How do I configure a EKH05 to be a sniffer?

General
1

Novice HaLow user but long time embedded programmer and Wireshark user.

I am experimenting with HaLow using several kits. I would like to have a sniffer to capture the radio traffic. I would like to use my EKH05 kit for this purpose. I am trying to follow MM APPNOTE-36 but I don’t quite follow how to configure the EKH05. Apparently the EKH05 is shipped without firmware waiting to be configured for the proper region. I am in the USA. Can someone give me a few steps to:

  1. how to download the EKH05 with the proper firmware

  2. configure the EKH05 with the proper region/channel/BW - either via USB or I can have it join a heltec HD01 kit using default Halow setting then setup each unit for my desired mode.

  3. what software do I need ideally on windows but I also have a linux PC I could use which seems to have better driver support. - I have SSHDUMP and wireshark already installed on my Ubuntu PC

  4. And finally what other instructions I need to get this working.

I’ve spent the last day and a half reading documents and trying to piece this all together. I think what I am asking for is pretty basic and is probably easy to do once someone can point me to the proper pieces. I am a 25+ veteran of networking and embedded coding of IoT devices and Ethernet debug using Wireshark so I can normally figure this out but this escapes me.

2

Hi @drzwave

The EKH05 is the evaluation kit for our microcontroller library and is unable to be used as a sniffer - which requires Linux based development kit. I would recommend using a HaLowLink as a sniffer instead, but you would likely be able to make do with a Heltec HD01 if you have a second unit.

This is the correct set of tooling for sniffing on your host PC.

You have some questions which lead me to believe you’re also interested in standard use of an EKH05 as a HaLow client. These are below:

For our MM8108-EKH05 this is accurate. Easiest way to get started with the EKH05 is to load a precompiled/preconfigured US binary using STM32CubeProgrammer. You can find the precompiled binaries in the assets here: Release Morse Micro CMSIS Pack 1.7.4 · MorseMicro/mm-iot-cmsis · GitHub
This firmware will attempt to connect to a HaLow AP configured with an SSID and Password of MorseMicro/12345678

There are two documents that will be helpful for you using the EKH05. The EKH05 User Guide and the MM-IoT-CMSIS Pack User Guide

The latter is a bit more up to date when it comes to STM32CubeIDE integration, where the EKH05 UG is in need of an update.

A bit verbose but I hope that helps!