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

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

Jørgen Holmefjord — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 11:26:43 GMT

This answer describe the prices for Bluetooth. It is a bit old, but I don't think the prices have changed much. I guess it all comes down to your volume, which protocol will be most expensive.

I would not recommend that you use the OpenMesh now that the Bluetooth Mesh have been released. It does not give you ay benefits, it was only implemented as a temporary solution, as there was no official Bluetooth Mesh specifications available at the time. We are focusing only on Bluetooth Mesh now, and I don't think OpenMesh will be updated/maintained.

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

Dusan Daniska — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 10:31:17 GMT

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?

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

Jørgen Holmefjord — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 09:57:07 GMT

Originally, Bluetooth Low energy did not come with any standard support for mesh. Many companies developed proprietary mesh solutions based on BLE advertising and scanning, including our own nRF OpenMesh solution. Last year, Bluetooth SIG (the interest group for Bluetooth) released specifications of the Bluetooth Mesh, which is a new standard complementary to Bluetooth Low Energy. You can read more about Bluetooth Mesh in this two part Introduction blog post series. Some comparison of BLE and ANT in general can be seen in this article. Our nRF5 SDK for Mesh which I linked above is production ready library implementation of the Bluetooth Mesh specifications.

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

Dusan Daniska — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 08:42:59 GMT

Hello Jorgen, thank you very much for your reply. I did not know that there is a difference between ANT mesh and Bluetooth mesh. Could you point me somewhere where I can learn more about those differences? Or - what is Bluetooth mesh for and what is its standard usage?

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

Jørgen Holmefjord — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 08:02:47 GMT

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