Thread protocol for outdoor sports accessories

[Mxoh]

Hi there,

We are a cycling accessories company (mainly light accessories) and have been using Nordic chips for BLE 1 to 1 connection of our helmet to phone (for configurations) and ESB/2.4GHz of our helmet to remote (for turn signals). As our company's direction is to produce more accessories and for them to be in a network, we have been researching and experimenting on this.

Frankly we are no experts and initially tried BLE mesh from our experience with BLE but found that the power consumption might be too high due to need for constant advertising and scanning. We came across Nordic BLE multi-link and planning to start some experiments with it soon but I am apprehensive as it is requires to define central and peripheral. My questions are:

1. Due to time constraint, we are likely still using BLE to create the network but I am wondering if there is possibly that in the future we would be able to support a supposedly better network protocol like Thread?

2. As our products are mainly outdoor accessories, we do not have a home network to tap into and rely on battery. I know that Zigbee requires a hub to be connected to a router but is there still a chance we can use Thread?

FYI we are currently using Nordic IC nRF52832 but have purchased Nordic nRF52840 with a development board router to experiment with Thread.

[Simonr]

Hi again

Regarding the central going down. I don't think the devices will be able to choose a central by themselves, but you could either have a button for setting a device to act as the central, and then it can automatically connect to the other devices that are set to advertise when not already in a connection. Alternatively, you can have one specific device (the helmet for example) that is configured to act as a central if the original central is dropped and the helmet connection times out (this might not be as safe, as if the helmet times out by itself it will try to act as a central.

I'm not too familiar with ANT+ I'm afraid, so I'm hesitant to provide any specific suggestions on whether to use it or not. I guess you could contact their support channels to ask whether this is a viable approach.

Best regards,

Simon

[Mxoh]

I see. Good to have that info! I do feel that my company is exploring more into the BLE multi-link route but another question that I have is:

Can we setup the BLE multi-link network by pairing all devices through our app rather than pairing the peripherals with the central individually? Why I ask is because we have an app that all devices can pair to and it would be a hassle to pair with the app and also the central individually. It would be preferred if all devices pair to the app and we set up the central and peripherals accordingly. I hope my question is clear enough and thanks for your help so far!