Using the nRF24L01/+ for sending out BLE advertisement packets in a product (is this legal/certifiable?)

[Jay]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently developing a potential product where I wanted to use the nRF24L01/+ to send out BLE advertisement packets for a mobile app to receive and decode the data (like here: https://circuitdigest.com/microcontroller-projects/sending-sensor-data-to-android-phone-using-arduino-nrf24l01-over-bluetooth-ble). However, since nRF24L01/+ was never designed for BLE communication, is this legal and/or will run into issues with certifications like the FCC?

Thank you for your help!

[Øyvind]

Hello,

While technically possible, this is not supported. And yes, you will run into issues with the e.g FCC.

Kind regards,
Øyvind

[Jay]

Thanks Øyvind! If the nRF24L01/+ sends out data in a 'supported' way but the packets happens to be BLE, would this be considered acceptable? I'm assuming this won't allow BLE certification/logo to be on the product but can be used as a general purpose 2.4 GHz transmitter.

[Øyvind]

The nRF24L-series devices do not have the correct frequency deviation to pass Bluetooth RF PHY requirements. A potential product for the mass market will have issues with certifications. The solution given in the link is more of a hack for hobby use and will not pass any FCC approval. Please see this link on how to Qualify Your Product, and this link with Governing documents.

If you do want to develop a product that passes e.g. FCC, then I strongly suggest having a look at our Bluetooth Low Energy products.

[Jay]

I understand that the nRF24L series cannot pass any BLE certifications and won't pass as a BLE device under FCC testing. I'm wondering if the nRF24L series can be passed at all as a 2.4GHz transceiver. I'm sure others have used the nRF24L products with FCC approved, so under what device is it passed/certified as?

Also, we are looking for the cheapest BLE SoC/transceiver but our constraint is that the IC needs to be <0.7 USD per unit. We're looking to buy in bulk of >1 Million units per year but we couldn't find any cheaper pricing for your products for other than ~1K units. Could you please advise us on this as well or provide us the sales contact who can help us?

Thank you.

[Øyvind]

Jay said:

I'm wondering if the nRF24L series can be passed at all as a 2.4GHz transceiver.

 I'm not sure what you mean. The nRF24L01+ is a single-chip 2.4GHz transceiver (radio only). It is used and certified in several products, but not for BLE as you were asking about. There are several certification bodies you have to pass, depending on the country. Please see this article from Embedded-Computing.com:

"You must understand the certification requirements of all of the countries into which you wish to sell your product.

Unfortunately, there is no global certification body in place with universal standards you can test your product against. In the United States, the FCC is the certifying body; in Canada, it’s Industry Canada (IC); in the European Union, testing is performed against the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) requirements for CE approval. Each country you wish to sell into will have similar, but also very different, certification and testing requirements. Identifying all the vital certifications that are needed is critical for your commercial teams to successfully launch your product."

We have a white-paper you can read here. It's from 2007 but covers what you need about "Regulatory and Compliance Standards for RF Devices"

The nRF24 series is not recommended for new designs and is no maintained both software and hardware. For newer designs, we recommend the nRF52 series which includes the 2.4GHz transceiver and an ARM Cortex M0.

Jay said:

Could you please advise us on this as well or provide us the sales contact who can help us?

 Send me a PM with your location and I will send contact information for you RSM.