Nordic – Engineers can now test wireless applications in real-world operating environments (nRF51)

Ultra low power (ULP) RF specialist, Nordic Semiconductor, has announced a low-cost, battery-powered evaluation kit for its latest nRF51 Series of ULP 2.4GHz integrated circuits (ICs) that supports real-world environmental testing of ANT / ANT+, Bluetooth low-energy (including Bluetooth Smart), and proprietary 2.4GHz ULP wireless sensors and accessories.

The nRF51 Series evaluation kit is applicable to both of the first two ICs to debut in the nRF51 Series: the nRF51822 multiprotocol Bluetooth low energy / 2.4GHz proprietary RF System-on-Chip (SoC), and the nRF51422 – the world’s first ANT / ANT+ SoC.

Each nRF51 Series kit is compatible with a range of application examples contained within Nordic’s nRF51 Series SDK (Software Development Kit) and comprise nRF51x evaluation board (with all components mounted single-side), nRF51x USB dongle, coin-cell battery compartment, PCB strip antenna, Segger J-Link de-bug capability, USB port for computer link-up, 32 I/O header pins for access to all GPIOs, two miniaturized buttons plus two miniaturized LEDs available for user-defined functions, and current measurement pins.

The nRF51 Series kit brings new design freedoms to the prototyping and initial development of ULP wireless product applications. With the dongle-based evaluation set-up a development engineer is now freed up from their test-bench set-up to write code, test, and perform in-situ evaluations anywhere. Such freedoms are essential for a whole range of early-stage application evaluations and testing and will benefit all nRF51 Series-relevant ULP wireless applications: from engineers prototyping multiple body-worn sensor network products all the way through to industrial measurement and control systems, says the company.

“The challenge is that to date the development and eval tools available for prototyping ULP wireless nodes have tended to be designed for desk-based testing, while being quite costly when purchased in multiple unit numbers,” said Geir Langeland, Nordic Semiconductor’s director of sales and marketing. “What these new nRF51 Series eval kits will do is to allow developers to prototype and test ULP wireless sensors and accessories under real-world environmental operating conditions in a cost effective way that supports rather than hinders them.”