Please recommend me some appropriate nRF-based BLE SoC for my application

[bojan]

Hi guys,

We are starting a fresh project these days. Let me try to describe our needs.

On one side, we should have a BLE module, as simple and small as possible, that will be used to send a simple message (once or few times per day) to the BLE central unit.

Central unit will be some nRF52840-based SoC module. There will be a few peripheral units (e.g. 3) and one central unit in the network.

It is quite important for us that the peripheral units are as small as possible and as low power as possible - we are gonna supply them with the coin cell batteries.  The peripheral should also be compatible with nRF52840 SoC modules.

Do you, guys, have any small and sexy BLE module to recommend us?

What kind of network would be optimal to implement in this use case where we have one central unit and a few peripheral units ? Communication is unidirectional - from peripheral unit to the central unit.

Should we implement a BLE mesh or to exchange the message in BLE advertisement mode or something else? Message should be kind of an ID of the BLE unit - like MAC address.

Thank you very much for your time and effort, guys! It is really appreciated.

Cheers,

Bojan.

[Nguyen Hoan Hoang]

This module is based on the nRF52832.  It is extremely small 7 x 10 x 1.6mm certified.  https://www.crowdsupply.com/i-syst/blyst-nano.  Everything is builtin 32KHz crystal and DC/DC coils for low power.  No extra components needed on your PCB.  A nRF52840 based module 9 x 14 x1.6mm is being certified.

This module is being used in this beacon product https://iqonboard.com

     

[bojan]

Thanks for the suggestion, Nguyen Hoan Hoang. Where can I buy the module, download datasheet and see some more characteristics?

Can I develop the firmware by using Nordic's SDK?

Sincerely,

Bojan.

[Nguyen Hoan Hoang]

You can order it directly from the link on crowdsupply for evaluation order. Contact sales at i-syst dot com for volume production.  

Documentation download here https://sourceforge.net/projects/blyst-nano/files/docs/. 

It is 100% software development with SDK.  You can flash prebuild hex examples from the SDK directly.  Beside the SDK there also more open source software support here https://github.com/IOsonata/IOsonata

And blog pages on how to write BLE firmware easily here

http://embeddedsoftdev.blogspot.com/2018/01/ 

http://embeddedsoftdev.blogspot.com/p/ehal-nrf51.html

Development board with builtin CMSIS-DAP is also available here https://www.tindie.com/products/hnhoan/bluetooth5mesh-nrf52832-arm-m4f-nano-devkit/

MicroPython port is also available on main MicroPython github

The IMM-NRF52840 module will be available around jan time frame.     

[haakonsh]

See our list of 3rd party modules. 

What kind of network would be optimal to implement in this use case where we have one central unit and a few peripheral units ? Communication is unidirectional - from peripheral unit to the central unit.

Standard star-topology. You do not need a mesh unless you intend to connect >19 central's together or you need the extended range a mesh provides. Meshed networks also require a lot more energy. 

Should we implement a BLE mesh or to exchange the message in BLE advertisement mode or something else?

 Use BLE advertisements.