Beginner, there to start?

[Bengt Ragnemalm]

Hi! I have been using Bluetooth 2.0 modules for years and now I want to take the step to 4.0/BLE. Previously I used Free2move modules with built in stack. Very simple, make a driver for settings parameters over UART and when just stream data through the module. I plan to use a 4.0 BLE Smart module but still it do not look like it can be so simple as it was without BLE. My system has a microcontroller there I run an RTOS that is sampling data and sends this to the Bluetooth module over the UART. Theese are my needs:

1. Easy to use. I want it to be a ready made module and not having to put a stack inside my micro.
2. Very small size. Most modules are actually larger than I want them to but I will accept whatever I can find for now.
3. Cheap. This should be a high volume application. Still, because of limited developing resources I can't take the step directly to a custom implementation. 4, alternative a: Lossless sending of data. A byte transferred from the micro should always get to the receiver, sooner or later, as long as the entire link does not times out. The micro will take care of needed queuing. 4, alternative b: Short latency but not lossless. The micro will more or less just send data to the module but don't bother about if it reaches its destination or not. In this situation it is more important that a few bytes sent gets to the destination fast than all bytes but later.

The problem I have is that even after reading a lot of information I still do not know where to start and I do not know if I can solve both (one at a time) of my requirements of 4.

[Ole Morten]

We try to answer any question that is generic to our chips, but if you have questions specifically on how a module behaves, you're most likely better off by asking the module manufacturer. For your application, we have two different chips that you could consider, the nRF8001 and the nRF51822.

nRF8001 nRF8001 is a connectivity chip that uses an SPI-like interface, which gives you a fairly high-level API. There are some constraints using this, primarily with data rate and the different advertising formats supported, but if you don't need more than ~20 kbps data throughput, this is a good option. Take a look at the Arduino SDK, that shows how you can use this from an Arduino environment, and which should be easy to port to another micro.

nRF51822 The nRF51822 is a system-on-chip, and doesn't have any ready-made connectivity solutions. In its SDK, there is an example that you could build on, which gives you a very low-level API, or you can build a custom higher-level API as your own application, and then interface to it. With the nRF51822, you have lots of flexibility, and can achieve much higher throughput, up to 128 kbps.

To start development with the nRF51822, I'd recommend to get either a Development or Evaluation Kit, follow the Getting Started part of the User Guide and then take a look at the different examples provided in the SDK. nAN-36 is also a very useful document to take a look at.

There are modules available with both chips, as listed here.