Nicla Sense ME Bluetooth Connectivity Issues

moritzkrause1 · April 20, 2023, 2:17pm

Hey guys, I could really use some help with the Nicla Sense ME Board and establishing and BLE connection – ideally via the classic WebBLE Dashboard, but for the beginning I would be happy with any connection at all.

I'm working at a university where we own a total of 3 Sense ME Boards – one of which is currently working and two are failing with the exact same build.

I have been following this Tutorial from the official Arduino documentation. The chrome flag for WebBLE is set.

As far as I can tell, the Arduino advertises correctly as an BLE Device and is recognized by my Mac (13.4, Chrome 112.0.0.0). As soon as I press connect, the LED on the Sense turns red – so the disconnectHandler got triggered and the browser window stays unchanged on the message "connecting to device…". The browser does not show any errors in the console log.

After activating the debug option and looking at the Serial I get these HCI Logs:

Start

Boot status: 11
Boot status: 13
Interrupt ctrl: 0
Interface ctrl: 0
[META EVENT WAKE UP] Firmware initialized. Firmware version 5978
[META EVENT] Firmware initialized. Firmware version 5978

Present sensors:
[ All Sensors being listed ]

HCI COMMAND TX -> 01030C00
HCI EVENT RX <- 040E0401030C00
HCI COMMAND TX -> 01011000
HCI EVENT RX <- 040E0C01011000090323095F000323
HCI COMMAND TX -> 01010C08FFFFFFFFFFFFFF3F
HCI EVENT RX <- 040E0401010C00
HCI COMMAND TX -> 01012008FF03000000000000
HCI EVENT RX <- 040E0401012000
HCI COMMAND TX -> 01022000
HCI EVENT RX <- 040E0701022000000104
HCI COMMAND TX -> 01091000
HCI EVENT RX <- 040E0A01091000F0CAD3235474
address = 74:54:23:d3:ca:f0
name = NiclaSenseME-CAF0
HCI COMMAND TX -> 010A200100
HCI EVENT RX <- 040E04010A2000
HCI COMMAND TX -> 0106200FA000A0000000000000000000000700
HCI EVENT RX <- 040E0401062000
HCI COMMAND TX -> 0108202015020106110614128A7604D16C4F7E5300000000B11900000000000000000000
HCI EVENT RX <- 040E0401082000
HCI COMMAND TX -> 010920201312094E69636C6153656E73654D452D43414630000000000000000000000000
HCI EVENT RX <- 040E0401092000
HCI COMMAND TX -> 010A200101
HCI EVENT RX <- 040E04010A2000
HCI EVENT RX <- 043E1F0A0000000101DF3C570CA94700000000000000000000000018000000480001

[ A lot of META EVENTS for changed power modes, sample rates and accuracies ]

[META EVENT] FIFO overflow
Sensor: 13 size: 7 value: 2 0 9 0 0 0 [ ... ] Sensor: 128 size: 5 value: 25 B 0 0
HCI EVENT RX <- 04050400000008
HCI COMMAND TX -> 010A200101
HCI EVENT RX <- 0413050100000000
HCI EVENT RX <- 040E04010A2000
HCI EVENT RX <- 043E1F0A0000000101DF3C570CA94700000000000000000000000018000000480001
[META EVENT] FIFO overflow
Sensor: 13 size: 7 value: FE FF 0 0 0 0 [ ... ] Sensor: 34 size: 11 value: 2F 2 D3 DA 90 7 7E 33 F C9
HCI EVENT RX <- 04050400000008
HCI COMMAND TX -> 010A200101
HCI EVENT RX <- 0413050100000000
HCI EVENT RX <- 040E04010A2000
HCI EVENT RX <- 043E1F0A0000000101DF3C570CA94700000000000000000000000018000000480001
[META EVENT] FIFO overflow

This then continues until I A) force reboot the Sense or B) reload the browser window.

System:

MacOS 13.4 (also tested 12.5 and 11.4)
Chrome 112.0.0.0 – WebBLE flag activated
Mbed OS Nicla Boards; v4.0.2
BHY2; v1.0.6
ArduinoBLE; v1.3.4
Nicla Sense ME Firmware 5978

I also tried to connect to the Sense with nRF Connect from my iPhone where the connection can't be established and the status on the app never changes from "Connecting…".
I can discover the Sense but after clicking connect the same procedure starts as written above.

