info

RE: info

ovrebekk — Wed, 19 Feb 2020 14:39:31 GMT

It's a bit difficult to be sure if the modules you linked are genuine or not. The fact that they are very cheap, and don't mention Nordic Semiconductor anywhere in the product description, means there is a high risk they could be fake.

I would recommend buying a couple of known good modules from a site such as Sparkfun:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/691

Once you have these known genuine modules running you can try the ones you already have, and if they seem to work the same way you can keep using them for development and testing.

1) We sell all our parts through distributors.

Integrating the chip on your PCB reduced per unit BOM, but increases development complexity and time to do the PCB design. You also need to spend some money to get your PCB RF tested to comply with local regulations.

2) You can find an overview of our distributors in Italy here:
https://www.nordicsemi.com/About%20us/FindDistributor/Europe/Italy

3) As mentioned I would recommend one of the Sparkfun modules. I am pretty sure they ship to any country in Europe.

www.mouser.com also seem to have some nRF24L01+ modules available.

4) We did make a devkit for the nRF24L01+ back in the day, but it is very old and not well supported anymore. I think it will be easier for you to get a module and hook it up to your PIC devkit instead.

Best regards
Torbjørn

RE: info

Piero67 — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 10:09:58 GMT

Hi Torbjørn,
yes exactly I was wrong to write the acronym of the IC, the exact one is the one you mention, nRF24L01 +.

Ok I will read chapters 6 to 9 well to understand how the chip works.

I don't know if the modules I purchased are original, I bought them on amzon to have them quickly, I copy the link, could you please tell me if they are good modules?

www.amazon.it/.../ref=pe_3310731_185740161_TE_item

I would also need, if possible, to have an indication of the cost of nRF24L01 + for an initial purchase of 50.000 pieces divided into 5 lots of 10.000 pieces to be purchased in the period of a year.

1) Can production ICs be purchased directly from you, as mentioned, will I integrate nRF24L01 + into my PCB due to cost?
2) Alternatively, do you have distributors in Italy?
3) If the modules that I have purchased are not valid, where can I quickly buy others to carry out the tests?
4) If you have any development kit for nRF24L01 + you can tell me which and where to buy it.

Thanks

Piero

RE: info

ovrebekk — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 09:33:10 GMT

First off you definitely want to use the nRF24L01+ (aka nRF24L01P) rather than the nRF24L01.

When it comes to modules for development it is important to know that there are a lot of counterfeit modules available using fake nRF24L01 chips, and these might perform quite differently from the genuine Nordic parts. Both for development and production it is important to make sure you buy your devices from one of our registered distributors, to know that you are getting valid parts.

How to integrate the nRF24L01+ with your PIC controller I can't provide much help on, but I am sure there are software examples out there if you are looking for this.

The ESB protocol used by the nRF24L devices is quite simple, and any kind of frequency hopping, security, pairing etc that you want to implement will have to be handled on the software side. When using Bluetooth many of these features will be implemented in the stack itself.

To understand the workings of the nRF24L01+ device the best place to start is the product specification, in particular chapters 6 to 9.

These chapters go through the ESB protocol in detail, the various operating states of the device, the control interface and all the different configuration registers in the device.

Best regards
Torbjørn

RE: info

Piero67 — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 12:51:23 GMT

Hi,
thanks for the reply, but as I explained I am in the initial phase of a new consumer project with interesting annual volumes, so the costs of the components are important.

Searching the internet I saw that your IC nRF24L01 is more suitable for my application, I found on the net some modules that contain this IC and I bought them to do some tests.

The RX / TX operating range that I have to use is very small, max 3 meters.

The nRF24L01 solution is certainly cheaper than bluettooth, I looked at the datasheet and I noticed that there are all the tips on how to make the PCB to integrate nRF24L01 into my hardware.

I will use nRF24L01 together with a PIC16FL18324 and a PIC PIC16FL18344, the object that will be produced will be sold in pairs, an RX / TX master which will have a unique factory code and an RX / TX slave which will be associated from time to time by writing the code unique in the PIC flash of the slave.

All the advice you will want to provide for a correct use of nRF24L01 are very welcome.

For example, if you have interconnection schemes nRF24L01 / pic demonstration code etc.

A consumption of 50,000 nRF24L01 / year is expected which equates to 25,000 objects.

Thanks

RE: info

ovrebekk — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 12:19:41 GMT

Are you planning to take this project to mass production?

Except for our very first Bluetooth device released 10 years ago all our devices have on board MCU's, and will need to be flashed with some code to operate.

We have a serialization library in our SDK which connects the Bluetooth stack to one of the serial interfaces, and makes it relatively simple to set up a device to be connected to some external host processor, but the API is similar to the API of the Bluetooth stack, and you will need to run some code on the host processor to configure the various host layers of the stack (what connection/advertising parameters to use, which services to enable, crypto handling if needed etc).

Also, the serialization examples only support SPI, UART and USB. Not I2C.

There might be some modules available that simplify this procedure, being provided pre-programmed, but if low cost is important then a module solution might not be ideal.

Best regards
Torbjørn

RE: info

Piero67 — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 11:08:35 GMT

I have purchased the NRF24L01 modules pending your reply, if you can kindly give me some indications of connections to use them with an ESUART interface or MMSP SPI via PIC.

I started a project and I am identifying the components to be used, the annual quantities of the radio transceiver are foreseen in 50000 pieces / year