Will Nordic Work For My Application?

[eeboarder]

I'm working on a project where I need to recognize whether or not a wireless tag is within 5-10' of a stationary reader. I would develop the reader system using a module, and the tag (hopefully) would be off the shelf. The reader and tag combo would ideally be less than $50 combined.

I am not committed to a controller platform at this point. I just found Nordic. It looks promising. If anything, it appears to have more range than I would prefer. Are there any generic tags for purchase available? Is the range adjustable, possibly through antenna selection?

[eeboarder]

I've been digging more this morning on this application. I am liking the Arduino plus nRF24L01+ combo as a reader and the nRF51822 Bluetooth Smart Beacon Kit as the beacon or tag. I feel like this combination fits my application well.

A couple questions:

1. I want my Arduino-based host system to trigger functionality once the beacon has left a 5'-10' area. Is there an option to reduce the range or be able to determine (generally) whether the beacon has suddenly left the area?

2. Can the host (nRF24L01+) and the tag (nRF51822) automatically find each other without having to be manually paired or connected? I'm looking to have a stationary host, then anyone with a tag walk up and interact with the host.

[Petter Myhre]

I recommend going for a nRF51 or a nRF52 yes. You have RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator), but I wo fouldn't recommend using ifr calculating distance, at least not very accurate. Yes, you can adjust the transmit power. Yes, there are examples for two nRF5 devices to communicate over BLE.