SmartRF™ Packet Sniffer
User’s Manual
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Table of contents
1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................3
1.1 PROTOCOLS .....................................................................................................................................................4
1.2 HARDWARE PLATFORM...................................................................................................................................5
1.3 DATA FLOW ....................................................................................................................................................7
1.4 SOFTWARE ......................................................................................................................................................7
2 USER INTERFACE .....................................................................................................................................8
2.1 LAUNCH WINDOW ..........................................................................................................................................8
2.2 PACKET SNIFFER WINDOW OF AN ACTIVE SESSION ..........................................................................................8
2.3 MENUS AND TOOLBARS ................................................................................................................................ 10
2.4 PACKET BROADCAST .................................................................................................................................... 11
2.5 CAPTURING DEVICE ...................................................................................................................................... 12
2.6 RADIO CONFIGURATION ................................................................................................................................ 13
2.7 SELECT FIELDS .............................................................................................................................................. 16
2.8 PACKET DETAILS ........................................................................................................................................... 17
2.9 ADDRESS BOOK ............................................................................................................................................. 18
2.10 DISPLAY FILTER ............................................................................................................................................ 19
2.11 TIME LINE ..................................................................................................................................................... 20
3 KNOW ISSUES .......................................................................................................................................... 22
3.1 BLUETOOTH LOW ENERGY ........................................................................................................................... 22
4 FORMAT OF PACKETS SAVED TO FILE .......................................................................................... 23
5 EXPORTING REGISTER SETTINGS FROM SMARTRF™ STUDIO ............................................. 25
6 HELP ........................................................................................................................................................... 26
7 TROUBLESHOOTING ............................................................................................................................. 27
8 GENERAL INFORMATION ................................................................................................................... 29
8.1 DOCUMENT HISTORY .................................................................................................................................... 29
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1 Introduction
The SmartRF™ Packet Sniffer is a PC software application used to display and store RF packets
captured with a listening RF HW node. Multiple RF protocols are supported. The Packet Sniffer filters
and decodes packets and displays them in a convenient way, with options for filtering and storage to a
binary file format.
The Packet Sniffer is installed separately from SmartRF
®
Studio 7, and must be downloaded from the
Texas Instruments web site.
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1.1 Protocols
The supported protocols can be seen in the Launch window when starting the packet sniffer. The
following combinations of protocols and capture devices are supported:
Protocol
Version
Capture device
Can be used to
capture packets from
Bluetooth®
low energy
Bluetooth
core spec 4.0
CC2540 USB Dongle
CC2540EM + SmartRF05EB
CC2540
Bluetooth® low
energy devices
ZigBee
2007/PRO
2006
2003
CC2531 USB Dongle
CC2533EM + SmartRF05EB
CC2530EM + SmartRF05EB
CC2520EM + SmartRF05EB
CC2420
CC2430, CC2431
CC2480
CC2520
CC2530, CC2531
CC2538
RF4CE
ZigBee RF4CE 1.0.1
CC2531 USB Dongle
CC2533EM + SmartRF05EB
CC2530EM + SmartRF05EB
CC2520EM + SmartRF05EB
CC2520
CC2530, CC2531
CC2533
SimpliciTI
1.2.0
1.1.1
1.1.0
1.0.6
1.0.4
1.0.0
CC1111 USB Dongle
CC1110EM + SmartRF04EB/SmartRF05EB
CC1101EM + SmartRFTrxEB
CC110LEM + SmartRFTrxEB
CC113LEM + SmartRFTrxEB
CC1100, CC1100E
CC1101, CC110L
CC1110, CC1111
CC430
CC1120EM + SmartRFTrxEB
CC1121EM + SmartRFTrxEB
CC1125EM + SmartRFTrxEB
CC1120
CC1121
CC1125
CC2510EM + SmartRF04EB/SmartRF05EB
CC2511 USB Dongle
CC2500
CC2510
CC2511
Generic
Any
CC2531 USB Dongle
CC2533EM + SmartRF05EB
CC2530EM + SmartRF05EB
CC2520EM + SmartRF05EB
CC2420
CC2430, CC2431
CC2480
CC2520
CC2530, CC2531
CC2533
CC2544 USB Dongle
CC2511 USB Dongle
CC2510EM + SmartRF04EB/SmartRF05EB
CC2500, CC2550
CC2510, CC2511
CC2544
CC1111 USB Dongle
CC1110EM + SmartRF04EB/SmartRF05EB
CC1101EM + SmartRFTrxEB
CC110LEM + SmartRFTrxEB
CC113LEM + SmartRFTrxEB
CC1200EM + SmartRFTrxEB
CC1100, CC1100E
CC1101, CC1150
CC110L, CC115L
CC1110, CC1111
CC430
CC1200
CC1120EM + SmartRFTrxEB
CC1121EM + SmartRFTrxEB
CC1125EM + SmartRFTrxEB
CC1120
CC1121
CC1125
Table 1: Supported protocols
Note that when sniffing in the sub-1 GHz frequency bands, you need to use a capture device that
supports the frequency used by the devise you are sniffing. For instance, CC1110 and CC1111 have
limited support for some frequencies supported by CC1100E.
Also note that for all of the proprietary operating modes, the capture device will only be able to capture
packets as long as it can be set up with the same data rate and modulation. For instance, CC1120 may
not support the high data rates supported by CC1200.
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1.2 Hardware Platform
The packet sniffer can be used with different HW platforms. The following HW can be used:
CC2540 USB Dongle
CC2544 USB Dongle
CC2531 USB Dongle
CC2511 USB Dongle
CC1111 USB Dongle
SmartRF04EB
o CC1110EM, CC2510EM
SmartRF05EB
o CC2520EM, CC2530EM, CC2533EM, CC2540EM, CC1110EM, CC2510EM
SmartRFTrxEB
o CC1101EM, CC110LEM, CC113LEM, CC1120EM, CC1121EM, CC1125EM,
CC1200EM, CC2520EM
CC Debugger + SmartRFCCxx10TB
The below legacy capture devices may still work with the tool, but are no longer recommended.
CC2400EB + CC2420EM
CC2430DB
SmartRF04EB + CC2430EM
The applicable board must be connected to the PC through USB.
CC2400EB + CC2420EM (legacy)
Note: The Packet Sniffer started when selecting “IEEE802.15.4/ZigBee (CC2420)” will
be different from the others. A different GUI application will be started. The most
important difference is that the packets will only be stored in a RAM buffer. That means
the GUI application will not be able to handle more packets when the buffer is full. See
the user manual for “Packet Sniffer CC2420” for more details. The manual can be
found under the “documentation” option of the start menu: start->Texas Instruments-
>Packet Sniffer->Documentation->Packet Sniffer CC2420 user manual
CC2430DB (legacy)
SmartRF04EB
Note: Observe the jumpers on header P3. For revision A and B of CC2430 (register
CHVER ≤ 0x02), the jumpers must be set in the horizontal direction (in parallel with the
display) like in Figure 2. For newer revisions of CC2430, the jumpers should be set in
the vertical direction (this is the default position).
SmartRF05EB
Note: Supports selected 8051-based RF SoC (CC254x, CC253x, CC254x) evaluation
modules. Board revision 1.8.0 or higher is recommended for best performance.
