Summary of A nRF52840-MDK IoT Development Kit For Bluetooth 5 Applications
The article highlights the Nordic nRF52840 SoC's role in enhancing IoT systems via Bluetooth Low Energy and Bluetooth 5. It introduces Makerdiary's new nRF52840-MDK IoT Development Kit, which supports multiple wireless protocols including Thread and Bluetooth Mesh. The kit features a USB Type-C port, DAPLink debugger, and extensive software framework compatibility to facilitate efficient connectivity and battery life for IoT devices.
Parts used in the nRF52840-MDK IoT Development Kit:
- Nordic nRF52840 SoC
- DAPLink debugger
- USB Type-C port
- 64-Mb QSPI FLASH memory
- Programmable user button
- RGB LED
- Up to 24 GPIOs
- Antenna selection module
Bluetooth Low Energy and the Internet of things is believed to be the perfect matchmaking. Even though Bluetooth doesn’t necessary gives devices the ability to connect to the Internet they still have so much capacity. The Bluetooth Low Energy enabled solutions will increase the functionality of IoT Systems, by creating a reliable framework and efficient connectivity for the devices. Devices can use BLE to connect to each other thereby improving reliability, increasing range, mitigate security risk, reduce cost, and most importantly improve battery life.
The launch of the Bluetooth 5, which promise so much more are beginning to see some adoption in the open hardware industry, and a good example is the Particle Xenon using the Nordic nRF52840 SOC. The Nordic nRF52840 SoC is designed around an ARM Cortex-M4 CPU and comes with a 1 MB flash with cache and a 256kB of RAM.
Nordic recently announced that the nRF52840 now supports concurrent Thread and Bluetooth 5 wireless connectivity eliminating the previous requirement of disconnecting from one of the networks before connecting to the other. So, the potential from this announcement is enormous.
Recognising the possibility of Bluetooth 5 in addition to Thread connectivity, the teams at Makerdiary has launched a new development kit for the nRF52840 SoC called the nRF52840-MDK IoT Development Kit.
The Makediary nRF52840 MDK IoT Development Kit is a kit that will allow developers to explore Bluetooth 5, Bluetooth Mesh, Thread, IEEE 802.15.4, ANT and 2.4GHz proprietary wireless applications using the nRF52840 SoC. The kit comes integrated with the DAPLink debugger which provides a USB drag-and-drop programming, USB Virtual COM port and CMSIS-DAP interface.
The kit supports quite some software frameworks such as the nRF5 SDK, nRF5 SDK for Mesh, OpenThread, ZigBee 3.0, Mbed OS 5, Zephyr, Mynewt, Web Bluetooth, iBeacon, Eddystone, and others. It works with the standard Nordic Software Development Tool-chain using GCC, Keil and IAR.
One significant take note of the board is the USB type C port available, a rare port used for hardware boards. The development board put up a ton of features like an ultra-low power 64-Mb QSPI FLASH memory, programmable user button, RGB LED, up to 24 GPIOs, antenna selection for custom applications.
Read more: A nRF52840-MDK IoT Development Kit For Bluetooth 5 Applications
- What wireless applications does the kit support?
The kit allows exploration of Bluetooth 5, Bluetooth Mesh, Thread, IEEE 802.15.4, ANT, and 2.4GHz proprietary wireless applications. - Can the nRF52840 connect to Thread and Bluetooth simultaneously?
Yes, the nRF52840 now supports concurrent Thread and Bluetooth 5 wireless connectivity without needing to disconnect from one network first. - What CPU is the Nordic nRF52840 SoC designed around?
The SoC is designed around an ARM Cortex-M4 CPU. - Does the development board include a USB Type-C port?
Yes, the board features a USB Type-C port, which is noted as rare for hardware boards. - How can developers program the board?
Developers can use USB drag-and-drop programming via the integrated DAPLink debugger. - Which software frameworks are compatible with the kit?
The kit supports nRF5 SDK, OpenThread, Mbed OS 5, Zephyr, Mynewt, Web Bluetooth, iBeacon, Eddystone, and others. - What debugging interface does the kit provide?
The kit includes a CMSIS-DAP interface along with a USB Virtual COM port. - How much RAM does the Nordic nRF52840 SoC have?
The SoC comes with 256kB of RAM.