Am I doing something wrong, or has anybody ran into the same bizare behavior?
I highly appreciate any help!

Cheers,
Moritz

moritzkrause1 · April 27, 2023, 7:52am

To everyone stumbling across this post who's facing the same problem:

https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/694146

Apparently it is a bug from apple that goes a long way and still isn't resolved and/or fixed…
Let's hope for WWDC '23— I'll still be looking for a fix tho

PMarquinez · May 31, 2023, 11:44am

Hello!
Keep in mind that you are using 3 boards with the same UUID (BLE_SENSE_UUID)

On the line 27 you define it

github.com

arduino/ArduinoAI/blob/main/NiclaSenseME-dashboard/NiclaSenseME/NiclaSenseME.ino#L27


      
          
          
Device sketch based on example by Sandeep Mistry and Massimo Banzi
          Sketch and web dashboard copy-fixed to be used with the Nicla Sense ME by Pablo Marquínez
          
          
*/
          
          
#include "Nicla_System.h"
          #include "Arduino_BHY2.h"
          #include <ArduinoBLE.h>
          
          
#define BLE_SENSE_UUID(val) ("19b10000-" val "-537e-4f6c-d104768a1214")
          
          
const int VERSION = 0x00000000;
          
          
BLEService service(BLE_SENSE_UUID("0000"));
          
          
BLEUnsignedIntCharacteristic versionCharacteristic(BLE_SENSE_UUID("1001"), BLERead);
          BLEFloatCharacteristic temperatureCharacteristic(BLE_SENSE_UUID("2001"), BLERead);
          BLEUnsignedIntCharacteristic humidityCharacteristic(BLE_SENSE_UUID("3001"), BLERead);
          BLEFloatCharacteristic pressureCharacteristic(BLE_SENSE_UUID("4001"), BLERead);

The web dhasboard that is on the repository, and on that link that you sent is looking ONLY to connect to the one defined on the sketch
SERVICE_UUID

github.com

arduino/ArduinoAI/blob/main/NiclaSenseME-dashboard/index.html#L377


      
            gas:
            {
              uuid: '19b10000-9003-537e-4f6c-d104768a1214',
              properties: ['BLERead'],
              structure: ['Uint32'],
              data: { 'gas': [] }
            }
          }
          
          
const sensors = Object.keys(NiclaSenseME);
          const SERVICE_UUID = '19b10000-0000-537e-4f6c-d104768a1214';
          var bytesReceived = 0;
          var bytesPrevious = 0;
          
          
// UI elements
          const pairButton = document.getElementById('pairButton');
          const BLEstatus = document.getElementById('bluetooth');
          
          
snack('IMPORTANT - first upload the sketch to your Arduino Nicla Sense ME &nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="https://create.arduino.cc/editor/FT-CONTENT/333e2e07-ecc4-414c-bf08-005b611ddd75/preview">OPEN</a>', 1)
          
          
if ("bluetooth" in navigator) {

So I will suggest for trying it out on your class, download the repo and run a local webserver hosting that folder.

Tweak the index.html l file to not look for that UUID, and you will be able to see more devices.

Basically remove/comment the filters parameter on line 426-430

github.com

arduino/ArduinoAI/blob/main/NiclaSenseME-dashboard/index.html#L426


      
            snackBar.style.visibility = "hidden";
          }
          
          
async function connect() {
            pairButton.style.backgroundColor = "grey";
            pairButton.style.color = 'black';
            pairButton.innerHTML = "PAIRING";
            msg('requesting device ...');
          
          
  const device = await navigator.bluetooth.requestDevice({
              filters: [
                {
                  services: [SERVICE_UUID] // SERVICE_UUID
                }
              ]
            });
          
          
  msg('connecting to device ...');
            device.addEventListener('gattserverdisconnected', onDisconnected);
            const server = await device.gatt.connect();

Have a nice one!

moritzkrause1 · June 5, 2023, 1:59pm

Thanks for your reply!

The devices are discovered by my mac but as soon as it connects the Nicla immediately disconnects or at least throws an error accordingly.

I'll give it a try tho and report back

apezzali · April 24, 2025, 8:03pm

I’m having the same issue, and I can’t find a solution using my Mac and iPhone either.

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Nicla Sense ME Bluetooth Connectivity Issues

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