ANT Broadcast Message through previously set up channel

RE: ANT Broadcast Message through previously set up channel

angel — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 14:25:29 GMT

Hi Petter,

Ok, that can also be done, and would probably be the easiest solution. But what if the first master just runs out of battery, for example? You will time out and look for another one.... What would make the user to do the pairing each time they run of battery... It is a feasible solution though, thanks for the help.

What I will do, first I will change the role of master and slave, will change from net slave->master<-slave to master<-slave->master. As I have physical access to this slave now, I can reset pairing through a combination of buttons, for example :) If this doesn't work, I will implement your solution.

Thanks!!

RE: ANT Broadcast Message through previously set up channel

Petter Myhre — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 13:16:02 GMT

Ok. Let's say you are using channel 0 in the slave to connect to the first master.

Then you can do something like (I'm not sure what your use case is):

If the first master is unresponsive for a certain amount of time, reconfigure channel 0 to search for a new master.
If the first master is unresponsive for a certain amount of time, configure channel 1 to search for a new master.
Configure channel 1 to always search for a new master.

RE: ANT Broadcast Message through previously set up channel

angel — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 12:41:11 GMT

Ok, let me try to clarify better what I am trying to do:

Set slave as wildcarded and search for master.
In master, start communication with random channel ID. Store this number in master's flash.
Slave searches for master, and once they communicate, slave stores its channel ID in slave's flash. Now both nodes have same channel ID in flash.
What if this master now breaks and I need a different master, with a different, random channel ID? My idea was to create a special message such that, once received in the slave, it deletes the previous channel ID information in the slave's flash and sets the current channel ID to wildcard, so it can start searching for a new channel ID.

The problem is, how do I send that message?

Is it a bit more clear now?

Thanks,

Angel.

RE: ANT Broadcast Message through previously set up channel

Petter Myhre — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 12:23:51 GMT

I still don't understand. If a slave can receive messages with a specific channel ID that it doesn't know what is? Then the answer is no. But it can receive messages from all channel IDs, you can use background scanning or continous scanning mode, Section 5.2.1.4.2 and 5.7 in the ANT Message Protocol and Usage 5.1.

RE: ANT Broadcast Message through previously set up channel

angel — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 11:39:04 GMT

The problem is the next: you have a slave that looks for a channel ID that you don't know. Is it possible to, somehow, stablish a channel with it without wildcarding the channel ID in the slave?

Thinking about it, I think that the solution in my case is to interchange the roles of master-slave in the star network. If I set the slave in the center and two masters, as I can wildcard the one in the center whenever I want, I would be able to reset its pairing status and look for ANY two masters.

With my current configuration this is a bit harder to achieve, apparently.

Thanks again for the reply!

RE: ANT Broadcast Message through previously set up channel

Petter Myhre — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 16:29:47 GMT

I don't quite understand. The master sets its channel ID, the slave sets the channel ID it wishes to search for. The master will just broadcast a message with certain channel ID, it is up to the slave to receive it.

If you want the slave to receive messages from two masters you should open another channel.

Did that answer your question?

RE: ANT Broadcast Message through previously set up channel

angel — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 14:01:27 GMT

Mmm I have no idea why the ouput is that. I still have to have clear one thing about the ANT protocol, so I can see if I am trying to do something that certainly is impossible: Can you, without knowing the channel ID of a slave (and it is not wildcarded, it is a fixed unknown number) send information to it? I assumed that the way of doing this was broadcasting, but I am not sure of it.

What I want to do: I have a device that is paired to a master, both of them have same channel ID. Now imagine that I break that master, and want to pair another one. The main constraint here is that I would not be able to physically touch the slave (no buttons, no anything). Can I still send a message to this slave from my master, which is not paired, to tell it to reset its pairing status? Is this possible at all?

Thanks again Peter!

PS: After I know if it is possible or not to do such thing, then I'll review my code and then I'll post a minimal example with my approach.

Best,

Angel.

RE: ANT Broadcast Message through previously set up channel

Petter Myhre — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 09:58:38 GMT

If you look into ant_error.h, found in \components\softdevice\s210\headers, and ant_paramters.h you can see that 0x401F is NRF_ANT_ERROR_TRANSFER_IN_PROGRESS

Does this error make sense to you? Maybe you can edit your question and include some code that what you are doing?