my first nrf5 ... NRF51/NRF52 which is better for MySensors ?

[rozpruwacz]

thank all for the replies. I know that the nrf52840 is the best when concidering the hardware, but according to this:
https://www.openhardware.io/view/376/MySensors-NRF5-Platform
it is not supported by MySensors. Is it still true ?
I started this thread because sadly I just don't have anymore the time to do any research and hacking. What I want to do is to buy some relatively cheap boards that I don't need to solder any additional components, upload some example MySensors sketches and see how it works (mainly to compare the range to nrf24 and rfm69). So smd modules are no good for me, but if there is some "motherboard" or expansion board it may be enough.

[mfalkvidd]

@rozpruwacz then you should probably go with Toyman's earlier recommendation.

[Toyman]

@rozpruwacz said in my first nrf5 ... NRF51/NRF52 which is better for MySensors ?:

So smd modules are no good for me

If so, your only choice is nrf52DK. Solid investment given you get jlink programmer with it

[NeverDie]

@rozpruwacz I think Nordic's nRF52840-DONGLE would meet your criteria. No need to solder anything else. Only $10, even through trusted Nordic resellers. I do agree with Toyman, though, that a nRF2840-DK is another good option. Or get both: one for each end of the radio link. :)

Or, if you want something with sensors already on it, you could try Nordic's "thingy". I haven't tried it myself, but I'm confident it works given that Nordic makes it.

[rozpruwacz]

@neverdie said in my first nrf5 ... NRF51/NRF52 which is better for MySensors ?:

another

i'm confused :) I asked about it but did not received an answer. Is nRF52840 supported by MySensors ?

[NeverDie]

@rozpruwacz I think the answer may be yes, though my focus of late has been on other things (namely OTA updates) and I haven't tried it recently.

I say that because the platformio support for the nRF52840 seems to be built on the Sandeep Mistry library. So, either the library is sufficient as is, or else platformio enhanced it to support the nRF52840. So, one way and/or the other, it should be possible.

[nagelc]

I set up an NRF52840 on MySensors by programming it like it was an NRF52382: Arduino IDE, sandeep's libraries, using the MyBoardNRF52 board type. I ran a MockMySensors sketch and it worked.
I haven't played with it beyond that. I'm not sure of that would give you any advantage over just using an NRF52. It wouldn't let you use any of the new pins or other new features of the NFR52840, at least not without some programming.

[rozpruwacz]

Ok, so nrf52840 dongle seems like the best solution.

[smilvert]

I have been able to use platformio for my project quite recently and still have some problems that I haven't had time to solve yet.

My platformio.ini for a NRF51832

[env:nrf51_dk]
platform = nordicnrf51
framework = arduino
board = rfduino
upload_protocol = stlink
board_build.f_cpu = 16000000L
build_flags = -DNRF51 -DMYBOARDNRF5 -I{build.path}

the only problem for my is that the flags

-DMYBOARDNRF5 -I{build.path}

dosen't work so the mynrf5board.h/c isn't read => I need to update the
vim ~/.platformio/packages/framework-arduinonordicnrf5/variants/Generic/variant.h myself.

[rozpruwacz]

I have a small update for those who follow this thread. So I bought tje st-link v2 programmer and the only [nrf5 board](https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/Core51822. .com/wiki/Core51822) that was available in my country (Poland). This was only to get used to nordic environment. So With this setup I was able to run nrf51 sdk examples and MySensors examples without any problems. For MySensors I just followed this. And for compiling and uploading nordic sdk I used GNU MCU Eclipse. I was very suprised that this eclipse plugin works so well, no problems at all. And the latest eclipse cdt has suport also for arduino so I could compile and run MySensors code also from eclipse :) As far as I used it, the Arduino support in eclipse lacks only importing example projects, "burn bootloader" and "Upload Using a Programmer" tools. Oh, and the serial monitor in eclipse does not have any settings for adding cr at the end of line, so MySensors debug log is not readable.

Regarding nrf51822 board, it has much better range that nrf24L01+ that I used before. But it is not good for sleeping MySensors nodes due to high current consumption when waiting for gpio interrupt. It could be fixed by changing the nrf5 mysensors implementation to use gpio port event just like in nrf51 sdk examples - this applies to all nrf51822 boards. And the board I have lacks inductors required for low power dcdc setup.

And now I'm waiting for my nrf52840 dongles :)

[rozpruwacz]

so I got my nrf52840 dongle :) I was able to run mysensors node and serial gateway using MyBoardNRF5 nrf52832 board. So far so good :) I was also able to upload the sketch using usb dfu, it required minor changes to the linker script although.
But from the first tests it appears that the range of the nrf52840 dongle i less than the nrf51822 board I was using before :(