Thingy external connection

[Sheldon]

In order to connect an external sensor to the available pins, will we need to create our own version of the FW in order to communicate with the sensor? Or are there generic methods to communicate?

[endnode]

As there is basically infinite number of possible interfaces (on both HW and SW level) it's almost impossible to develop magic plug which will be able to communicate with any sensor. So yes, you will need to develop your own FW to work with such sensor.

[run_ar]

@grrowl (sheldon) The thingy fw can be downloaded here or here. Consider looking at the Documentation to understand the sw architecture. Maybe you can get away with modifying some existing drivers.

[Sheldon]

Thank you for the assistance. While building the FW is possible, although painful, and I'm sure I could figure out the procedure, it is simply not worthwhile for my purposes. Other platforms are much easier to utilize simple I2C commands to specific addresses, and permits adding simple Sketches to be run. Updating the FW to make changes is not as efficient nor convenient. My goal for the Thingy was to not need to work with FW (as stated in the marketing documents). I still think small wrapper code for common I2C and GPIO commands could be added so BLE could be used via the iOS app to perform generic read/write commands. Then, sensors and other devices could be experimented with via simple changes to the App. No worries, I'll use a different device.

[endnode]

Well it sounds like nice idea, but can you throw example of any such platform which offers this attachment of external components without need to change the FW (I mean really offers attaching some reasonable range of I2C and SPI sensors not only 2 examples tested by the vendor)?

[Sheldon]

Adafruit Feather nRF52 Bluefruit LE - nRF52832. In reality, what we would like is to be able to install a module, with or without the Arduino portions. We are capable of coding the drivers and programs needed, just the entire FW is not needed. Further, it would be best for security and future upgrades if the FW were managed by Nordic, and included the latest Bluetooth Mesh when available. Then, a custom module could be written and added to the device for the FW to execute. And the existing OTA FW updating could be utilized when FW updates were available. At current, the Thingy:52 is really only useful for the existing functionality, which is fine, we would just like to have been able to add functionality. As an extra example, how would we utilize the BLE mesh and have a program monitor the Pressure and send a message to another BLE mesh device (Thingy:52) to flash the LED as a warning?

[endnode]

Call me naive but this approach will never get you security, performance and power consumption wise where I would like to see any production embedded device.