Nrf24 vs BLE

[Leonardo]

Hello all,

In a network of sensors with power constraints in a room which protocol is the best?

Newer devices seem to use BLE but I don't want to discard good old nrf24l01+

Sensors are like accelerometers, flex sensors, gyroscopes, led lights, etc.. that should talk with a gateway mini-pc in the room (can have a custom receiver). I don't know number of sensors but I think a dozen max.

Thank you Leonardo

[Liviu]

(a very late reply)

I personally find working with the radio communication protocols a lot easier. From my experience reaching the same speeds as the nRF24 via bluetooth is massively difficult (if not impossible) — however, maybe I just don't know enough about BLE. The best way I found is to have a receiving device connected directly to your 'output device' (phone, laptop, desktop) that prepares the data received wirelessly from various other sensors.

Hope this helps.

[awneil]

I think comparing BLE to nRF24 is rather like comparing USB to UART.

Sure BLE (like USB) adds loads of extra bells & whistles, but that does come at a cost - espececially if you don't need them.

So, if you want a highly-optimised solution for a very specific problem a "general-purpose, do-everything" thing like BLE (or USB) is possibly not the way to go.

The downside, of course, is that you won't be able to just connect straight to any phone, tablet or laptop on the planet - you will have to make adaptors and gateways and suchlike. But, in this case, that is probably not a problem.