nordic News - Page 4 of 5 - CNX Software

July 5, 2018July 5, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

$10 Nordic Semi nRF52840 USB Dongle Supports Bluetooth 5, Thread, ZigBee, 802.15.4, ANT and 2.4GHz Proprietary

Several weeks ago, as I noticed the lack of Bluetooth 5 USB dongles, I found MakerSpot CC2640 Bluetooth 5 USB stick based on Texas Instrument CC2640R2F Arm Cortex-M3 WiSoC. It’s not exactly a consumer products, and instead it’s more like a development kit, but it can still be inserted into the USB port of your computer or development board. Today, I found out Nordic Semi also made their own Bluetooth 5 – or is it Bluetooth 5.0 now, I’m really confused at this point – USB dongle for evaluation & development based on nRF52840 WiSoC. It’s not only for Bluetooth 5 though, as the multi-protocol SoC also supports Bluetooth Low Energy, Bluetooth Mesh, Thread, Zigbee, 802.15.4, ANT(+), and 2.4 GHz proprietary solutions. nRF52840 USB dongle (PCA10059) key features: Wireless Connectivity – Bluetooth 5, Bluetooth Low Energy, Thread, Zigbee, 802.15.4, ANT/ANT+, and 2.4GHz USB – USB 2.0 ports Expansion – 15x […]

April 17, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 Multiprotocol SoC Adds Support for Zigbee 3.0

Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 was introduced in late 2016 as one of the first Bluetooth 5 ready SoC, and it’s the only part from Nordic that fully supports Bluetooth 5 longer range. But the chip is actually a multiprotocol SoC and beside Bluetooth, 802.15.4, Ant, Thread and 2.4 GHz proprietary are also supported. The company has now announced one more wireless protocol working on nRF52840: Zigbee 3.0. The company has released the first engineering release for Zigbee on nRF52840, but the production grade Zigbee 3.0 certified release is planed for H2 2018. The new protocol will be enabled in the S410 v6.0 SoftDevice release. Bluetooth and Zigbee can run concurrently meaning for example you could create an nRF52840 gateway to control Zigbee smart lights from a smartphone connected over Bluetooth 5. The SDK includes examples for concurrent operation of Zigbee and Bluetooth 5 for a smart light bulb and switch. The […]

January 23, 2018August 5, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Nordic nRF91 Multimode LTE-M / NB-IoT SiP Embeds Arm Cortex-M33, Arm TrustZone, and Assisted GPS

Nordic Semi will soon launch nRF91 series low power cellular IoT solution, that consists of a system-in-package (SiP) combining a global multimode LTE-M / NB-IoT modem, an Arm Cortex-M33 core, Arm TrustZone security solution, assisted GPS, and flash memory into a 16x10x1.2 mm package. Nordic Semi nRF91 specifications known to far: CPU – Arm Cortex-M33 ARMv8-M host processor Memory / Storage – Built-in RAM and flash Memory Connectivity Multimode LTE-M (eMTC) and NB-IoT modem by Nordic SAW-less transceiver Custom RF front-end solution from Qorvo. Location – Optional assisted GPS combining cellular and GPS technology for fast and accurate positioning Security – Arm TrustZone security via Arm CryptoCell-310 security IP Power Management Package – 16 x 10 x 1.2 mm Nordic Semiconductor nRF91 Series is said to include a complete suite of software and development tools for product development, but no details were provided at this stage. The solution has already […]

October 4, 2017October 4, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

U-Blox announces NINA-B3 Bluetooth 5 Wireless MCU Modules

Bluetooth 5 promises to quadrupling the range and double the bandwidth of Bluetooth LE connection. However, we’ve seen not all Bluetooth 5 solutions will provide all features in a comparison between Nordic Semi nRF52840 vs nRF52832 vs nRF52810 Bluetooth 5 ready SoCs, as while all three platforms will handle the higher bandwidth just fine, only the nRF52840 will extend the range up to 4 times. That’s why you want want to make sure you get recent hardware capable of fully handling Bluetooth 5, and U-blox has just announced NINA-B3 Bluetooth 5 module series, based on nRF52840 SoC, that will both provide longer range and higher bandwidth. U-blox NINA-B3 module comes in two family flavors: NINA‑B31, comes pre‑flashed with u‑blox’s Connectivity Software, eliminating the need for embedded programming. Support for AT command set, and u-Blox low energy serial port service NINA‑B30 using nRF52840’s ARM Cortex-M4F as an “Open CPU” that allows […]

