nrf52840 dongle audio

[MayureshV]

Hi,

I purchased nrf52840 dongle after reading that it supports i2s. www.nordicsemi.com/.../nrf52840

Unfortunately, I am unable to find a single working audio related example or sample. My requirement is very basic, as follows :

1. Rename bluetooth device
2. I should be able to connect the the device as bluetooth module, which will output audio it receives via bluetooth from PC, to external device like DAC or amplifier in I2S format.

I am using nRF Connect SDK v2.4.2, VS code and have installed all the required software and dependencies. However I am unable to build I2S program which is available at

nRF5_SDK_17.1.0_ddde560/examples/peripheral or

/opt/nordic/ncs/v2.4.2/zephyr/samples/bluetooth/broadcast_audio_source

Can anyone guide me if the nrf52840 dongle is a right choice for such project?

[Maria Gilje]

Hello,

We don't support LE Audio for nRF52840. Our offer for LE Audio is for the nRF5340 and we recommend the nRF5340 Audio DK and the nRF5340 Audio application for LE Audio development.

Also, I will mention this because you link to an nRF5 SDK example: For new projects we recommend nRF Connect SDK . The nRF5 SDK is in maintenance mode and will not be updated to include new features.

Best regards,

Maria

[MayureshV]

Hi Maria,

This is sort of confusing.

Here it says nrf52840 supports I2S. Does this dongle supports any other (non-LE) type of audio which I make use of? 

Regards

-Mayuresh

[MayureshV]

Can you please explain what it means when it says 

The nRF52840 is fully multiprotocol capable with full protocol concurrency. It has protocol support for Bluetooth LE, 

or 

It has numerous digital peripherals and interfaces such as high speed SPI and QSPI for interfacing to external flash and displays, PDM and I²S for digital microphones and audio,

I am new to this dev environment and this is confusing me. 

Thanks

-Mayuresh

[MayureshV]

Hi,

Any update on this? 

Regards

-Mayuresh

[Maria Gilje]

Hi Mayuresh,

MayureshV said:

Here it says nrf52840 supports I2S. Does this dongle supports any other (non-LE) type of audio which I make use of? 

The reason for LE Audio not being supported on nRF52840 is that LE Audio has a high CPU requirement. This is the reason we recommend nRF5340 for LE Audio because of its dedicated network core. Wired audio is supported through PDM or I2S for nRF52840. 

MayureshV said:

The nRF52840 is fully multiprotocol capable with full protocol concurrency. It has protocol support for Bluetooth LE, 

It has support for Bluetooth LE, but as I wrote above, it is not recommended for LE Audio development.

MayureshV said:

It has numerous digital peripherals and interfaces such as high speed SPI and QSPI for interfacing to external flash and displays, PDM and I²S for digital microphones and audio,

Audio does not mean LE Audio. In our documentation "LE Audio" is used about Bluetooth LE Audio and "audio" can mean audio from a local file or over a wired connection.

BR,

Maria

[MayureshV]

Hi maria,

Can you please explain what "Wired audio is supported through PDM or I2S for nRF52840" and "audio from a local file or over a wired connection" means? Do you have any example for this? 

Thanks

-Mayuresh

[Maria Gilje]

Hi Mayuresh,

The nRF52840 has the PDM and I2S peripherals.

There is the I2S example and the I2S API in Zephyr. For PDM there are no basic samples, but there is the PDM HAL and driver in nrfx. Also, the DMIC sample in Zephyr uses PDM. The nRF5340 Audio application uses I2S and USB as input sources and I2S as output. The source code for the modules could be helpful to look at: audio_usb.c and audio_i2s.c.

Best regards,

Maria