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nRF52840 Dongle - Selecting Optimal Wireless Communication Protocol

Frivolous4121

TLDR; Need advice on which wireless communication protocol to use for five nRF52840 dongles within 75 feet of each other.

I've never worked with Nordic Semiconductor products before.  I purchased a nRF52840 SDK and nRF52840 Dongle  to experiment with and also to see if I can incorporate it into one or more ongoing household projects.

I have a garden with an automated watering system that works purely on a timer.  I plan to enhance this system by connecting it to my home automation system as well as take action from input of environmental sensors.  To do this I believe the nRF52840 Dongle will take part in gathering the environmental sensor data from the garden and deliver it to a central MCU which will use LORA to deliver it long distance to the home automation system.

Within the garden I plan to use five nRF52840 Dongles.  Four of the dongles will be tasked with gathering environmental sensor data and then pushing that collected data up to a single nRF52840 Dongle which is connected to the central MCU via serial which passes that data along via LORA.

Assuming that I've selected the right hardware for the job I'm looking at what the nRF52840 Dongle is capable of for communication.  I've tried using Zigbee, but the radio transmission is too weak to connect to the home automation Zigbee network.  This is mainly why I picked LORA to push that data the long distance.  This then leaves me with the task of collecting the data to a central location within the garden.  I'm not sure what communication protocol would be optimal for this task so I'm asking for advice.  I'm only aware of two other options to pick from which are BT mesh and Enhanced ShockBurst (ESB).  I'm thinking Enhanced ShockBurst (ESB) would be my best option, but I've never heard of this protocol being used before.  The only reason I know of existence is because I stumbled upon this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZJYD2aQJqc when I was researching how to work with the nRF52840 SDK.  Each unit should be no more than 75 feet from one another, but no less than 30 feet from a neighbor.

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    Hi Peter,

    Yes, Mesh and ESB could be the choices. Mesh allows devices to relay messages, creating a robust network that extends coverage through multiple hops. It is designed with power efficiency in mind, which is crucial for battery-operated sensors. But setting up and managing a Bluetooth Mesh network can be more complex compared to simpler point-to-point or star configurations.  ESB provides low-latency communication, which is beneficial for real-time sensor data collection and is relatively simple to implement and manage. It is also designed to be power-efficient.

    Please take a look at this ticket.

    There is also the ESB guide which might be of help.

    -Priyanka

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    Hi Peter,

    Yes, Mesh and ESB could be the choices. Mesh allows devices to relay messages, creating a robust network that extends coverage through multiple hops. It is designed with power efficiency in mind, which is crucial for battery-operated sensors. But setting up and managing a Bluetooth Mesh network can be more complex compared to simpler point-to-point or star configurations.  ESB provides low-latency communication, which is beneficial for real-time sensor data collection and is relatively simple to implement and manage. It is also designed to be power-efficient.

    Please take a look at this ticket.

    There is also the ESB guide which might be of help.

    -Priyanka

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