Fanstel BluNor BT840XEE User manual

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BluNor BT840XEE is a powerful, highly flexible, ultra low power Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) using Nordic nRF52840 SoC. With
an ARM
Cortex
TM
M4F MCU, available 1MB flash, 256KB RAM, embedded 2.4GHz multi-protocol transceiver and a power
amplifier. An u.FL and an MCX connectors for external antenna connection. It allows faster time to
market with reduced development cost.
Bluetooth ranges are measured in environments with Low Multiple Path Interference (LMPI) and
antenna at 5 feet (1.52 meters), typical height of thermostat in the USA. Ranges for LMPI,
correlating to actual link budget, indicate the Bluetooth signal strength for penetrating walls in
buildings.
Specifications:
• nRF52840 QIAA, ARM Cortex M4F, 64 MHz
•
ARM® TrustZone® Cryptocell-310 co-processor
•
Skyworks power amplifier SKY66112
•
Complete RF solution with integrated antenna
•
BLE 5 data rate: 2Mbps, 1Mbps, 500kbps,125kbps.
•
DC-DC converter, inductors on board.
•
Serial Wire Debug (SWD)
•
Nordic SoftDevice Ready
•
Over-the-Air (OTA) firmware update
•
Flash/RAM: 1MB/256KB.
•
45 General purpose I/O pins
•
USB 2.0 full speed (12 Mbps) controller
•
QSPI 32 MHz interface
•
High speed 32 MHz SPI
•
Type 2 NFC-A tag with wake-on field, Touch-to-pair support
•
Programmable peripheral interconnect (PPI)
•
12 bit/200 Ksps ADC, 8 configurable channels with
programmable gain
• 64 level comparator
• 15 level comparator with wake-up from OFF.
•
Temperature sensor
•
4x4-channel pulse width modulator (PWM)
•
Audio peripherals: I2S, digital microphone interface (PDM)
•
5 x 32 bit timers with counter mode
•
Up to 4x SPI masters/3x SPI slaves
•
Up to 2x I2C compatible 2-wire masters/slaves
•
2x UART (CTS/RTS)
•
Quadrature Demodulator (QDEC)
•
3x real time counters (RTC)
•
128-bit AES HW encryption
•
SoC Receiver Sensitivity: -96 dBm at 1Mbps
•
SoC TX power: programmable +8dBm to -20dBm. Up to +6
dBi antenna gain.
•
Hybrid pins: 16 castellated and 45 LGA.
•
1 u.FL connector and 1 MCX connector
•
Operation voltage: 1.7V to 5.5V
•
Operation temperature: - 4 0 ° C t o + 8 5 ° C
•
QDID: 108621,182626
Model Summaries
module BT840XEE
SoC
nRF52840-QIAA
Size
15x28.0x1.9mm
BT Antenna PA+u.FL+MCX
Max TX, radiated
32.768 sleep crystal Integrated
BT range,1 Mbps, LMPI >1170 meters
BT range, 1Mbps, 1.52m >1170 meters
BT range, 125 Kbps, LMPI.
>4500 meters
BT range, 125 kBps, 1.52m
>1920 meters
FCC ID
Canada IC ID
Europe CE, Australia RCM
Japan TELEC
Korea KCC
Taiwan NCC

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Brazil ANTEL
Availability Production
1. Introduction
BluNor BT840XEE module is powerful, highly flexible, ultra low power wireless modules using Nordic nRF52840 SoCs.
With an ARM CortexTM M4F MCU, 1MB flash, 256KB RAM, embedded 2.4GHz multi-protocol transceiver, and an
integrated antenna, it allows faster time to market with reduced development cost.
The following is a block diagram of BT840XEE. The main clock and the sleep clock are integrated. All 45 GPIOs of
nRF52840 can be accessed from main board. Connection to an external NFC (Near Field Communication) antenna is
provided.
BT840XEE
•Uses an nRF52840 QIAA with Cortex M4F MCU
•1MB flash, 256 KB RAM
•Supports NFC
•Integrated SKY66112 power amplifier.
•Integrated 32.768 KHz sleep crystal.
•An u.FL connector for external antenna, a second MCX connector for external antenna.

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•Size: 15x28x1.9mm.

