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What SDK do I need to compile some blinky app with ANT?

Dusan Daniska

I am new to nRF programming. My "far away goal" is to make a BLE sensor mesh with a centralised data collection.

Currently I am deciding what libraries to start playing with. ANT seems to be quite usable and so I would like to get an overview of what SDK or software tools do I need to compile/flash some simple "blinky" app using ANT.

I have 3 nRF52 DK boards. I have downloaded the nRF SDK 14.2.0 and flashed a blinky app on the DK. I have read a little bit through the example source codes. I am used to write a code using a "primitive" editors like Notepad++, not using IDEs like Keil or Eclipse.

The questions are:

  1. What else, except ANT source code itself, do I need to start playing?
  2. Is there a way to simply download an ANT source without becoming an "ANT+ Adopter"?
  3. Are there some other alternative libs to ANT that incorporate the BLE mesh functionality?
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  • 0

    Hi,

    I'm not sure if you have realized this yet, but ANT does not "incorporate the BLE mesh functionality". ANT is a proprietary 2.4 GHz protocol developed by Dynastream, mostly used for sports equipment etc. ANT does support mesh topology, and if you only want to look into building a mesh setup this could be useful, but it will not be compatible with the Bluetooth Mesh. If you want to build a Bluetooth based mesh, ANT is not the correct place to start. You should have a look at the nRF5 SDK for Mesh, and the Light switch demo.

    Best regards,

    Jørgen

  • 0 in reply to Jørgen Holmefjord

    Great infos. As I understood correctly, the main difference between ANT and BLE mesh is more-or-less the robustness and security. ANT has a simpler stack than BLE and uses weaker security key. IMHO this limits the usage of ANT (although the usage range can be still very wide).

    And what about pricing? I have read that the license for ANT costs around $0.08 per device in production. But haven't found any pricing for BLE. Do you know something about this?

    And why should I decide to use nRF OpenMesh prior to BLE Mesh itself? What benefits do I gain with the OpenMesh?

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  • 0 in reply to Jørgen Holmefjord

    Great infos. As I understood correctly, the main difference between ANT and BLE mesh is more-or-less the robustness and security. ANT has a simpler stack than BLE and uses weaker security key. IMHO this limits the usage of ANT (although the usage range can be still very wide).

    And what about pricing? I have read that the license for ANT costs around $0.08 per device in production. But haven't found any pricing for BLE. Do you know something about this?

    And why should I decide to use nRF OpenMesh prior to BLE Mesh itself? What benefits do I gain with the OpenMesh?

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