nrf52832 Radio Rx operation on sfotdevice

[Otavio Borges]

Hello all, Accordingly with nrf52832 product especitifation when radio Rx is active there's a additional 5.4mA consumption. My doubt is how softdevice s132 handles the Rx channel activation/deactivation. By simply setting adv parameters struct to BLE_GAP_ADV_TYPE_ADV_IND or BLE_GAP_ADV_TYPE_ADV_NONCONN_IND will let Rx channel on or off, respectively? My application will operate on two different settings. Normally connection and scan will be shutoff but, triggered by an external IRQ, another device must be able to connect to nRF. To save power I must assure that when connection is disabled Rx channel must be deactivate as well. Thank you.

[endnode]

Hello Otavio,

With concurrent role it's more complex then you probably imagine, however Nordic stack indeed does some prioritization to schedule all necessary events or at least to maintain all of them with as few losses as possible. Read more about that in Soft Device Specification.

When it comes to power saving than again believe that Nordic stack isn't stupid so radio (either Tx or Rx "window") is powered only exactly when it is needed. Therefore Soft Device runs many virtual timers and schedules actions with microsecond accuracy.

Cheers Jan

[Otavio Borges]

I understand softdevice will schedule only necessary events in other to save the maximum amount of power. but is it enough changing advertising params from BLE_GAP_ADV_TYPE_ADV_IND to BLE_GAP_ADV_TYPE_ADV_NONCONN_IND to do so? Is there any other softdevice config that will achieve such? Considering that we'll use two BLE profiles (I didn't find similar questions on the forum).

[endnode]

Yes, based on previous answers from Nordic team on this forum when you indicate in ADV flags that your broadcaster is non-scannable and non-connectable then Soft Device should automatically skip Rx part and use less power. But I haven't verified it myself with power kit or similar method...

[Otavio Borges]

Great, thanks Jan