The best way to connect to over 200 low-power devices

RE: The best way to connect to over 200 low-power devices

awneil — Thu, 22 Nov 2018 22:55:49 GMT

[quote userid="75340" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/40783/the-best-way-to-connect-to-over-200-low-power-devices"]Bluetooth Smart[/quote]

That name was discontinued a couple of years ago - it's now just BLE

[quote userid="75340" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/40783/the-best-way-to-connect-to-over-200-low-power-devices/158729"]assumes that all of those 200 devices are paired [/quote]

No - it is not necessary to pair before connecting.

RE: The best way to connect to over 200 low-power devices

under_pressure — Thu, 22 Nov 2018 21:00:29 GMT

Thank you very much for the answer!

Then I see that I will need to go for bluetooth. The second solution you mentioned assumes that all of those 200 devices are paired before with the hub, is that correct?

Yes, the hub does not have low-power requirements.

RE: The best way to connect to over 200 low-power devices

Jørgen Holmefjord — Thu, 22 Nov 2018 12:26:20 GMT

I would not recommend using ANT. ANT does not support more connections than Bluetooth does.

There are (at least) two different solutions to your issue, both using BLE. I assume that your hub does not have low power requirements?

Advertising Beacons and scanner - Setup the nodes to advertise the sensor data at a high advertising interval. You can use the nRF52 Online Power Profiler to check the current consumption of different configurations in this mode. The hub will be constantly scanning for advertising packets and collect the sensor data from all nodes.
The latest s132 softdevices support up to 20 concurrent connections. Within 5 minutes you should have plenty enough time to connect 20 nodes, collecet the data, disconnect, and connect the next 20 nodes until you have cycled through all 200 nodes.

Best regards,
Jørgen

RE: The best way to connect to over 200 low-power devices

under_pressure — Wed, 21 Nov 2018 22:26:48 GMT

Sending period is 5 minutes.