NRF51 DK and NRF51 Dongle

[Ri23]

Hello, 

I am completely new to creating a Bluetooth mesh network and nRF5 devices. I have three nRF51 DK and 2 nRF51 dongles. I have earlier read the posts and made nRF51 (1 device) and nRF51 dongle (1 device) communicate with each other by sending some hex values using Termite, master Control Panel, Nrf Studio. 

My questions are

1. How can I create a wireless mesh network with three nrf51 DK and 2 nRF51 dongles ? How Can I provision the devices ? 

2. Is there intense programming required ? 

3. How many days/months will it take to provision the above mentioned devices and create a mesh network ? 

your advice would greatly be appreciated. 

Kindly let me know

Thank you

Ri

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

1. You are probably looking for the nRF5 SDK for Mesh. You should note though that this has deprecated nRF51, so you should consider using nRF52 for new product development. (I believe that the price nRF52810 should be comparable to the nRF51 if the project is cost sensitive.)
2. All development with nRF devices require a good deal of programming.
3. It is difficult to say how long time you will need to get the mesh network up and running, but there are a number of examples accompanying the nRF5 SDK for Mesh which should help you get up to speed. The documentation is found on Infocenter.

[Ri23]

Thank you for the reply. So to apply our own logic and implement the mesh Network with NRF51, will approx. take about 4-5 months ? 

And  I can  still develop the Mesh network with nRF51 right  ?

Sorry for the questions. I am completely new and wanted to get a clear picture ? 

[Einar Thorsrud]

Nordic has legacy mesh SDK for nRF51, but it is non-standard. I strongly suggest you consider going for the nRF52 and the nRF5 SDK for Mesh which has support for the official Bluetooth mesh.

Regarding the timeline it depend on a number of factors, what you want to make, to what extent you will write software yourself or use existing solutions (such as the nRF5 SDK for mesh) and the number and experience of your developer(s). I do not think me or anyone else on this forum can give you a sensible estimate based on the information we have.