chosing a chip for low energy communication (using a coin cell) of sensor data to COM port on computer.

[Alnos]

Hello,

I am interfacing some chips + sensors to wirelessly communicate to an nRF24L01 connected to an arduino nano which is pluged via USB to a computer.

This nRF24L01+ arduino would receive an array of maybe 6 numbers between 0 and 1000, about 30 times / second.

I was considering buying 3 nRF52832's and powering them with coin cell batteries. 

I was wondering:

- Can several nRF52832's communicate to the nRF24L01+ ?

- Do the SPI libraries for arduino for nRF24L01 work for the nRF52832?

- How much would a nRF52832 last transmitting with a 500mAh coin cell ? the only number I have in mind is 10 mA consumption, which gives me 50h.

- Is this the right hardware/approach? 

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[Kenneth]

1. The nRF52-series can communicate over ESB using the following configuration with the ESB library:
https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/com.nordic.infocenter.sdk5.v15.3.0/esb_users_guide.html?cp=5_0_5_2_2#esb_backwards 

2. Don't have experience with how the arduino configure the nRF24L, but I don't see any direct problems as long as Arudino is using 1Mbps or 2Mbps on-air datarate (250kbps not supported on nRF52-series).

3. The current consumption is around ~10mA in active tx/rx, however since you only need to be active for maybe 1 ms every transmission, and in sleep mode between transmissions, then the average current consumption is much lower, e.g. to send 30packets/second: (30 * 1ms)/1000(ms) * 10mA = ~0.3mA.

Best regards,
Kenneth

[Alnos]

Thank you! very helpful