nRF5 action!

NeverDie

@NeverDie
cool. already tried it too. and i agree with you on this, arduino is fun at the beginning, but then you discover its limits. compatible with lot of things but incomplete ;) That said, then you may end up converting some of your arduino libs/stuff to the new toolchain. On my side I like TI toolchain (free, tailored for iot with lot of nice tools, for debugging etc), not using it for nrf of course..
On other side, arduino is maybe "easier" to read for someone discovering coding.

Interesting! Does that mean you're using TI's' MSP430 as your primary mcu now?

NeverDie

@smilvert said in nRF5 action!:

@neverdie Im guessing that the BT832 dosen't have the 32.768 khz crystal but the inductors?

The datasheet says

Standby current consumption is important for battery-powered product. We suggest adding a 32.768 kHz crystal 
and 2 capacitors as shown in the upper left corner of the evaluation board schematics. The 32MHz main clock 
won’t be active at idle state to save power.

Two inductors required for DCDC converter are inside BT832 module. You can enable DCDC to lower
power consumption.

yup

scalz

@neverdie said in nRF5 action!:

Interesting! Does that mean you're using TI's' MSP430 as your primary mcu now?

nope, as usual I prefer the very best ;) 430 isn't rf.
But I don't want to make OT (nrf, mysensors). just said this to say, you can usually get all power of a mcu by using the right tools like you noticed (pros&cons)

NeverDie

Unfortunately, the problemm with mbed is that it provides no real support for using the nRF52 radio in proprietary modes. I would have to code all of that from scratch.

NeverDie

Good news. I hadn't bricked the dongle after all. Yesterday I wrote some rather primitive code to send packets using the Nordic proprietary code and this morning I loaded it onto the dongle using its USB connector and USB Bootloader. I'm now receiving the packets on the nRF52840-DK, so that satisfies proof of concept. i.e. it works! :)

NeverDie

Even better news! The range is quite good. Not as awesome as my LoRa modules, but at 1mbps (I haven't yet tried 2mbps) and 8db Tx power, it easily beats the range of the nRF52832 for a comparable setup. So, to be fair, the LoRa's can use quite a bit more Tx power, and the LoRa datarate is far slower, so the nRF52840's seem likely to be quite a bit more energy efficient than LoRa for a home environment.

There is a 250Kbps speed available if using the 802.11.15 mode (which I haven't yet explored), and it should have even better range than the regular Nordic proprietary modes (of which there are only two: 1mbps, and 2mbps). IIRC, 802.11.15 can automatically handle retransmits and the like, and it's a proven standard. It likely handles a lot of the drudgery.

Then there's Thread, which is new to me but which it also supports and which is intended for home automation.

It has built in hardware acceleration for SHA256, which is pretty cool. CRC is handled by hardware too. Also, lots of crypto stuff for those who are into that.

So, although these are just early results, so far I'm liking it. :) :) In contrast, I was rather disappointed in the range of the nRF52832's (even though they were better than the range of an unamplified nRF24L01).

alowhum

Now if they could put it in a maker friendly package..

NeverDie

@alowhum I don't think Nordic ever will, though for the $10 price the dongle comes pretty close, except for the limited castellated pinout, which is inconvenient though nicely small. I'm quite sure Adafruit and Sparkfun and maybe some others will though. I think from a purely hardware point of view it pretty much blows away the Arduinos since it includes an integrated radio and is low power and has the huge flash and memory and all the other goodies.

NeverDie

I've started a new thread for everything related to nRF52840: https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/9717/everything-nrf52840

So, going forward, I'll mostly be posting there, unless it's for earlier products like the nRF52832 or the nRF51.

alowhum

This company has the cheapest arduino-ish board I've found.

It consists of a dev board..
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/NRF51822-2-4G-Wireless-Module-Wireless-Communication-Module-Bluetooth-module-zigbee-module-DMX512/32726191346.html

...and the little module you place in it:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/NRF51822-2-4G-Wireless-Module-Wireless-Communication-Module-Bluetooth-module-zigbee-module-DMX512/32726191346.html

Total cost: about 13 euros.

alowhum

I just turned the BBC Micro:bit board into a MySensors repeater. No problem, went totally smooth.

The cheapest Micro-bit I've found is $18 on Aliexpress.

Lady Ada has a great PDF tutorial, full of little code snippets, to help you get started with all the onboard sensors it comes with.

NeverDie

@alowhum Thanks for your post. I just now looked on ebay, and there's an entire eco-system of little ad-ons for the micro bit! Lots of displays, buttons, sensors, power packs, etc.

I thought there would be a vast supply on ebay of cheap used BBC micro bits, but I didn't see any. Not sure, but maybe on the UK ebay they can be found. After all, I think a lot were given away for free initially by a magazine or something.

alowhum

Yes, a million were handed out to school children. And if you buy one now, one is given to a child (theoretically).

The ecosystem of attachment is indeed impressive. Parents who want their children to embrace and succeed in technology, there's quite some money to be made there.

NeverDie

Well, this is interesting: you can run micropython on your micro bit: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1260117588/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

Omemanti

Not sure if it is allowed, else I remove this post, but the nrf52832's at ebyte are for sale (50% off)the coming 2 days.cdebyte AliExpress I sure grab myself some (max 2 at a time, but last time I ordered multiple times :)) only €2,62 a piece

NeverDie

@omemanti said in nRF5 action!:

Not sure if it is allowed, else I remove this post, but the nrf52832's at ebyte are for sale (50% off)the coming 2 days.cdebyte AliExpress I sure grab myself some (max 2 at a time, but last time I ordered multiple times :)) only €2,62 a piece

Your post is perfectly fine, and I would even encourage it. It makes good sense to share tips like that.

The funny thing is that the 50% price is, IIRC, close to what the original price was when it was first introduced. Then the price slowly crept up from there.

Omemanti

@neverdie well, July 2017 they were €4,15. So they went up around 1 euro in a year. FYI the last one I bought was about 5 months ago since then they went up from version 1,1 to 1,3.
Also, the item number changed a bit (but the datasheet checks out).
It went from E73-2G4M04S to E73-2G4M04S1B, and the introduced a nrf52810 E73-2G4M04S1A with the same footprint and pinout.

NeverDie

@omemanti Ah, yes, you're right. It was on March 7, 2018 that they were on sale for $2.55.

Well, regardless, it's a good price. :)

Nca78

@omemanti the A version is with NRF52810, be careful.

smilvert

@neverdie Sorry, im a bit confused.

If im are going to use the BT832 for a battery sensor do I need to connet a 32 khz crystal like you did on the 10+ years wireless PIR Sensor (on just one set of 3 AA's!) project? But you have also written:
@neverdie said in nRF5 action!:

@alowhum IIRC, the crystal oscillator is only required by Bluetooth. For everything else, the internal resonator is sufficient.

How much more current are used if the crystal is not connected?

Can I use P00/P01 as a data pin instead of using the crystal?

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