Using nRF7002-EK with any other MCU kit instead of Nordic development kits

[Pradeep01]

Hi,

I want to purchase nRF7002-EK for evaluation of power consumption during Wifi communication. But I want to use it either standalone or with some other MCU development kit. is this possible? 

Is it simple to communicate with nRF7002 or I will need to develop special driver in other MCU? Is there any help available from Nordic for such evaluation?

Thankyou,

Pradeep

[Samruddhi Jadhav]

Hi,

Yes, it is possible to use the nRF7002 EK with other MCU boards. It always requires a host MCU which provides power and SPI/QSPI signals. If you are planning to use a host device which isn't Nordic's, ensure that is supports Arduino connector and SPI/QSPI. It may be easier though if the host is a Nordic DK with nRF Connect SDK.

If the host doesn't run Zephyr, communication may become difficult and you would also have to build your own driver. It may be more complex as you would have to develop or port your own device and Wi-Fi stack. So, it's simpler if the MCU can run Zephyr so you can reuse Nordic's existing driver.

The compatibility and support from Nordic may be limited for 3rd party Zephyr MCUs. Nordic does provide Zephyr driver and shield support. There aren't any non-Zephyr examples which can be provided. 

Best Regards,

Samruddhi

[Pradeep01]

Thankyou so much for prompt response.

My ultimate goal is to get power consumption of nRF7002 for my application so that I can compute by battery life time. If you have any other method of doing this task then please suggest.

I can see ESP32 series of modules does support Zephyr. If I can get some documentation on how Nordic driver can be integrated with Zephyr then I can try same on ESP32 module and use it as host processor for nRF7002-EK.

Thanks,

Pradeep

[Samruddhi Jadhav]

Hi,

To get nRF7002 power numbers, Nordic's recommendation is that you use nRF7002 DK, A Nordic SoC host and nRF Connect SDK Wi-Fi samples. You then can use PPK2 to measure current or use an ampere meter. The measurements can be used for battery-life estimation. You would have to configure Wi-Fi duty cycle, DTIM/TWT and data rate to match your application. Measure the average current and use it in battery life calculation. Our documentation doesn't mention ESP32 as a tested host so there's no guide specifically for it. In that case, you might need to figure out the integration by yourself.

Best Regards,

Samruddhi