BlueNRG-1 & 2

[Alex Angulo]

Posted on May 23, 2018 at 15:55

Hi!

I am working in a project and we need to use one BLE chip.

I found the chips from ST (BlueNRG1-2) but I can't find good information about:

- Can these chips be used as principal MCU and like BLE device at the same time, I mean use its BLE characteristics and communicate with an external MCU vía I2C/SPI?

- Can these chips be programmed using some IDE like Eclipse/Keil or using the software STM32CubeMX/SW4STM32 from ST? In case of YES, can you give me some tips/tutorial?

Thank you !!

[Winfred LU]

Posted on May 25, 2018 at 04:19

Hi Alex,

Sure, the embedded MCU is exactly for users to run various of applications including BLE.

Please download SDK from 

http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/products/embedded-software/evaluation-tool-software/stsw-bluenrg1-dk.html

By default it provides projects for IAR EWARM, Keil uVision, and Atollic TrueStudio.

After the DK is installed, please try to start with BlueNRG-1/2 Navigator (There will be 2 shortcuts of Navigators for both BlueNRG-1 and BlueNRG-2 in start menu).

It is possible to flash BlueNRG-1/2 EVB and run the demo applications with the Navigator.

http://www.st.com/resource/en/user_manual/dm00298232.pdf

 will be a good start.

Please refer to the ST web resources:

http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/products/wireless-connectivity/bluetooth-bluetooth-low-energy/bluenrg-1.html

 

http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/products/wireless-connectivity/bluetooth-bluetooth-low-energy/bluenrg-2.html

 

Best Regards,

Winfred

[Alex Angulo]

Posted on May 29, 2018 at 14:10

Thank you Winfred!

Do yo have idea if ST will implement BlueNRG programming via STMCubeMX?

Regards,

Alex

[Winfred LU]

Posted on June 01, 2018 at 07:10

Hi Alex,

Sorry. I have no comments about supporting BlueNRG family in STMCubeMX.

Thank you.

Best Regards,

Winfred

[Alex Angulo]

Posted on June 04, 2018 at 15:23

Could I use the HAL libraries for programming the BlueNRG chip although I don't use the STCubeMX, maybe using the X-Cube-BLE1 software??

Thank you again!

Regards 

[Antonio Vilei]

Posted on June 06, 2018 at 14:59

Hi Alex,

if your goal is using BlueNRG-1/2 as an application processor, with the applicative code running natively on it, then you can't use STM32CubeMX.

While both STM32 and BlueNRG-1/2 are based on ARM Cortex M architecture, they have a different set of peripherals and you can't use the same code base for both of them.

Please notice that STM32CubeMX generates code for STM32 peripherals, which wouldn't work with BlueNRG-1/2.

If you want to use STM32Cube and

STM32CubeMX 

with BlueNRG-1/2, you have to configure your BLE chip as a network co-processor and use it together with an external STM32 to run the application code. In this configuration, BlueNRG-1/2 will be used to run the BLE stack only, while the application will run on the STM32.

Just as an example, the X-CUBE-BLE1 software package includes code for an STM32 connected to the BlueNRG-MS chip via SPI. Please note that BlueNRG-MS is a network-coprocessor and it can run the BLE stack only (it has no application processor capability).

Best regards,

Antonio

[Alex Angulo]

Posted on June 07, 2018 at 19:43

Antonio thanks for the clarification, it was really helpful !