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2. Codes Development Using Nordic Tools
Development tools by Nordic and other third party development tools recommended by Nordic should be used.
Nordic development environment for nRF52840 offers a clean separation between application code development and
embedded protocol stacks. This means compile, link and run time dependencies with the embedded stack and associated
debugging challenges are removed. The Bluetooth low energy and ANT stack is a pre-compiled binary, leaving
application code to be compiled stand-alone. The embedded stack interface uses an asynchronous and event driven model
removing the need for RTOS frameworks.
Over-The-Air DFU
The nRF52840 is supported by an Over-The-Air Device Firmware Upgrade (OTA DFU) feature. This allows for in the
field updates of application software and SoftDevice.
SoftDevices
The Nordic protocol stacks are known as SoftDevices and complement the nRF52 Series SoCs. All nRF52 Series are
programmable with software stacks from Nordic. This bring maximum flexibility to application development and allows
the latest stack version to be programmed into the SoC.
SoftDevices available from Nordic:
S140: Bluetooth low energy concurrent central/peripheral/observer/broadcaster stack.
Development Tools
Nordic Semiconductor provides a complete range of hardware and software development tools for the nRF52 Series
devices. nRF52 DK board is recommended for firmware development.
Nordic software development tools can be downloaded from the following webpage.
http://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/index.jsp?topic=/com.nordic.infocenter.nrf52/dita/nrf52/development/nrf52_dev_kit.htm
l&cp=1_1

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3. Product Descriptions
Brief description of nRF52840 SoC is provided. For full description of the SoC, please download from Nordic
Semiconductor website.
https://www.nordicsemi.com/eng/Products/Bluetooth-low-energy
Block Diagram of nRF52840
The following is a block diagram of Nordic nRF52840 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) SoC. Arrows with white heads
indicate signals that share physical pins with other signals.

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The 32 bit ARM Cortex M4F MCU with hardware supports for DSP instructions and floating point operations, code
density and execution speed are higher than other Cortex M MCU. The Programmable Peripheral Interconnect (PPI)
system provides a 20-channel bus for direct and autonomous system peripheral communication without CPU intervention.
This brings predictable latency times for peripheral to peripheral interaction and power saving benefits associated with
leaving CPU idle. The device has 2 global power modes ON/OFF, but all system blocks and peripherals have individual
power management control which allows for an automatic switching RUN/IDLE for system blocks based only on those
required/not required to achieve particular tasks.
The radio supports Bluetooth low energy and ANT. Output power is scalable from a maximum of +8dBm down to -20
dBm in 4dB steps. Sensitivity is increased to -96 dBm to -89 dBm, depending on data rate. Sensitivity for BLE is -96
dBm, and -92.5 dBm for ANT.
The NFC block supports NFC-A tags with proximity detection and Wake-on-field from low power mode. The NFC
enables Out-Of-Band (OOB) Bluetooth pairing of devices and thus greatly simplifying deployment.

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ARM Trustzone CryptoCell 310
ARM® TrustZone® CryptoCell-310 co-processor is a security subsystem which provides Root of Trust (RoT) and cryptographic
services for a device. CryptoCell services are available to the application through a software library API, not a hardware register
interface.
The following cryptographic features are provided.
•FIPS-140-2 certified True Random Number Generator (TRNG)
•RSA asymmetric encryption
Up to 2048 bit key size
PKCS#1 v2.1/v1.5
Optional CRT support
•Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC)
NIST FIPS 186-4 recommended curves using pseudo-random parameters, up to 521 bits:

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➢Prime field: P-192, P-224, P-256, P-384, P-521
SEC 2 recommended curves using pseudo-random parameters, up to 521 bits:
➢Prime field: P-160, P-192, P-224, P-256, P-384, P-521
Koblitz curves using fixed parameters, up to 256 bits:
➢Prime field: P-160, P-192, P-224, P-256
Edwards/Montgomery curves:
➢Ed25519, Curve 25519
ECDH/ECDSA support
•Secure remote password protocol (SRP)
Up to 3072 bit operations
•Hashing functions
SHA-1, SHA-2 up to 256 bit size
keyed-hash message authentication code (HMAC)
•AES symmetric encryption
General purpose AES engine (encrypt/decrypt, sign/verify)
128 bit key size
Supported encryption modes: ECB, CBC, CMAC/CBC-MAC, CTR, CCM/CCM*.
•ChaCha20/Poly1305 symmetric encryption
Supported keyed size: 128 and 256 bits
Authenticated encryption with associated data (AEAD) mode

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Mechanical Drawings
BT840XEE mechanical drawings

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Pin Assignments of BT840
The followings are BT840 pin assignment. Pin functions are in a table in next section. Please refer to Nordic nRF52840
Product Specifications for detailed descriptions and features supported.
https://www.nordicsemi.com/eng/Products/nRF52840
BT840XEE pin assignments
BT840XEE 52840
pin# pin# pin name Descriptions
1G1 P0.26/SDA GPIO, configured as I2C SDA on EV-BT840
2H2 P0.27/SCL GPIO, configured as I2C SCL on EV-BT840
3D2 P0.00/XL1 GPIO, connection for 32.768kHz crystal
4F2 P0.01/XL2 GPIO, connection for 32.768kHz crystal
5A12 P0.02/AIN0 GPIO, Analog input
6B13 P0.03/AIN1 GPIO, Analog input
7L24 P0.09/NFC1 GPIO, NFC antenna connection
8J24 P0.10/NFC2 GPIO, NFC antenna connection
9B1 VDD DC supply 1.7V to 3.6V
10 B7 GND Ground
11 T2 P0.11 GPIO
12 AD22 P1.00 GPIO
13 AD8 P0.13 GPIO

