Will Nordic Work For My Application?

RE: Will Nordic Work For My Application?

Petter Myhre — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 09:07:39 GMT

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.

RE: Will Nordic Work For My Application?

eeboarder — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 23:31:46 GMT

Another question: Are there any sample projects that include how to communicate between nRF51822 devices rather than directly to a phone app?

RE: Will Nordic Work For My Application?

eeboarder — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 18:47:55 GMT

I'm now leaning more towards nRF51822 for both the reader and tag to natively support Bluetooth Low Energy. It just seems like that is the right protocol for this application, and I don't want to get to "hacky" with the nRF24L01+.

Is there anything in the BLE protocol that I can use to determine distance between systems? Like a register for signal strength or something similar?

Is there a way to adjust transmit power?

RE: Will Nordic Work For My Application?

eeboarder — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 16:54:55 GMT

Hey, Petter. There's some example code out there showing use of the nRF24L01+ using Bluetooth Low Energy. I just looked at the product spec, and it doesn't really list protocols.

Do you know what protocols the nRF24L01+ explicitly supports?

RE: Will Nordic Work For My Application?

Petter Myhre — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 15:44:37 GMT

nRF24L01+ does not support Bluetooth.

RE: Will Nordic Work For My Application?

eeboarder — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 15:22:54 GMT

I was going to use a Arduino Red Board from Sparkfun to communicate through SPI to the nRF24L01+. The protocol would be Bluetooth (I think). I am still trying to understand more about the nRF24L01+ operation.

RE: Will Nordic Work For My Application?

Petter Myhre — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 08:55:42 GMT

I don't have experience with Arduino plus nRF24L01+. What protocol are you planning to use?

RE: Will Nordic Work For My Application?

eeboarder — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 19:01:30 GMT

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:

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?
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.

RE: Will Nordic Work For My Application?

eeboarder — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 15:13:46 GMT

Thank you both for responding!

DMS, I am not committed to a protocol at the moment. Initially, I was thinking RFID as it wouldn't need to be paired and there are tags widely available off the shelf. Unfortunately, it would require UHF, which is outside of my budget.

Bluetooth looks to potentially work. It seems cost efficient and there are tags out there. I worry that it may be too much range (I want to have functionality that occurs after the tag leaves the reader's range). Maybe the range can be attenuated? Isn't Nordic a form of Bluetooth?

Wifi and Zigbee look applicable, but then I'd also have to develop the tags, which is undesirable.

Petter, I will look into estimote, but I am leary of developing smart phone apps and would prefer to stay in the embedded world. I will also try keyword searches for beacon applications.

RE: Will Nordic Work For My Application?

Petter Myhre — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 11:51:33 GMT

This sounds like a beacon application. Maybe you can use something like an estimote? And use a smart phone as a reader.

RE: Will Nordic Work For My Application?

Webmobi — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 05:39:32 GMT

what protocol are u planning to use? bluetooth/wifi/RFID/Zigbee?