The Arrived of Angle(AoA) technology has been introduced to BLE since Bluetooth 5.1 Core Specification for Bluetooth Direction's purpose. Now, Bluetooth 5.1 AoA has been widely used in two fields: indoor positioning, and keyless entry.  Now, we will explain how AoA works and how it applies into indoor positioning with Bluetooth 5.1 AoA technology. 1. Indoor Positioning Technology Overview There are four solutions for indoor positioning: UWB, Wi-Fi, BLE beacon / BLE AoA. For the accuracy range, UWB is 0.1 m ~ 1 m; Wi-Fi and BLE beacon is 5 m ~ 20 m with a larger error range. As the first commercial BLE AoA positioning service company, Quuppa can control the accuracy range within 0.1 m ~ 1 m (with the TI CC254x and Nordic nRF5281x chips). The following is the test data of Quuppa. 2. Analysis of Indoor Positioning Theory No matter what kind of positioning method, the indoor positioning system needs to draw the architectural modeling of the actual scene, deploy the receiver router in the indoor area, and mark the corresponding location on the modeling map. The mobile phone or the beacon module broadcast wireless signals. The receiver router deployed in a fixed position can confirm the location area range of the beacon after received the wireless signals. The arrival angle of the beacon signal can be measured by multiple antennas after confirmed the location area range. Combined with triangulation positioning, the accurate position of beacon equipment can be calculated. Triangulation Triangulation is to measure the position of the beacon device through two sets of AoA data. As shown in the figure below, two sets of antennas can measure one AoA data, and two AoA data can measure the position of device A. Both d and D are known parameters, how we can get θ1 and θ2. 3. AoA Measurement Theory Frequency: Bluetooth operates in the ISM (Industrial Scientific and Medical) band from 2.40 GHz to 2.41 GHz with a bandwidth of 2 MHz. Bluetooth is divided into three broadcast channels 37, 38, and 39. In the Bluetooth v5.x core specification, the extended broadcast of the Bluetooth LE can be broadcasted in any channel from 0 to 39, that is, the Bluetooth v5.1 beacon can work on any Bluetooth channel. (The frequency of Bluetooth is inconsistent when it is working, which will affect the Bluetooth wavelength λ.) Phase: The wireless signal is continuous in the air. The RX receiver receives and demodulates the signal of the entire wave cycle of 0 ~ 2 π under the frequency range. AoA calculation: Supposing that there is a fixed-frequency Bluetooth beacon signal broadcasting in an open area (ignoring obstacles and other 2.4 GHz signal interference in the air). If the two receivers are on the same radius and at the same TX end, at a certain time t, the phase difference received by the RX receiver should be 0. But if the receiver is in a position with an inconsistent radius, at a certain time t, there is a difference in the phase of the RX receiver. If the above diagram...

Nordic launched nRF52832 Sniffer for BLE broadcast packets, which is a very convenient tool for learning and debugging BLE protocols. It can parse data packets from different protocol layers in real-time, so that it can check the frame header and the data carried effectively. It provides detailed information about data packets, Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), Link Quality Indicator (LQI), channel, etc. At the same time, nRF52832 Sniffer also supports the protocol parsing of the captured BLE data. nRF52832 Sniffer can be used to get the specific operation of the protocol and the types of data packets sent back and forth between devices. It is also used as a debugging tool to find out what happens when the protocol does not meet expectations. The nRF52832 Sniffer uses Wireshark as the front end and supports multiple operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. RF-DG-32A is a USB Donlge Sniffer based on a nRF52832 chip launched by RF-star, which supports major wireless standards, including Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) running on Nordic nRF52832 multi-protocol system-level SoC. RF-DG-32A can provide a high data throughput communication interface through the USB device controller and can be directly connected to the computer. The nRF52832 Sniffer RF-DG-32A launched by RF-star adopts CP2102 and nRF52832 dual chips, and the nRF52832 Sniffer integrated Silicon Labs industrial-grade USB to TTL chipset