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14 AC13 P0.18/RESET GPIO, internal RC reset circuit, configurable as RESET pin
15 AA24 SWDCLK Serial Wire Debug clock input
16 AC24 SWDIO Serial Wire Debug I/O
Z0 B19 P1.11 GPIO
Z1 B17 P1.12 GPIO
Z2 A16 P1.13 GPIO
Z3 B15 P1.14 GPIO
Z4 A14 P1.15 GPIO
Z5 A20 P1.10 GPIO
Z6 R24 P1.06 GPIO
A0 GND Ground
A1 B11 P0.28/AIN4 GPIO, Analog input
A2 A10 P0.29/AIN5 GPIO, Analog input
A3 J1 P0.04/AIN2 GPIO, Analog input
A4 K2 P0.05/AIN3 GPIO, Analog input
A5 M2 P0.07 GPIO
A6 P2 P1.08 GPIO
B0 GND Ground
B1 AC21 P0.25 GPIO
B2 B9 P0.30/AIN6 GPIO
B3 A8 P0.31/AIN7 GPIO
B4 L1 P0.06 GPIO, NC for BT840X, BT840XE, PA control
B5 N1 P0.08 GPIO, NC for BT840X, BT840XE, PA control
B6 V23 P1.03 GPIO
C0 GND Ground
C1 AD20 P0.24 GPIO
C2 AD18 P0.22 GPIO
C3 AD12 P0.17 GPIO, NC for BT840X,BT840XE, PA control
C4 AD10 P0.15 GPIO
C5 W24 P1.02 GPIO
C6 U24 P1.04 GPIO
D0 GND Ground
D1 AC19 P0.23 GPIO
D2 AC15 P0.19 GPIO, NC for BT840 X,BT840XE, PA control
D3 AC11 P0.16 GPIO
D4 AC9 P0.14 GPIO
D5 Y23 P1.01 GPIO
D6 T23 P1.05 GPIO
E0 P23 P1.07 GPIO
E1 AD16 P0.20 GPIO

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E2 AC17 P0.21 GPIO
E3 R1 P1.09 GPIO
E4 AD6 D+ USB D+
E5 AD4 D- USB D-
E6 U1 P0.12 GPIO
F0 Ground pad
F1 Ground pad
F2 Ground pad
F3 Ground pad
F4 Y2 VDDH High Voltage Power Supply. See Note 1.
F5 AB2 DCCH DC to DC converter output
F6 AD2 VBUS 5V DC power for USB 3.3V regulator
Pin Function
Note 1: BT840XEE must be powered by an externally regulated DC supply to the VDD pin. To have FCC certified,
maximum TX power, the DC voltage shall be 3.3V, 300 mA minimum. If you apply DC power to the VDDH pin, the
internally generated DC output is not enough to power the SKYWORKS power amplifier.

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Mounting BT840EE on the Host PCB
There is no restriction on mounting BT840XEE on the host PCB.

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Control Skyworks Power Amplifier
BT840XEE uses SKYWORKS SKY66112-11 power amplifier. The connection diagram with control signal pins is below.
A firmware example to control Skyworks SKY66112 power amplifier is below. This firmware file can be downloaded
from http://www.fanstel.com/download-document/.
•BT840XEE: Set nRF52840 MCX TX to +0 dBm. U.FL TX to +3 dBm.
Header files
#ifndef PA_LNA_H__
#define PA_LNA_H__
#include "ble.h"
#include "app_error.h"
#include "nrf_drv_gpiote.h"
#include "nrf_drv_ppi.h"
void pa_lna_init(uint32_t gpio_pa_pin, uint32_t gpio_lna_pin);
#endif
Main program.
#include "pa_lna.h"
#define APP_PA_LAN
#ifdef APP_PA_LAN

