BLE and ANT+ on nrF51/52 with host processor

[Michael]

I'm looking for a smart solution to connect my application to different ANT+ sensors and transmit a logfile to a mobilephone via BT (and receive notifications from mobile). I can see a few possibilities, but can't decide which would be the best:

• implement (simplified) serialization for S310 soft-device.
• embedd all RF and connectivity on the nRF Chip and control it form the application processor.
• find a solutions whicht embedds a full blown serialization for ANT+ and BLE.

How would you solve that?

[ovrebekk]

Hi Michael

The nRF51/nRF52 devices are optimized for single chip implementations primarily. In other words, as long as your application can fit in the memory available, and you don't need any other peripherals than those available in the nRF51/nRF52, I would greatly recommend using the Nordic chip on its own.

I don't see any issues doing this if what you are doing is to collect data from multiple ANT+ sensors, processing the data, and sending it on over the BLE link to the phone.

Best regards
Torbjørn

[Michael]

Hi Torbjørn,

Thanks for your suggestions, but I need a LCD Interface and external SDRam for my application.

[ovrebekk]

In that case I would probably use the nRF51422 device, and go for alternative 2: "embedd all RF and connectivity on the nRF Chip and control it form the application processor."
Instead of going for a full serialization API, you can implement a smaller and more application specific API between the host and the nRF51. This will reduce the serial activity, which should reduce the average current and the load on the host processor. The only drawback is that you will have to write a custom application for the nRF51 device to control the SoftDevice, and establish the communication with the host over one of the serial interfaces.