RE: 2 protocols (Proprietary protocol & BLE) on nRF51822

Stefan Birnir Sverrisson — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 13:44:08 GMT

It is doable to implement application that runs both BLE and propriatery protocol. There is one such application in the SDK, that runs BLE and Gazell. The example is located at \Nordic\nrf51822_v6_1_0\Board\nrf6310\s110\ble_app_gzll. Gazell is Nordic's propriatery wireless protocol. It runs BLE, and with a push of a button, BLE stack is disabled and Gazell is enabled. Push the button again and Gazell is disabled and BLE is enabled.

It is also possible to run propriatery protocol and BLE concurrently, then you will have to utilize timeslots API, described in the S110 SDS document. With the Timeslots API, the application can request the S110 stack (softdevice) for timeslots in between BLE radio events, where the proprietary protocol can be executed. A simple Timeslot API example is attached that was tested with nRF51 SDK v6.0.0 and S110 v7.0.0.

ble_app_hrs_with_timeslot.zip

Anyway, if your requirement is to have 18mAh battery last for 7 months, it might be possible with just BLE advertising. You are correct that the maximum connection interval is 4 seconds, but from your description, suspect you want to advertise only, am I correct? The advertising interval can be up to 10.24 seconds. With a BLE advertising interval of 10.24 seconds the nRF51 consumes around 6uA, which gives you estimated lifetime of 19.6 months. If you let the device advertise with 2 second advertising interval, the current consumption is ~15-18 uA, wich will give you lifetime of about 7 months.