target) and Open button. Click the Open button to 
see a list of your UART configurations. Click one and see the list of active buttons. When pressed
the button will send a message to the phone using Google Play Services and the phone will send the 
command to the target device. In this mode you may have more than one watch connected to the phone 
and use both as remote controls.

    ![Scenario 1](resources/scenario_1.png)

2. Open the applications menu on Android Wear watch and click nRF Toolbox. The watch will now scan 
for all nearby Bluetooth LE devices and show you them on a list. Select your UART device to connect
to it. A list of your configurations will be shown, like in 1. As that was a direct connection from 
the watch to the UART target the phone, or any other watch will not be notified about it.

    ![Scenario 2](resources/scenario_2.png)

### Device Firmware Update

The **Device Firmware Update (DFU)** profile allows you to update the application, bootloader 
and/or the Soft Device image over-the-air (OTA). It is compatible with Nordic Semiconductor nRF5 
devices that have the SoftDevice and DFU Bootloader flashed. From version 1.11.0 onward, the 
nRF Toolbox has allowed to send the init packet (required since SDK 7.0). More information about
the init packet may be found here: 
[init packet handling](https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/Android-nRF-Connect/tree/master/init%20packet%20handling).

The DFU has the following features:
- Scans for devices that are in DFU mode.
- Connects to devices in DFU mode and uploads the selected firmware (soft device, bootloader 
  and/or application).
- Allows HEX or BIN file upload through your phone or tablet.
- Allows to update a soft device and bootloader from ZIP in one connection.
- Pause, resume, and cancel file uploads.
- Works in portrait and landscape orientation.
- **Secure DFU** is supported since nRF Toolbox 1.17.0.

#### DFU Settings

To open the DFU settings click the *Settings* button in the top toolbar when on DFU profile. 

**Packet receipt notification procedure** - This switch allows you to turn on and off the packet 
receipt notification procedure. During the DFU operation the phone sends 20-bytes size packets to t
he DFU target. It may be configured that once every N packets the phone stops sending and awaits 
for the Packet Receipt Notification from the device. This feature is required by Android to sync 
sending data with the remote device, as the callback `onCharacteristicWrite(...)` that follows 
calling method `gatt.writeCharacteristic(...)` is invoked when the packet is written to the outgoing 
queue, not when physically transmitted. With this procedure disabled it may happen that the outgoing 
buffer will be overloaded and the communication stops. The same error may happen when the N number 
is too big, about 300-400. The receipt notification ensures that the outgoing queue is empty and 
the DFU target received all packets successfully.

*Note:* Android 6.0 and newer does not require this option to be enabled. The buffer overflow is 
now handled correctly and the upload speed is much higher with this option disabled.

**Number of packets** - This field allows you to set the N number describe above. By default it is 
set to 12. Depending on the phone model, devices may send and receive different number of packets 
in each connection interval. Nexus 4, for instance, may send just 1 packet (and receive 3 notifications) 
while Nexus 5 or 6 send and receive up to 4 packets. By customizing this value you may check which 
value allows for the fastest transmission on your phone/tablet.

**MBR size** - This value is used only to convert HEX files into BIN files. If your packet is 
already in the BIN format, this value is ignored. The data from addresses lower then this value 
are being skipped while converting HEX to BIN. This is to prevent from sending the 
MBR (Master Boot Record) part from the HEX file that contains the Soft Device. The compiled 
Soft Device contains data that starts at address 0x0000 and contains the MBR. It is followed by the 
jump to address 0x1000 (default MBR size) where the Soft Device firmware starts. Only the Soft Device 
part must be sent over DFU.

**Keep bond information** - When upgrading the application on a bonded device the DFU bootloader 
may be configured to preserve some pages of the application's memory intact, so that the new 
application may read them. The new application must know the old data format in order to read 
them correctly. Our HRS DFU sample stores the Long Term Key (LTK) and the Service Attributes in two 
first pages. However, the DFU Bootloader, by default, clears the whole application's memory when the 
new application upload completes, and the bond information is lost. In order to configure the number 
of pages to be preserved set the **DFU_APP_DATA_RESERVED** value in the *dfu_types.h* file in the 
DFU bootloader code (line ~56). To preserve two pages the value should be set to 0x0800. 
When your DFU bootloader has been modified to keep the bond information after updating the 
application set the switch to ON. Otherwise the bond information will be removed from the phone.

**External MCU DFU** - The DFU service from the library, when connected to a DFU target, will check 
whether it is in application or in DFU bootloader mode. For DFU implementations from SDK 7.0 or newer 
this is done by reading the value of DFU Version characteristic. If the returned value is equal to 
0x0100 (major = 0, minor = 1) it means that we are in the application mode and jump to the 
bootloader mode is required.

However, for DFU implementations from older SDKs, where there was no DFU Version characteristic, 
the service must guess. If this option is set to false (default) it will count number of device's 
services. If the count is equal to 3 (Generic Access, Generic Attribute, DFU Service) it will assume 
that it's in DFU mode. If greater than 3 - in app mode.

This guessing may not be always correct. One situation may be when the nRF chip is used to flash 
update on an external MCU using DFU. The DFU procedure may be implemented in the application, 
which may (and usually does) have more services. In such case set the value of this property to true.

### Dependencies

nRF Toolbox depends on [Android BLE Library](https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/Android-BLE-Library/) 
which has to be cloned into the same root folder as this app. If you prefer a different name, 
update the [*settings.gradle*](https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/Android-BLE-Library/blob/master/settings.gradle) file.

In order to compile the project the **DFU Library is required**. This project may be found here: 
https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/Android-DFU-Library.
Since version 1.16.1 it is imported automatically from *jcenter* repository and no special 
configuration is needed. If you want to make some modifications in the DFU Library, please clone 
the DFU Library to the same root as nRF Toolbox is cloned and name the library's folder **DFULibrary**. 
Add the dfu module in Project Structure and edit *app/build.gradle* file and *settings.gradle* 
files as describe in them.

The nRF Toolbox also uses the nRF Logger API library which may be found here: 
https://github.com/NordicSemiconductor/nRF-Logger-API. The library is included in dependencies 
in *build.gradle* file. This library allows the app to create log entries in the 
[nRF Logger](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=no.nordicsemi.android.log) application. 
Please, read the library documentation on GitHub for more information about the usage and permissions.

The graph in HRM profile is created using the [AChartEngine v1.1.0](http://www.achartengine.org) 
contributed based on the [Apache 2.0 license](http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0).

### Note
- Android 4.3 or newer is required.
- Compatible with nRF5 devices running samples from the Nordic SDK and other devices implementing 
  standard profiles.
- Development kits: https://www.nordicsemi.com/Software-and-tools/Development-Kits.
- The nRF5 SDK and SoftDevices are available online at http://developer.nordicsemi.com.