nRF52840/nRF5340 + nRF7002 with external MCU

[djgj]

Hello,

     We are evaluating a solution for our product where we would like to use

• Zephyr RTOS with NCS
• nRF52840/nRF5340 + nRF7002 for a combined WiFi/BLE solution. nRF52/53 will run the code for both BLE and WiFi combo.
• an External MCU which is not from one of Nordic MCUs.

Is it possible to use this combination for using nRF combo only as connectivity solution?
Is there an example already on zephyr or NCS for this solution? Can you guide us to relevant samples or documents on this?

Is there anything we would need to take care in this combination? How does interfacing with nRF52/53 MCU in this case looks like?

I feel firmware update might be difficult but not impossible?

Thank you for your support.

Regards,

DJ

[AHaug]

Hi,

Is it possible to use this combination for using nRF combo only as connectivity solution?

Yes, this is possible. The nRF7002 can be used together with either the nRF52840 or the nRF5340, and we use nRF5340 in the nRF7002DK due to the addition of the netcore and the additional computational power.

You can also use this combination (52840/5340+7002) in addition to an external MCU, but you will have to create your own solutions for interfacing between them w.r.t regular "activities" and w.r.t DFU and flashing of the devices. We do unfortunately not have any out of the box solutions for how to use an external mcu in a two/three-chip solution since it's hard to create a generic 1-solution fits all potential candidates as an external MCU.

Is there an example already on zephyr or NCS for this solution? Can you guide us to relevant samples or documents on this?

You can find a list of WiFi samples here: https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ncs-2.6.99-cs1/page/nrf/samples/wifi.html and I would specially point to the BLE coexistence sample: https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ncs-2.6.99-cs1/page/nrf/samples/wifi/ble_coex/README.html as well as the Wi-Fi fundamentals course on our academy pages https://academy.nordicsemi.com/courses/wi-fi-fundamentals/ (there is also a BLE course if thats of any interest).

I would also recommend that you start with the nRF7002DK (which features the nRF5340) as a starting point w.r.t investigating the samples.

How does interfacing with nRF52/53 MCU in this case looks like?

https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ncs-2.6.99-cs1/page/nrf/device_guides/nrf70.html and the subopages under https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ncs-2.6.99-cs1/page/nrf/device_guides/working_with_nrf/nrf70/developing/index.html should explain this quite well

Let me know if this is enough to get you going!

Kind regards,
Andreas

[djgj]

Hello,

    Thank you very much for the response.
I will take a look at those documentations.

Also w.r.t interfacing options
Can you kindly suggest/share your opinion on these interfacing? which might be better in terms of simplicity? Provided we have experience working with Nordic MCUs for BLE. 

Regards,

Dhananjay

[AHaug]

Hi,

Based on my current knowledge I would recommend you to go with option 2 since the nRF7002 is designed to be a companion chip around having a nRF device with sufficient memory as the host device. It might be possible to use a non-nRF companion device, but we don't have much support for this out of the box so it will depend heavily on your own proprietary solutions and investigations. There might be more support for solutions like option 1 in the future, but as of now it is quite limited. 

https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ncs-2.6.99-cs1/page/nrf/device_guides/working_with_nrf/nrf70/developing/constrained.html#host-soc-support, which is a subpage of one of the links I sent in my previous replies is also a good pointer to focus on w.r.t choosing a host-soc

Kind regards,
Andreas

[AHaug]

I can also add that the nRF7002DK can be illustrated as a reduced version of your option 2

  

Kind regards,
Andreas