CP2102 which supports independent LED indication during transmission and receiving. The USB interface uses a CP2102 chip, transfers to TTL through USB, and then connects to the nRF52832 chip through UART. Is the dual-chip design redundant? Is it better to use nRF52840 with USB support? Although nRF52840 supports full-speed USB, nRF52832 plus CP2102 chip can achieve the same USB communication function, and the overall chip price is lower than nRF52840. nRF52832 USB Dongle Sniffer supports BLE 5.0 protocol and is backward compatible with BLE 4.2. RF-DG-32A reserved program burn pad, which supports secondary development. nRF52832 SoC is a powerful and highly flexible ultra-low power multi-protocol SoC, which is very suitable for Bluetooth Low Energy, Antenna, and 2.4GHz ultra-low power wireless applications. ·  ARM® Cortex®-M4 32-bit processor with FPU, 64 MHz ·  Data watchpoint and trace (DWT), embedded trace macrocell (ETM), and instrumentation trace macrocell (ITM) ·  Serial wire debug (SWD) ·  2.4 GHz transceiver ·  -96 dBm sensitivity in Bluetooth® low energy mode ·  1 Mbps, 2 Mbps supported data rates ·  TX power: -20 to +4 dBm in 4 dB steps ·  Supply voltage range 1.7 V ~ 3.6 V ·  Fast wake-up using 64 MHz internal oscillator ·  Type 2 near field communication (NFC-A) tag with wakeup-on-field and touch-to-pair capabilities ·  12-bit, 200 ksps ADC - 8 configurable channels with programmable gain ·  64 level comparator ·  32 general purpose I/O pins ·  3 x 4...

nRF52840 is the most advanced member of the nRF52 series SOC family. It can meet the challenges of complex applications that require a rich and diverse set of peripherals and functions. It provides a large amount of available memory for Flash and RAM, which is a prerequisite for high-demand applications. nRF52840 fully supports multiple protocols, including BLE 5, Bluetooth mesh, thread, ZigBee, 802.15.4, ant, and 2.4GHz proprietary protocol stack. nRF52840 SoC is built around a 32-bit arm ® cortex ™ - M4 CPU, with a 64 MHz floating-point unit, which has sufficient general processing capacity, floating-point operation, and DSP performance to meet the challenging wireless application requirements. It has NFC-a tags to simplify pairing and payment solutions. The arm TrustZone ® crypto cell encryption unit included on the chip provides a range of encryption options that are executed efficiently independent of the CPU. nRF52840 SoC has many digital peripherals and interfaces, such as high-speed 32 MHz SPI and QSPI, for connecting external flash memory and display; PDM and I²S (for digital microphone and audio), full speed 12 Mbps USB device for data transmission and battery charging. nRF52840 SoC device adopts a new radio architecture, with built-in PA, transmitting power up to + 8 DBM, built-in 1 MB flash and 256 KB ram, fully supporting BLE 5, 802.15.4 (including the thread), ant and private 2.4 GHz wireless technology, with a full speed USB 2.0 controller and a series of peripheral devices including a four-channel SPI interface. nRF52840 can also use more than 5V power supply, such as rechargeable battery power. nRF52840 has two packages: 7 x 7 aqfn73 with 48 gpios and 3.5 x 3.6 wlcsp94 with 48 gpios. In addition, nrf52840 also has an arm ® encryption accelerator built in to achieve peer-to-peer security based on Cortex-M SOC. Cryptocell provides a wide range of password and security functions, which are used to build entity security into applications from the beginning to the end. Compared with the CPU's equivalent operation in the software, crypto cell can also make related security operations run faster and use less processing time and power. nRF52840 is an advanced and highly flexible single-chip solution, which is suitable for today's increasingly demanding ULP wireless applications, for our personal devices, living environment, and the Internet of things. It is designed to prepare for the major functional advances of ble 5 and to take advantage of the enhanced performance of ble 5, including remote and high performance. In today's applications, industrial-level security is essential. A wide range of peripherals can utilize many high-performance digital interfaces, such as high-speed SPI (32 MHz) and four-level SPI (32 MHz), allowing direct interface to displays and external storage sources. Nrf52840 can supply voltage from 5.5V to 1.7V, allowing direct power supply from a rechargeable battery and USB power supply. nRF52840 is rea...

