Integrating nRF9160 with nRF52810 as a Bluetooth Gateway: Design Considerations

[girays]

Hello everyone,

I am planning to use the nRF9160 as the main microcontroller for my project. Alongside this, I need a Bluetooth module to transmit data to a mobile phone. After some research, I found that the nRF52810 could be a good option. However, I am a bit unsure about the system design and the integration between these two devices.

Specifically, I would like to use the nRF52810 purely as a Bluetooth gateway for communication and avoid the need to flash or develop additional firmware on it. Ideally, the nRF9160 would handle all the primary processing, while the nRF52810 would simply handle the Bluetooth connectivity.

Is this type of setup feasible, and what would be the best way to approach it? Any suggestions or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

[runsiv]

Hi girays 

I'm looking into your issue. I know we have a connectivity sample for the thingy91 which you can find here. However I think maybe the HCI sample will for-fill your requirement better. I have not yet tested if it is possible to fit the HCI sample on a 52810 due to memory constrains. The HCI sample expose the Zephyr Bluetooth controller support over UART to another device/CPU using the H:4 HCI transport protocol. There is also possible to use SPI instead of UART as seen here

Runar

[girays]

Hi Runar,

Thank you very much for your very fast response. 52810 is not must. Any other product is also fine by me. Can you maybe suggest any products from Nordic that I can use it as a BLE gateway

[runsiv]

My general recommendation would be to contact sales as I don't really have the knowledge regarding pricing. However what I would also suggest is to try to compile the hci sample with the config you need and see what is the smallest device you can use. By reducing the number of of max BT connection I was able to build it for the nRF52820. 

Regards

Runar