Bluetooth 5.2/Bluetooth LE tracking system offers ‘live’ people- and asset-monitoring solution

Nordic Semiconductor today announces that Poznań, Poland-based asset tracking company, notinote, has selected Nordic’s nRF52810 Bluetooth® 5.2/Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) multiprotocol System-on-Chip (SoC) and nRF52832 Bluetooth 5.2/Bluetooth LE SoC for its ‘notiLocate’ asset tracking system.

The notiLocate system is comprised of ‘small active tags’ or trackers, receiving infrastructure, and a web-based portal, that together provide ‘live’ navigation, tracking, and analytics for equipment and personnel in places where GPS is impractical. The system is designed for use across a range of industries including retail, manufacturing, healthcare, and logistics.

The waterproof tags weigh 6g and are available in either a pendant or wristband form factor, and, alongside the Nordic nRF52810 SoC, integrate temperature and humidity sensors, as well as an accelerometer that together provide out-of-zone alerts, fall detection, position monitoring, and movement tracking, as well as environmental data. The pendants or wristbands also incorporate a ‘panic’ button. 

Each tag is powered by a CR2032 lithium coin cell, providing up to 18 months of battery life before replacement, thanks in part to the ultra-low power characteristics of the Nordic SoC. The nRF52810 has been engineered to minimize power consumption with features such as the 2.4GHz radio’s 4.6mA peak RX/TX currents and a fully-automatic power management system that reduces power consumption by up to 80 percent compared with Nordic’s nRF51 Series SoCs.

 

The sensor data and location of the employee or asset is transmitted using low latency Bluetooth LE wireless connectivity to a nRF52832 SoC-powered gateway. In turn the gateway relays the data to the Cloud where it is collated into visual reports, supported by data analysis tools and customized alerts, that can be reviewed from the ‘notiLocate webpanel’ by system administrators.

 

Nordic’s nRF52832 multiprotocol SoC combines a 64MHz, 32-bit Arm® Cortex® M4 processor with floating point unit (FPU), with a 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio (supporting Bluetooth 5.2, ANT™, and proprietary 2.4GHz RF protocol software) featuring -96dB RX sensitivity, with 512kB Flash memory and 64kB RAM. This SoC is supplied with Nordic’s S132 SoftDevice, a Bluetooth 5-certified RF software protocol stack for building advanced Bluetooth LE applications. The S132 SoftDevice features Central, Peripheral, Broadcaster and Observer Bluetooth LE roles, supports up to twenty connections, and enables concurrent role operation.

 

Nordic’s nRF52810 multiprotocol SoC combines a 64MHz, 32-bit Arm Cortex M4 processor, with a 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio (supporting Bluetooth 5.2, ANT, and proprietary 2.4GHz RF protocol software) featuring reduced radio energy consumption, with 192kB Flash memory and 24kB RAM. The nRF52810 SoC is supplied with the latest version of Nordic’s S112 SoftDevice, Bluetooth 5-compliant RF protocol software.

 

Nordic’s software architecture also includes a clear separation between the RF protocol software and notinote’s application code, simplifying development and ensuring the SoftDevice doesn’t get corrupted when developing, compiling, testing, and verifying the application code. 

“Nordic’s reference designs, SDK [Software Development Kit], and SoftDevice alongside really good technical support greatly helped us speed up the development process,” says notinote CEO Piotr Kurowski. “The small size and low power consumption of the nRF52810 SoC was also a key consideration in selecting the chip.”