nRF52832 is suitable or not for smart light system controls.

[Raj]

Hi all,

We are starting new project, the aim of the project is control street lights through web site by using gprs connetion.

The key requirements of the project is

1. It should support dfu through web site using gprs module.
2. It should have Bluetooth connection.
3. 4 dedicated uart connections (gprs, current meter, debug port, other one)

For these project we are think to select nRF52832 controller

The reasons are:

1. By using serial bootloader we can achieve dfu through web site using gprs module.
2. If we use nRF52832 no need to use external Bluetooth module which reduces cost.

Questions:

1. Regard to the uart I’m not sure nRF5232 have how many uart instances? When I saw data sheet or reference manual it have only one uart instance that means only one module can use uart at the same time?

smt.PNG

2. For these type projects most of them are using PIC controllers. Is there any special reason? Can I use nRF52832 for these project?
3. Anyone can give me a best suggestion which controller is best?

Many thanks.

[ovrebekk]

Hi Raj

The nRF52832 only has a single UART peripheral, that is correct. The UARTE0 and UART0 modules share resources, and only one can be used at the time (the UART0 module is only kept to support legacy code, you should use the newer UARTE0 module instead).

The GPIO system of the device allows you to dynamically reassign the UART interface to other pins, but you can only service one bus at the time. In other words this doesn't work very well if the different UART devices can send data asynchronously at any time. If the communication is always initiated by the nRF52 device, then this might work well (or if they use RTS/CTS flow control, allowing you to delay the communication until the UART is ready).

We recently released the nRF52840 device, which has 2 UART interfaces, higher RF output power, more memory, and some other improvements, so you might consider this device also.

Exactly why PIC controllers are popular I am not sure, but they have been out for a long time, and I am sure you can get them in many different flavors depending on your requirements (if you need many UART interfaces for instance).
I think the current trend in the industry is to move more towards ARM Cortex based devices for low power designs, such as the ones used in the nRF52 series, and I don't see any reason why the nRF52 series should be less suited, unless the lack of UART's is an issue.

Best regards
Torbjørn