As early as 2016, BLE 5.0 protocol was born, and BLE 5.0 technology developed rapidly in the market. Because of its longer communication distance and higher speed than BLE 4.2, it was favored by many solution providers. In order to satisfy to the market requirements, Texas Instruments also launched CC2642R chip supporting ble 5.0. CC2642R is a chip based on arm ® cortex ® - M4F core, which can do floating-point operation with high precision and can collect accurate data from sensors. It is well-known of  the advanced core and high performance. Now TI has begun to mass production of the CC2642R chip. Subsequently, RF-star has been designed a CC2642R module, named as RF-BM-2642B1. The kind of BLE module brings new RF solutions to Bluetooth applications. Maybe you will ask, "What are differences among CC2642R, CC2640 & CC2640R2F?" Well, let's hush into their differences by comparision in the following parts. Similarity of CC2642R, CC2640 & CC2640R2F CC2640, CC2640R2F and CC2642R are all 2.4 GHz Radio Frequency devices. The CC2640, CC2640R2F and CC2642R special radio controllers are arm ® cortex ® - M0, which can handle the low-level RF protocol commands stored in ROM or ram, so it can ensure that the ultra-low power consumption and the low power consumption of the excellent flexibility device will not affect the RF performance, with excellent sensitivity and durability. But their main MCU are different. Differences Among CC2642R, CC2640 & CC2640R2F Differences in Main MCU The CC2640 device contains a 48 MHz arm ® cortex ® - M3 core. CC2640R2Ff device contains 48 MHz arm ® cortex ® - M3 core. CC2642R device contains a 48 MHz arm ® cortex ® - M4F core. Differences in Protocols The three chips support different protocols. CC2640 supports only BLE 4.2 protocol, while CC2640R2F supports both BLE 4.2 and BLE 5.0 protocol. CC2642R supports BLE 4.2 and BLE 5.0 protocol,too. C2640 has 128KB system programmable flash memory, and a maximum of 28KB of system SRAM, of which 20KB is SRAM. CC2640R2F has 275KB non-volatile memory, including 128KB system programmable flash memory, up to 28KB system SRAM, of which 20KB is SRAM. CC2642R has 352KB system programmable flash memory, 256KB ROM and 80KB SRAM. Differences in Parameters In terms of the specific parameters of CC2640, CC2640R2F and CC2642R, CC2642R has a great breakthrough compared to the previous generation. The programmable memory in the system is more than twice that of the previous generation, and SRAM has been greatly expanded. It follows then that the CC2642R modules with rich memory are a good choice for BLE 5.0 applications. Compared with CC2640, CC2640R2F also has some differences. Under the BLE 4.2-based protocol, the CC2640R2F can provide 80kbytes of space, while the CC2640 is 31kbytes. CC2640R2F supports BLE 5.0, while CC2640 only supports BLE 4.2. Moreover, CC2640R2F doesn't only support  the pin-to-pin QFN package, but also a...

