nRF52832 does this Nordic chip have Bluetooth 5.1 support? direction finding?

[Jkumar Vaghela]

hello , 

i want to develop a smart home product in which i want to use the indoor positioning using Bluetooth 5.1 Direction finding, i have seen that the " nRF52811" have direction finding support, 

but i don't know that how exactly i will use it ? i can see the reference schematic in datasheet , i have also seen the third party modules , but what i want to know is how to use AoA and AoD, and also about the antenna design, i have several questions please help me.

1] do i need 2 Bluetooth 5.1 chips to test the AoA direction finding ? or i just can simply have 1 Bluetooth 5.1 chip and i can sense my mobile Bluetooth (4.2) direction sense?

2] is that possible that by using only one Bluetooth 5.1 chip can i able to find direction? because by using more than one and triangulation method i will able to find direction in Bluetooth 4.2 too.

3] nRF52832 does this Nordic chip have Bluetooth 5.1 support? direction finding?

4]i want to find direction of my mobile phone (which have Bluetooth 4.2) using nRF52811 this chip , is that possible?? or i will need more than one nRF52811??

5] what is antenna array in Bluetooth 5.1? how can i achieve this ? is there any reference guide for hardware design?

6] is the Bluetooth 5.1 stacks are ready or still under-development?

thanks in advance

[Simonr]

Hi

1. Yes, both receiver and transceiver will have to be Bluetooth 5.1 compatible for direction finding to work. Here is some literature on Bluetooth 5.1 and how the direction-finding works. Here, here, and here.

2. You won't be able to track BLE 4.2 or 5.0 tags using other Bluetooth 5.1 chips. You can check out Quuppa, which has an interesting take on the direction-finding method using BLE tags.

3. No, as of now, only the nRF52811 is Bluetooth 5.1 compatible and supports direction-finding.

4. I'm afraid this won't be possible until the phones support Bluetooth 5.1, or you implement a Bluetooth 5.1 chip in your phone's casing or similar that supports direction-finding.

5. We do not have any reference as of yet on hardware design using Bluetooth 5.1. An antenna array of 2x3 antennas supporting direction-finding or more will likely be necessary to implement the direction-finding well.

6. No, we do not have any Bluetooth 5.1 example code, libraries or drivers available at this point in time.

Please contact your RSM (Regional Sales Manager) for more info on if and when these products/services will be available. If you don't have the contact information of your RSM, please fill out our Sales related questions form, and you'll be put in touch.

Best regards,

Simon