August 9, 2017August 9, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Nordic Semi nRF52840 vs nRF52832 vs nRF52810 Comparison for Bluetooth 5 Applications

Bluetooth 5 was formally introduced earlier this year with promises of four times the range, and twice the speed. Several companies offer chips that are compatible with the new standard, and among them Nordic Semi offers Bluetooth 5 ready solutions via nRF52840, nRF52832, nRF52810 Bluetooth SoCs. However, if you thought – like I did – that all three would provide the same Bluetooth 5 support with just some differences in memory, storage and performance, a comparison table put together by Raytac Corporation will show that among the three SoCs only nRF52840 will support the longer range, while the two older SoC only support the extra bandwidth offered by Bluetooth 5. I could find a blog post about a long range demo that confirms the above: Two nRF52840 Preview Development Kits (PDK) or nRF52832 Development Kits. A combination of the two different kits can also be used. Notice that if the […]

June 4, 2017June 4, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Nordic Thingy:52 Bluetooth 5 IoT Sensor Development Kit Targets Mobile & Web App Developers

Some developers may be interested in providing solutions for the Internet of Things, but they may not have the skills or interest in making their own hardware, and/or develop firmware, and just want to create demos or prototypes quickly, focusing on app development instead. Nordic Semiconductors has recently launched Thingy:52 IoT Sensor Kit with Bluetooth 5 & NFC connectivity, and various sensors for those developers. Nordic:52 IoT Sensor development kit (nRF6936) hardware specifications: MCU – Nordic Semi nRF52832 ARM Cortex-M4F Bluetooth 5 System on Chip (SoC) Connectivity – Bluetooth 5 LE and NFC Sensors Temperature,Humidity, Air pressure, Air quality (CO2 and TVOC), color and light intensity 9-axis motion sensing – Tap detection, orientation, step counter, quaternions, euler angles, rotation matrix, gravity vector, compass heading, raw accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass data Audio Speaker for playing prestored samples, tones, or sound streamed over BLE (8-bit 8 kHz LoFi) Microphone streaming (ADPCM compressed […]

December 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Nordic Semi Unveils nRF52840 Bluetooth 5 Ready SoC and Development Kit

Nordic Semiconductor nRF52xx Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz solutions are very often found in development kits and low power devices such as wearables, and it’s no surprise that the company introduced a new nRF52840 SoC supporting Bluetooth 5, the new standard promising twice the range, and four times the speed of BLE 4.x, as well as ANT, 802.15.4, 2.4GHz proprietary, and NFC connectivity. Nordic Semi nRF52840 key features and specifications: MCU – 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4 @ 64 MHz with with FPU Memory & Storage – 256 KB RAM, 1MB Flash Connectivity Bluetooth 5-ready multiprotocol radio Bluetooth 5 data rate support: 2 Mbps, 1 Mbps, 500 kbps, 125 kbps 104 dB link budget for Bluetooth low energy -96 dBm sensitivity for Bluetooth low energy Programmable output power from +8 dBm to -20 dBm NFC-A tag on chip Single-ended antenna output (on-chip balun) I/Os USB – Full-speed 12 Mbps USB controller SPI up […]

October 29, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Nordic Semi Announces nRF51 DK Arduino Compatible Board, and nRF51 Dongle with Bluetooth Smart, ANT, and 2.4GHz Connectivity

Nordic Semiconductor has introduced two new low cost development boards supporting Bluetooh LE, ANT/ANT+, and proprietary 2.4GHz applications based on their nRF51 series SoCs: nRF51 DK, an Arduino UNO Rev.3 compatible board that can be used for various IoT and wearables applications, and nRF51 Dongle, a USB dongle to connect to a PC or board, which can be useful for packet sniffing and BLE peer connection. nRF51 DK Development Board Key features listed for the board: SoC – Supports nRF51822 (BT/2.4Ghz) and nRF51422 (BT/ANT) SoCs based on an ARM Cortex M0 processor, with 128kB or 256kB flash memory, and 16kB or 32kB RAM. Connectivity Bluetooth Smart, ANT/ANT+ and 2.4GHz proprietary Integrated PCB antenna Connector for RF measurements Expansions Headers Arduino Uno Rev. 3 compatible connector for use with 3rd party shields All I/O and interfaces available via connectors Debugging Segger J-Link OB and ARM CMSIS-DAP Program/Debug supported Support for Program/Debug […]