TI Bluetooth low Energy CC2640R2F-Q1 device is an AEC-Q100-compliant wireless microcontroller for low-power Bluetooth Low Energy 4.2 and Bluetooth 5.0 automotive applications. CC2640R2F is an SoC chip launched by TI that complies with automotive regulations. CC2640R2F-Q1 can be widely used in Passive Entry Passive Start (PEPS), Passive Keyless Entry (PKE), car sharing, parking guidance, smartphone connectivity, and other applications. CC2640R2F-Q1 is one of the few outstanding chips on the market that meets automotive standards and supports Bluetooth 5.0. Titanium chips can be used without secondary development. The RF-BM-4077B2 module with CC2640R2F-Q1 as the core can greatly shorten the customer's development cycle. The RF-BM-4077B2 module has more advantages in smart car applications that require vehicle-level standards or higher requirements. CC2640R2F-Q1 is a cost-effective 2.4GHz RF device in ultra-low power series. Very low active RF and MCU current and low power consumption mode current consumption ensures a super battery life, so nodes connected to automotive batteries can be powered by small button batteries with low power consumption. The admirable receiving sensitivity and programmable output power provide the industry's top RF performance for the demanding automotive RF environment. CC2640R2F-Q1 wireless MCU includes a 32-bit Arm ® cortex ® - M3 processor running at 48MHz as the main application processor, and an RF core Arm ® cortex ® - M0. The main MCU of CC2640R2F efficiently processes RTOS and ble applications. The RF core is mainly used for RF operation and ble protocol stack processing. The product development of ble is generally completed on the app, so there is no need to worry about the operation on the ble protocol stack. CC2640R2F-Q1 has passed the ACE-Q100 certification, reaching the level 2 temperature range (– 40 ° C to + 105 ° C), in which Q1 represents the aec-q100, and the requirements for active device components in the vehicle specification level standard. CC2640R2F-Q1 is packaged with 7mm × 7mm vqfn with wettable side. The wettability side helps reduce the cost of the production line and improves reliability by optically inspecting solder joints. Strictly speaking, if a chip wants to meet the vehicle standard, it must meet many indicators. 1. EMC performance shall be up to standard. On the one hand, the electromagnetic interference of the equipment to the environment during normal operation cannot exceed a certain limit. On the other hand, the equipment has a certain degree of immunity to electromagnetic interference in the environment. 2. There are also strict requirements for the chip's adaptive temperature. The operating temperature range of industrial chips is - 40 ℃ to 85 ℃. The working temperature range of the car gauge chip is - 40 ℃ to 125 ℃. The vehicle specification level standard emphasizes performance and reliability in low or high temperature and wide range of temperature range. 3. Env...

As TI says, the SimpleLink™ CC1352P device is a multiprotocol and multi-band Sub-1 GHz and 2.4-GHz wireless microcontroller (MCU) supporting Thread, Zigbee®, Bluetooth® 5.2 Low Energy, IEEE 802.15.4g, IPv6-enabled smart objects (6LoWPAN), MIOTY®, Wi-SUN®, proprietary systems, including the TI 15.4-Stack (Sub-1 GHz and 2.4 GHz), and concurrent multiprotocol through a Dynamic Multiprotocol Manager (DMM) driver. The CC1352P simpleLink™ high-performance multi-band wireless MCU with integrated power amplifier is suitable for long-distance applications. The CC1352P device combines a flexible ultra-low power RF transceiver with a powerful 48 MHz arm ® cortex ® - M4F CPU on a platform supporting multiple physical layers and RF standards. The dedicated radio controller (arm ® cortex ® - M0) can handle low-level RF protocol commands stored in ROM or RAM, thus ensuring ultra-low power consumption and excellent flexibility. Characteristics of CC1352P Microcontroller Powerful 48MHz Arm ® cortex ® - M4F processor 352KB programmable flash memory in the system 256KB ROM for protocol and library functions 8KB cache SRAM (also available as general RAM) 80KB ultra-low leakage SRAM. SRAM is protected by parity to ensure highly reliable operation. Ultra low power sensor controller with 4KB SRAM Sample, store and process sensor data Independent of system CPU operation Fast wake-up into low power operation Peripheral 12 bit ADC, 200ksps, 8 channels AES 128 bit and 256 bit encrypted accelerometer Low power consumption Wide supply voltage range: 1.8V to 3.8V Active mode Rx: 5.8ma (3.6V, 868MHz), 6.9ma (3.0V, 2.4GHz) Active mode TX (+ 20dBm): 63ma (3.3V, 915MHz), 85mA (3.0V, 2.4GHz) Radio part Dual band RF transceiver lower than 1GHz and 2.4GHz compatible with low power Bluetooth 5 and IEEE 802.15.4 phy and MAC standards Output power up to + 20dbm with temperature compensation The Birth of CC1352P Modules Based on the CC1352P simpleLink™ high-performance multi-band wireless MCU, the Chinese wireless modules manufacturer named RF-star has produced the multi-protocol module RF-TI1352P1 to fit the diversity of applications. Check the following applications of the CC1352P module, and you may get some good ideas for your IoT design. Applications of the CC1352P Module Smart grid and automatic meter Wireless sensor network Wireless medical application Energy collection application Electronic shelf label (ESL) Smart home and smart building If you are looking forward to know more about the CC1352P Module or any wireless solutions, you are welcome to visit www.rfstariot.com. Of course, you also CAN study this great multi-band module by click here to download its white paper.

