ANT to BLE bridge for a beginner

[part_robot]

Hi. I'm very new to this so I hope you'll forgive me for my basic questions!

I would like to take data from multiple ANT fitness devices and send it to an iPhone application over BLE (possibly in raw form). I know absolutely nothing about nRF51/nRF52 in detail currently but I do have a working knowledge of the Arduino API and using it to communicate between the nRF51822 (BLE only) on an Arduino board (Adafruit M0 BLE) and the Apple APIs. I know basic C from about 25 years ago but I think programming the chips is well beyond my skills at this stage.

My question is; given my limitations, what's the absolute simplest way I can get up and running with this project? Specifically I'm looking at what hardware to buy - potentially for the Arduino - and what kinds of things I have to consider in terms of software. If you can point me to code examples that would be tremendous.

Many thanks.

[Petter Myhre]

I recommend buying a nRF52 DK. The closest example to the functionality you want is the ANT and BLE Heart Rate Monitor Relay Application.

I would also buy a nRF51 Dongle to use with nRF Sniffer and nRF Connect.

And a ANT USB, to test with ANTware II.

[part_robot]

Thanks Petter, that's very helpful. And the code samples - whilst in C - don't appear too challenging fortunately!

Do you know much about the Arduino PRIMO? www.arduino.org/.../arduino-primo. I see it has an nRF52. Without them releasing the documentation I can't tell much, but do have any idea if it will support the functionality I require? I ask because if it's potentially easier (and much cheaper) than the nRF52DK then maybe I should wait for it?

[Petter Myhre]

I know a bit :) It should be possible to program the nRF52 on the Primo with the examples from our normal SDK. I don't know what will be included in the Arduino SDK. Please see this for more information.