Software example for USB communication with a PC

[Alessio]

Hi,

looking for some examples I found this ticket but links inside seem not working.
https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/146/example-software-for-usb-communication-of-nrf24lu1p

I was looking for some example on how to interface a PC software with the USB dongle nRF24LU1P.
I'm trying to interface using winusbnet on a WPF application.
Thanks.

[ovrebekk]

Hi Allesio 

Alessio said:

for static pairing, yes, it's over ESB or Gazell in a manner that there are up to 3-4 transmission device sending data to an USB receiver that is plug and play, without configuration. Addresses should be stored in the uC of the receiver and in the uC of each device.

Thanks for the clarification. The nRF52 devices will all support this. 

The main challenge in implementing a system like this is on the management side, how to assign the keys in production and ensure that you bundle the devices accordingly, but this is obviously not dependent on which Nordic device is used.  

Alessio said:

You said "It supports most features of the nRF24L series", is there a list of which features are supported and which are dropped?

There is no singular list for this, no. 

The main missing feature in the nRF52 series is the proprietary 250kbps on air datarate mode, which was deprecated because it didn't really provide any better performance in the nRF52 devices (the 1M mode in the nRF52 is comparable to the 250kbps mode in the nRF24L series, which basically made the 250kbps mode useless unless you needed to be compatible with existing devices running at this rate). 

There are also some configurations of ESB involving the legacy ShockBurst mode (EN_AA disabled in the nRF24L) that can not be supported on the nRF52, if you need to support an application using multiple pipes with EN_AA disabled and varying payload lengths. If you use ESB mode (EN_AA = 1) then there is no such limitation, and the nRF52 is on par with the nRF24L series in terms of ESB features. 

To summarize I would say the only situation where the nRF52 would not be a suitable replacement for the nRF24L is if you need to be backwards compatible with existing nRF24L based products using one of the two features I mentioned above. 

Best regards
Torbjørn

[Alessio]

Thanks for the clarification.

[ovrebekk]

You welcome Alessio