With the continuous development of the Internet era, a large number of funds flow into the online transactions. Then some problems come, eg. the servers are attacked and damaged by numerous hackers every day, and the security of online funds is extremely vulnerable. To solve these problems, many currency encryption solutions have emerged, such as the hardware wallet application using the nRF52840 chip, which provides a solid security guarantee for currency transactions. Secux V20 is a hardware wallet of encryption assets using nrf52840 chip, which is used to protect the private key and pin code that users need to perform the encrypted currency transaction safely. Cryptocurrency investors use private keys to confirm the transaction through online transactions. General users are used to storing the private key and pin in software wallets. This form of wallet is very convenient, but it is very vulnerable to malicious attacks. If Secux V20 is used, the user's key will be stored and isolated in the security component chip with 5 + level authentication of CC eal. When a user wants to make a transaction, Secux V20 can use the BLE connection provided by nRF52840 SoC or pair it with a Bluetooth-equipped mobile phone, tablet, or PC through a USB connection cable. Nordic nRF52840 multiprotocol system on chip is an ultra-low power consumption and highly flexible single-chip solution. nRF52840 SoC is the only multi-protocol system on chip on the market that supports the coexistence of Bluetooth 5.0 and Thread and has the dynamic multi-protocol function of BLE and Thread. The nRF52840 SoC USES a 32-bit 64MHz Arm® architecture ™ -m4f CPU, and is integrated with 1MB of flash memory and 256kB of RAM, providing sufficient space for storage operations. The nRF52840 SoC uses excellent power and resource management to maximize application efficiency and extend battery life. All peripherals have independent automated clock and power management functions to ensure that the chip is powered off when the task operation does not require it, thus minimizing power consumption without requiring applications to execute and test complex power management solutions. nRF52840, with on-chip NFC™ -a tag support, opens up A whole new range of applications, such as NFC payments, that improve the user experience for existing BLE applications through out-of-band (OOB) pairing. By using NFC for OOB pairing, authentication information can be exchanged over an NFC link, simplifying the authentication pairing process between two bluetooth devices. Based on this, nRF52840 modules may ultilize in a great deal of  IoT applications. RF-star popular Multi-protocol Modules RF-BM-ND05 and RF-BM-ND06 embeded nRF52840 chip are widely used in wearable devices with wireless payment functions, NFC payment, and customized applications. It is believed that nRF52840 modules will perform better in NFC applications. If you are looking forward to know more about the nRF52840 modules o...

