Potential chip for STM32duino, the BlueNRG-1

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ctjet
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Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2020 7:18 pm

Potential chip for STM32duino, the BlueNRG-1

Post by ctjet »

Hello everyone! Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this topic.

STM offers a very low power BLE chip called the BlueNRG-1. Technically, it is not an STM32. HOWEVER, I feel like it's a pretty good candidate for becoming a widely used BLE chip in the hobbyist community, especially if Arduino code can be run on it.
Here is the datasheet https://www.st.com/resource/en/datasheet/bluenrg-1.pdf

MxChip offers an FCC approved BLE module called the EMB1061. It requires no external circuitry to run due to its built in vreg good for 1.7-3.6v, and is extremely low power. It has a built in Cortex M0 and it can easily last for 3 years on a single CR2032 battery. The main reason why this module is so good however, is that it costs $2.60 from Digikey, or even as low as $1.60 from Alibaba. That's compared to similar NRF modules that cost $6+

One of the main reasons why this chip was not used was the price of the IDE's, requiring IAR or Kiel MDK5 to work properly, both costing upwards of $1500 a year. I created an open source toolchain https://github.com/calebmarting/BlueNRG-1-VSCode that allows compilation of code and debugging, bypassing the paywall. With the bones of this project, I think the community could make this chip a really good candidate for the STM32duino treatment, and could be a great addition to the goal of STM products with Arduino support

Anyone have any comments or considerations for this project, or a link to where this should be posted? :D
Thank you!

If you're interested in a little introduction video about the BlueNRG-1/EMB1061, here you go https://youtu.be/VH6JlEohDSQ
ag123
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Re: Potential chip for STM32duino, the BlueNRG-1

Post by ag123 »

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fpiSTM
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Re: Potential chip for STM32duino, the BlueNRG-1

Post by fpiSTM »

WB BLE will be supported with the release 2.0.0 of the core and using the STM32duinoBLE library:
https://github.com/stm32duino/STM32duinoBLE

This library manage also the BlueNRG. Before we used this library: https://github.com/stm32duino/SPBTLE-RF
ctjet
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Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2020 7:18 pm

Re: Potential chip for STM32duino, the BlueNRG-1

Post by ctjet »

Thank you for the notice about the stm32wb support, I didn't know about that. Also I didn't know there were example projects, but I still think this has merit. For one, it's developing firmware directly for the chip, instead of using it as an spi peripheral. Number two is that the cost of the EMB1061 is still $2.60, which is a 1/4-1/2 of that of the bare stm32wb chip.
Ollie
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Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2020 4:46 am

Re: Potential chip for STM32duino, the BlueNRG-1

Post by Ollie »

I like STM32WB, but the price compared to RPi4 and ESP32 makes it unfeasible for most projects.
ag123
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Re: Potential chip for STM32duino, the BlueNRG-1

Post by ag123 »

i'd guess stm32wb would find more apps in smartwatch, fitness band type scenarios where space is a limiting constraint.
the integrted bt radio and soc makes it easier to make small devices with less discrete components
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