thingy52 & mesh

[ToasTer86]

Hi Nordic Devzone,

Now that I got my Thingy52 running I am wondering if there are any examples of the thingy52 connecting with a nRF52840-PDK or something of the sort ( Arduino/Raspberry Pi).

And also if the device even really has bluetooth mesh capabilities. If I look at the SDK mesh seems like the Thingy52 is not support there, although the 52832 chip is. Mesh SDK site

Any answers, or examples with mesh would be highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Bjørn Kvaale]

Checkout this link here. Good example of what you can do with a Raspberry Pi & a Thingy:52.

[ToasTer86]

Hey thanks again for the examples, specifically does the Thingy52 have Bluetooth 5 relay capabilities ? It would be great if I could use multiple 52's and they would use the relay and broadcasting capabilities to extend the range of the Bluetooth 5 network I want to create.

[Bjørn Kvaale]

The Thingy52 does have Bluetooth 5 relay capabilities, as is explained on the nrf5 SDK for Mesh website page. The reason this is true is because an nrf52832 chip is used on the Thingy:52. The Mesh SDK example can be made to work on the Thingy, although you will need to play around with it a bit to get it working. We currently do not have a working Thingy:52 mesh example.

[ToasTer86]

Hey Bjorn,

Thanks for your answer. I have given up on the idea of getting the Thingy52's acting as mesh nodes for now. Now I just want to get it connected with a nRF52840-PDK and do some data sharing. I will most likely have to make my own Mesh model for that communication.

I have been doing a lot of studying on the Mesh SDK and specifications. In your documentation at the mesh SDK section "Basic Bluetooth Mesh concepts" A GATT Proxy protocol is mentioned as is the bluetooth low power Friendship feature to connect a Mesh enabled node to BLE4 decices. Although at the part "Mesh provisioning" and "How to build a network" I have not been able to find any practical example or explanation on how to connect a BLE device like the Thingy52.

The example you mentioned using node.js they are using a library to connect the Thingy52, I want to use your mesh SDK to accomplish this.

Am I just to early to the Mesh & Thingy52 scene? I did some extensive searching through all the questions posted here and I found more questions asking the same thing for the Thingy52 & BL5 mesh.

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../

So for now I think of doing damage control and trying another project and give up on Bluetooth mesh SDK and the thingy52. Meaning I see no possibility of getting the 2 to work together. In mesh, friendship protocol or using GATT proxy. Would be great to use Mesh on the Thingy52 to use them as relay nodes. That was the idea I had when purchasing and setting up this project. Might have been to enthousiastic :)

[Bjørn Kvaale]

It should definitely be possible to get Mesh to work, as this has been done previously for internal use at trade shows & demo purposes. But you would probably have to figure out quite a bit by yourself I am afraid. As Bjørn Spockeli writes, it is uncertain if mesh will be added to the Thingy SDK.

But have you tried to use the light switch example in the nrf5 Mesh SDK yet? That one should work fine with 2-4 nrf52840 pdk's. If I recall correctly, you have 6 nrf52840 pdk's, right? I will let you know if there is an update on mesh with the thingy sdk.