The proper examples for light and switch products.

[Young]

Hi BLE Mesh support team,

We're trying to evaluate for our light and switch products. We have searched for the examples and done some tests.  We need some help to understand more clearly about the examples.

The planed switch is powered by battery. which example is proper for this? LPN or client examples (light_switch_client, light_lightness_client, light_ctl_client)?

If client is proper, how to get the low power based on battery? don't  the light switch/lightness/ctl client examples work on low power mode, right?

If LPN is proper, do we need to add the relevant client models (light lightness client model, light ctl client model, etc.) based on the lpn example?

For light, can we use LFRC for 32.768KHz clock?  

If have to use lpn, for 32.768KHz clock, which source is proper?  LFXO, LFRC, SYNTHERSIZED? 

We hope to learn more about nordic ble mesh for our products. Thanks in advance!

[Hung Bui]

Hi Young, 

Could you describe your application a little bit more ? 
How many nodes do you have in the network ? Do you have infrastructure nodes that would run on main power not battery ? 

Mesh network is designed to run on main power, not battery. Only a few nodes configured as LPN can run on battery. The LPN node requires a friend node nearby to be able to operate. 

If you do have infrastructure nodes that cover the full area you can think of using LPN nodes. If you only plan do use them as light switch, then you don't need to implement other model. 

However, the nRF5 SDK will not have further development as we migrate to the new platform the nRF Connect SDK. So if you plan to develop a new product, we suggest you to have a look at the nRF Connect SDK instead. You can find multiple mesh examples, for example here.

[Young]

Hi Hung,

Thanks for your quick reply.

We are planning to develop the bulb. It is tunable.  We have learned about the example light lightness server.  Maybe this example is proper for this. 

Also we plan to develop the bulb switch which will be powered from the battery.  The switch just needs to send messages and doesn't need to accept messages.  In one ble mesh network, there will be a max number of 300 bulbs and one or more switches.  For the switch development under this low power condition, can we only use LPN to develop the switch? 

since the switch doesn't need to accept messages,  Can we use the light lightness client example and configure the light lightness client to work (just send messages) on low power mode like LPN?  

Which example is more proper for our bulb switch development? 

Thank you.

[Hung Bui]

Hi Young, 

If you are planning to continue development with nRF5 SDK (not with nRF Connect SDK) then what you planned was correct. 

I would suggest to start first by just using the light_switch server example for the light bulb. This example uses the Generic On_Off model. You then can use the LPN example (also implemented Generic On_Off model) to turn off and on the light bulb as described in the documentation here.

After you have a working prototype as described in the documentation, if you want to be able to dim the light, you can start thinking of implementing the light lightness model. The server should be implemented on the light bulb and the client on the LPN node. 

[Young]

Hi Hung,

Thanks for you suggestion.