Nordic nRF52811 SoC builds on the success of the Nordic nRF52 Series platform and brings richer connectivity for applications adopting advanced wireless Internet of Things capabilities (such as Bluetooth 5.1 direction finding, thread, and ZigBee). nRF52811 SoC is the fourth-generation product of the nRF52 Series platform, which extends the platform to cover many applications and use cases. Protocols supported by radio, including Bluetooth 5.1 direction finding, all Bluetooth 5 features, 802.15.4, Thread, ZigBee, and proprietary 2.4GHz. nRF52811 SoC has 4 DBM TX power, which is optimized to provide the best reception sensitivity of all SoCS in the nRF52 series: BLE remote: - 104 dBm BLE-1 Mbps：-97 dBm 802.15.4（Thread/ZigBee）：-101 dBm This SoC device combines the low-cost features of Nordic's entry-level nRF52810 SoC with the multi-protocol support of mainstream nRF52832 and high-end nRF52840 SoCs.  nRF52811 is also the first Nordic low-power wireless connectivity product in the family to support Bluetooth 5.1, adding a direction-finding feature for Bluetooth 5 with high throughput, long distance, and enhanced coexistence function. nRF52811 SoC can realize the latest and most powerful functions of Bluetooth 5.1, the most prominent is the direction-finding function, which pushes the Bluetooth positioning to a new height. Based on the strong basic support of the nRF52811 chip, RF-star can supply a mature Bluetooth indoor positioning solution for customers. Nordic nRF52811 SoC is built around 64 MHz arm ® cortex ™ - M4 CPU and has a series of digital peripherals and interfaces, such as PDM, PWM, UART, SPI, and Twi. It also has a 12-bit ADC. Using an advanced on-chip adaptive power management system can achieve extremely low-energy consumption. It also includes a multi-protocol 2.4GHz RF module with 4dbm output power, - 97dBm sensitivity (in Bluetooth 5 1Mbps mode), a 64MHz 32-bit arm ® cortex ™ - M4 processor, 192KB flash, and 24KB RAM. nRF52811 SoC joins the Nordic multi-protocol product family to meet the most extensive application requirements today. Nordic can provide ideal solutions no matter whether the main needs of developers are direction finding, supporting popular RF protocol, high throughput, long distance, or price. As an excellent Bluetooth solution provider in China, RF-star can provide customers with high-quality Bluetooth solutions. nRF52811 SoC Bluetooth 5.1 direction finding function makes the positioning solution not only dependent on the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) but also based on the actual direction of the signal, which significantly improves the positioning accuracy and opens up a new application space. There are two methods to determine the direction of the signal: one is to calculate the angle of arrival (AoA) of the received signal, and the other is to calculate the angle of departure (AoD) of the transmitted signal. The DF function can be used in two-dimensional or three-dimensional space, which...

In 2017, with the emergence of the bicycle sharing mode, the traditional travel field was instantly overturned. However, while it brings convenience to people's life, it also causes some disadvantages. When there is a lack of management of "stop and release as needed", it becomes a disorderly stop and release, which not only brings a lot of inconvenience to others, but also brings great troubles to city managers and bicycle-sharing operators. In order to further improve the parking order of shared bicycles, Bluetooth electronic fence technology has become a feasible solution. Bluetooth electronic fence technology is based on Bluetooth's positioning, broadcasting and transmission functions to realize vehicle entry management and vehicle on-site statistics. What Is Bluetooth Electronic Fence? Bluetooth electronic fence refers to the platform planning and setting up a certain area, allowing and standardizing the parking of shared bicycles in this area, and placing Bluetooth beacon equipment in this area, which can detect the shared bicycles installed with Bluetooth within a radius of 50 meters. If the vehicle is parked beyond the specified area or traveling beyond the specified area, the system will generate a series of alarm notices, so that the manager can check and know the dynamics of the relevant vehicle in time and take corresponding measures to deal with it. The public electronic fence realizes data interaction through Bluetooth, and its signal and data coverage accuracy can reach Yami level, management is accurate to vehicles, and can be compatible with the standard parking of different brands sharing bicycles. The sharing bicycle Bluetooth electronic fence scheme is based on the integration of bicycle perception, electronic fence induction, long endurance and other technologies, through Bluetooth wireless broadcast, positioning and transmission services, under the premise of ensuring the long endurance of nodes, to achieve stable and reliable electronic fence services such as bicycle perception, fence induction, etc., to achieve the interconnection of sharing bicycle, bicycle parking point, operation service platform, effectively solve the urban management difficulties caused by the disordered development of Internet shared bicycles. Three Implementation of Electronic Fence There are three main technical implementation methods of electronic fence: Electronic fence based on satellite positioning technology (GPS); Use the Bluetooth device of the bike lock to read the electronic fence of the Bluetooth label fixed at the parking point; The Bluetooth of the user's mobile phone reads the Bluetooth electronic tag of the parking point and the electronic fence of the vehicle-mounted Bluetooth tag; The first and second technologies rely on satellite positioning technology and Bluetooth device on the bike lock respectively, which is relatively hidden visually. The third type of installation and deployment is extremely convenient, which is convenient f...