I am reaching out to seek your guidance on a development project involving the nRF52840 and Semtech SX1262 LoRa transceiver.
We are building a marine crew monitoring and safety alert system where smartwatches worn by crew members will communicate with fixed onboard bridges that interface with a LoRaWAN gateway. The goal is to enable bidirectional communication between BLE-based smartwatches and a backend server using the following architecture:
Proposed System Architecture:
Uplink (Watch → Server):
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Smartwatch sends BLE advertisements (e.g., SOS, fall alerts)
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nRF52840 receives BLE packets
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nRF52840 forwards the data over LoRa via SX1262 to the server
Downlink (Server → Watch):
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Server sends LoRaWAN downlink alert (e.g., SOS acknowledgment, zone warnings)
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SX1262 receives the LoRa message
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nRF52840 rebroadcasts this message via BLE (either as advertisements or via GATT)
Key Questions:
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Is the nRF52840 capable of simultaneously performing both:
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BLE Central role (to scan advertisements from the smartwatch)?
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BLE Peripheral role (to advertise messages or host a GATT server for downlink alerts)?
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Can the nRF52840 reliably interface with a Semtech SX1262 LoRa module over SPI or UART to send/receive LoRaWAN packets while managing BLE communication?
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Do you have any existing reference designs, SDK examples, or best practices for coordinating BLE and external LoRa radio communication using nRF52840?
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We plan to use Nordic SDK (or Zephyr, if preferred). Is there support or examples for BLE + LoRa coexistence in those environments?
We are currently evaluating using the RAK4631 module, which combines the nRF52840 with SX1262, and would like to ensure that this SoC can meet both the BLE scanning and broadcasting requirements of our project when paired with LoRaWAN.
Any guidance, references, or implementation advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.