Nrf52840 range ,AT commands and mesh capability

[Obakeng]

Hi,

1. I need to know the bluetooth 5 range of the nrf52840 dongles which I need to use on custom boards.

2. Can I use AT commands to communicate with the dongle over uart and if so where can I get an example.

3. Can I use the mesh functionality without the development kit (DK board)

Thanks in advance

[MartinBL]

Hi,

1. We haven't tested the range of the nRF52840 dongle. The range depends on so many variables that you will need to test it yourself to get a reliable result. Please refer to this blog post for more info regarding BLE 5, nRF52840, and range: Tested by Nordic: Bluetooth Long Range. 
2. Unfortunately we don't have any examples or solutions for AT commands, but it is certainly possible to implement. This is probably the best place to start: UART/Serial Port Emulation over BLE.
3. There is no official support for the PCA10059 in the Mesh SDK yet. However, you can run mesh applications on the dongle, but you will have to make some changes in the code to reassign pin numbers used for buttons and LEDs, etc. Furthermore you cannot debug your code with the dongle alone. For that you will need a DK board or some sort of debugger.