The nrf_to_nrf Library: Recent Updates & Changes

 The nrf_to_nrf Library: Recent Updates & Changes

Power Management and Encryption

 I've made some somewhat significant changes to the nrf_to_nrf library recently. This lib allows NRF52x based devices to communicate with each other and NRF24 based devices. 

Power Management:

The NRF52x devices are low power devices, capable of utilizing very little power when all the peripherals are disabled. There was an issue brought to my attention by a user, identifying that the radios were making use of the HF Clock, Random Number Generator, CCM Encryption peripherals and that the hardware was being enabled in the constructor instead of the begin() function. 

I was able to modify the library so that the required peripherals are en/disabled only as required and on calls to powerUp() and powerDown() functions. Users need to keep this in mind, since there may be other needs for these peripherals, which may need to be re-enabled after powering down the radio.

This is fixed in the latest release v1.2.14

Authentication & Encryption:

NRF52x devices may also have a CCM mode encryption capability built in. If so, it was not being configured correctly, and the MAC/MIC verification was actually failing prior to recent updates. Changes were made to correctly copy the MAC/MIC to the receive buffer & the modes are now set prior to encryption/decryption to ensure proper MAC/MIC integrity. A verification is also performed after decryption to ensure the integrity of the MAC/MIC. 

This will be fixed in the next release and is available in the source code on GitHub.