Looking for self-powered BLE Environmental Sensors with available characteristics (or BLE MESH SENSORS) except Thingy52/53

RE: Looking for self-powered BLE Environmental Sensors with available characteristics (or BLE MESH SENSORS) except Thingy52/53

tesc — Tue, 16 May 2023 16:10:08 GMT

Hi,

I am happy to hear that you found suited modules for your project. I will leave this thread open, so others can chime in, but from my side I consider the case closed.

Regards,
Terje

RE: Looking for self-powered BLE Environmental Sensors with available characteristics (or BLE MESH SENSORS) except Thingy52/53

BesbarJB — Sat, 13 May 2023 11:28:57 GMT

Dear Terje, Thank you I think I got it now.

For instance Adafruit is selling boards, based on nRF52840/nRF52832 chips, namely the Adafruit Feather nRF52840 Express or the Adafruit Feather nRF52 Bluefruit.

Thank you for this guiding to new possible horizons.

Have a great week-end.

RE: Looking for self-powered BLE Environmental Sensors with available characteristics (or BLE MESH SENSORS) except Thingy52/53

tesc — Fri, 12 May 2023 15:47:58 GMT

Salut,

[quote user="BesbarJB"]Oh, one last question, do Nordic have boards similar in size and functionality than the ESP32?[/quote]

Our boards are the DKs and Thingy:52/Thingy:53, as previously mentioned. Those boards are primarily intended for development, and not for end products. This has to do with certification with regulators such as CE, FCC, etc., and with price point.

Third party module makers may have boards with our SoCs on them, boards that are intended for end products.

Our sales representative for your area may be able to provide some more information about the alternatives. If you do not know who that is, then please ask in a private thread or private message and we will share with you the contact details.

Regards,
Terje

RE: Looking for self-powered BLE Environmental Sensors with available characteristics (or BLE MESH SENSORS) except Thingy52/53

BesbarJB — Thu, 11 May 2023 17:28:55 GMT

Dear Terje,

Once again, thank you for this picture. I looked at the modules.
I would love being able to design my own board and pcb, at the moment these steps sound a bit tough to me. Why not inviting me some days in your offices so that I can learn all this ;) ?

More seriously, I managed yesterday to add some sensors on a ESP32 [ow SHT31 (environment), PIR(motion detector), BH1750(light), SGP30(gas sensor)]. This ESP32 is then coded with a bluetooth mesh sensor server model whichs sends the sensors data over the network.
And here we are ! I am very happy about it. I am now designing a 3D printer case for this homemade BT mesh sensor.

Similarly I am also adding additional sensors (other than bme680 and bh1750) to Thingy:53 to achieve the same as with the ESP32. This post was helpful.

All in all, I am still interested in discussing with the community about BLE sensors that are easy to reverse-engineer, but the solution of adding sensors to ESP32 or Thingy:53 boards in addition to using a BLE MESH sensor server model is satisfying.

Oh, one last question, do Nordic have boards similar in size and functionality than the ESP32? So far I bought from Nordic nRF5340-DK, nRF52480-DK, Thingy:53/52 and a the nRF52480 dongle that I use as a sniffer.

Thanks a lot Terje.

RE: Looking for self-powered BLE Environmental Sensors with available characteristics (or BLE MESH SENSORS) except Thingy52/53

tesc — Tue, 09 May 2023 15:11:52 GMT

Hi,

Our DKs are Development Kits, which means they are not intended for final products, but rather for development. We consider the Thingy:52 and Thingy:53 to be "prototyping platforms", which are also intended for development (in the prototyping / demo / showcasing phase.)

For end products, you should either design your own board, as your own PCB with or without the use of break-out boards and modules, or use modules intended for final products. We do have an overview of modules for the various short-range SoCs (in the nRF52 and nRf53 series) here: System-on-modules, short-range. I do not know to which extent those modules include any sensors, and/or what other components are needed for making an end product.

Typically these modules include the nRF SoC, some necessary external circuitry and components, and an antenna, and they typically are made for soldering onto a PCB. The main advantage of using a module has to do with certification and antenna tuning. Please note that qualification status and other properties differ between those modules, so you should have a look at the URLs and evaluate which ones may be interesting to you.

Regards,
Terje

RE: Looking for self-powered BLE Environmental Sensors with available characteristics (or BLE MESH SENSORS) except Thingy52/53

BesbarJB — Mon, 08 May 2023 13:15:37 GMT

Hi Tesc,

Thanks a lot for this overview and quick reactivity. Regarding SDK examples of both LE and Mesh bluetooth, I have indeed used these examples for my project to read data from Thingy52/53.

It makes only few months from now, that I am working with Bluetooth devices (all from Nordic). I mainly worked before on ESP32 projects, and wired sensors, with data vehiculated by MQTT protocol.

However It looks like you point a possibility to use modules and/or third party boards in addition to Nordic DKs and Thingy52/53. I have indeed no experience yet in adding sensors or modules to DKs or Thingy, in order to create a BLE or BLE MESH devices the way I want. I would be interested by any example.

I would like for instance to create a MESH (multi-)sensor, with Temperature, Relative Humidity, and Luminance (i.e. Light intensity).
The idea is to find an alternative to buying multiple Thingy52 and 53 (to diversify solutions), and also to add other sensors.

Best Regards,
Jean-Baptiste

RE: Looking for self-powered BLE Environmental Sensors with available characteristics (or BLE MESH SENSORS) except Thingy52/53

tesc — Mon, 08 May 2023 12:18:47 GMT

Hi,

With Bluetooth (both LE and mesh) there are a number of SIG specified profiles/models (services / characteristics for BLE and models for Bluetooth mesh) for facilitating communication between devices from different vendors. In addition there are vendor specific variants which are controlled by individual companies. This provides options for customization when needed, while the recommendation is to use the SIG specifications for compatibility. However some vendors may choose to only use proprietary solutions.

Unfortunately we do not have an overview of which products exist and which of those use SIG specified profiles/models and which of those do not. Our sales representative for your area may know a little bit about this, although I am not sure if they will have the complete picture either.

Our SDK includes a number of examples using the SIG specifications, both for BLE and for Bluetooth mesh, so for your personal projects it should be quite simple using DKs, Thingy:52/53, third party boards and modules, etc. for creating SIG compatible devices.

For third party products I'll encourage the community to chime in. What are your experiences in this area?

Regards,
Terje