Do we need to buy ANT+dongle or else is there any possibility to use nRF52840 DK to test ANT ?

[Sridhar Jonnavittula]

Hi,

We are using nRF52840 DK with 15.3 SDK (latest).

Registered at thisant and got the s340 softdevice for nRF52840 DK.

Please answer are my questions

1. Where I can get the beginner guide that what to do after getting the s340 softdevice?
2. Do we need to buy ANT dongle or else we can use any nRF52840 DK after programming it. If we can use DK then, what is the application we need to load?

Thanks,

Sridhar

[Joakim Jakobsen]

Hi Sridhar! 

Where I can get the beginner guide that what to do after getting the s340 softdevice?

 We have a simple guide on how to get the ANT-examples in our SDK running. 

Running ANT examples

Note: 
"There are no Keil or GCC targets to program these SoftDevices. You must therefore use nRFgo Studio to program them."

This information is a little outdated. You can also use the nRF Connect - Programmer app to program the ANT softdevices. 

Do we need to buy ANT dongle or else we can use any nRF52840 DK after programming it. If we can use DK then, what is the application we need to load?

 No, you don't need to buy an ANT dongle. You can use the nRF52840 DK (PCA10056) and one of the examples in our SDK. For example the ant_message_types example. 
 You can find the source code and the project file of the example in the following folder: <InstallFolder>\examples\ant\ant_message_types\master\pca10056

Best regards, 
Joakim

[Sridhar Jonnavittula]

Hi Jakobsen,

We programmed <InstallFolder>\examples\ant\ant_message_types\master\pca10056 and softdevice binary using nRFgo Studio and we cant see this DK under available devices in ANTware 2 V4.1 application.

1. Can you please mention more like if we have to do configuration in the binary and ANTware 2 v4.1?
2. We tried to add device with different baudrates in ANTware and why it is throwing baud rate error popup like "Error opening device: ANT library exception: Retrieving device capabilities failed, probably connecting at wrong baud rate"?

Thanks,

Sridhar

[Joakim Jakobsen]

Hi. 

Sorry, I think I might have misunderstood. 

You can program and run the example on an nRF52840 DK. However, in order to test the example I linked to in my previous answer, you will need an ANT dongle(for example, ANTUSB-m). 

You can see the example documentation and test guide here: 
https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/topic/com.nordic.infocenter.sdk5.v15.3.0/ant_examples_message_types.html?cp=5_1_4_0_9 

There are examples that doesn't require an ANT dongle for testing, but we don't have support in the SDK for the nRF52840 (PCA10056) yet. 

Sorry for the confusion. 

Best regards, 
Joakim

[Sridhar Jonnavittula]

Hi,

Our DVK: Development kit with our module based on nRF52840

We have verified the basic communication between PCA10040 DK and our DVK, one with ANT HRM TX and other with ANT+BLE relay.

Is this test OK to verify ANT protocol works with our module?

Thanks

[Kenneth]

Hi,

It depends on what you mean by "verify". I don't see any problem doing functional development based on your description, however you should still check the output power, frequency accuracy, and antenna performance using spectrum analyzer if you intend to do range tests and/or go to an end product with your DVK. If you are planning to make an ANT+ enabled product you will also need an ANT USB dongle to run their test tools to check functionality.

Best regards,
Kenneth