nRf24L01 not recommended for new projects

[TheCaller]

Members

I am in the board design phase of my project. I use Arduino boards (Due & Uno) with SPI. I read that the nRF24L series is not recommended for future projects. Any suggestions on what a possible replacement could be that is with in the same specification range?

The use of the nRf24L01 does not need additional certification in Australia as its power output is low.

Thanks in advance

[Andreas]

Hi,

 

This 'not recommended for new designs' might not be entirely accurate for nRF24L01+, as I understand it has more to do with the development tools no longer being regularly and you can run into trouble there. nRF24L01+, being a transceiver IC, will not be affected by this as you do the application MCU, in this case your Arduino board. Make sure you use NRF24L01+ (plus), not nRF24L01 (non--plus).

You could also look into nRF52810 if you want. It can be programmed to be on-air compatible with nRF24 series, and act as a transceiver IC just like nRF24L01. It might be slightly more expensive, but requires less space, is easier to design your PCB with, has a lower BOM, draws less current and overall has better performance.

 

I am not sure I believe that you do not need to certify a product with nRF24L01+ in Australia, even if there is a clause allowing not certifying if output power is low you still need to prove that it is low enough. In any case, nRF52810 supports the same output power.

 

Best regards,

Andreas

[DerekK]

Do you have examples of programming the nRF52810 to work like the nRF24L01?

[Andreas]

Hi,

 

We do, they are in the nRF5 SDK, see the documentation here.

 

Best regards,

Andreas