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#define APP_PA_PIN 17
#define APP_LNA_PIN 19
#define APP_CHL_PIN 8
#define APP_CPS_PIN 6
int main(void)
{
....
#ifdef APP_PA_LAN
nrf_gpio_cfg_output(APP_CPS_PIN);
nrf_gpio_cfg_output(APP_CHL_PIN);
nrf_gpio_pin_set(APP_CHL_PIN);
nrf_gpio_pin_clear(APP_CPS_PIN); //enable
pa_lna_init(APP_PA_PIN,APP_LNA_PIN);
#endif
....
}
SKY66112 control codes.
#include <stdint.h>
#include <string.h>
#include "pa_lna.h"
#include "ble.h"
#include "app_error.h"
#include "nrf_drv_gpiote.h"
#include "nrf_drv_ppi.h"
void pa_lna_init(uint32_t gpio_pa_pin, uint32_t gpio_lna_pin)
{
ble_opt_t opt;
uint32_t gpiote_ch = NULL;
ret_code_t err_code;
memset(&opt, 0, sizeof(ble_opt_t));
err_code = nrf_drv_gpiote_init();
if(err_code != NRF_ERROR_INVALID_STATE)
APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
err_code = nrf_drv_ppi_init();

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//if(err_code != MODULE_ALREADY_INITIALIZED)
APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
nrf_ppi_channel_t ppi_set_ch;
nrf_ppi_channel_t ppi_clr_ch;
err_code = nrf_drv_ppi_channel_alloc(&ppi_set_ch);
APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
err_code = nrf_drv_ppi_channel_alloc(&ppi_clr_ch);
APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
nrf_drv_gpiote_out_config_t config = GPIOTE_CONFIG_OUT_TASK_TOGGLE(false);
if((gpio_pa_pin == NULL) && (gpio_lna_pin == NULL))
{
err_code = NRF_ERROR_INVALID_PARAM;
APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
}
if(gpio_pa_pin != NULL)
{
if(gpiote_ch == NULL)
{
err_code = nrf_drv_gpiote_out_init(gpio_pa_pin, &config);
APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
gpiote_ch = nrf_drv_gpiote_out_task_addr_get(gpio_pa_pin);
}
// PA config
opt.common_opt.pa_lna.pa_cfg.active_high = 1; // Set the pin to be active high
opt.common_opt.pa_lna.pa_cfg.enable = 1; // Enable toggling
opt.common_opt.pa_lna.pa_cfg.gpio_pin = gpio_pa_pin; // The GPIO pin to toggle tx
}
if(gpio_lna_pin != NULL)
{
if(gpiote_ch == NULL)
{
err_code = nrf_drv_gpiote_out_init(gpio_lna_pin, &config);
APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
gpiote_ch = nrf_drv_gpiote_out_task_addr_get(gpio_lna_pin);
}
// LNA config
opt.common_opt.pa_lna.lna_cfg.active_high = 1; // Set the pin to be active high
opt.common_opt.pa_lna.lna_cfg.enable = 1; // Enable toggling
opt.common_opt.pa_lna.lna_cfg.gpio_pin = gpio_lna_pin; // The GPIO pin to toggle rx
}

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// Common PA/LNA config
opt.common_opt.pa_lna.gpiote_ch_id = (gpiote_ch - NRF_GPIOTE_BASE) >> 2; // GPIOTE channel used for radio
pin toggling
opt.common_opt.pa_lna.ppi_ch_id_clr = ppi_clr_ch; // PPI channel used for radio pin clearing
opt.common_opt.pa_lna.ppi_ch_id_set = ppi_set_ch; // PPI channel used for radio pin setting
err_code = sd_ble_opt_set(BLE_COMMON_OPT_PA_LNA, &opt);
APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
}

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4. Bluetooth Range
Settings for Certification Testings
Settings for BT840XEE:
•
nRF52840 SoC TX is set to +2dBm for FCC and ISED testings.
•
nRF52840 SoC TX is set to -4 dBm for CE and RCM testings.
•
BT840XEE passes FCC, ISED, CE, and RCM certification testings with ANT000, a 0dBi antenna.
•
BT840XEE passes FCC and ISED certification testings with ANT060, a 6 dBi antenna.
•
VDD is set to 3.3V.
Bluetooth ranges are measured with settings for FCC certification testings.
Bluetooth Range Measurements
Bluetooth range measurement reports and hex codes used in measurements can be downloaded from Bluetooth Range
Measurements section of this webpage. Settings for passing FCC certification testing is used.
http://www.fanstel.com/download-document/
Bluetooth ranges are measured between 2 modules on evaluation boards for various height of antenna. On the first
measurement, both antennas are pointing to sky and facing each other. The second antenna is rotated by 30 degrees
clockwise after each measurement.
Bluetooth range is specified as the average of 12 measurements with the least significant digit truncated.
•
1.52 meters (60 inches) is typical height of thermostat in the USA.
•
0.55 meter (21.5 inches) is typical height of antenna if an IoT device is plugged into a wall AC outlet in the USA.
When USB840F USB dongle is plugged into a smart phone charger plugging into a wall AC outlet to collect
Bluetooth sensor data or to be used as a Bluetooth signal repeater.

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• Low Multiple Path Interference (LMPI). For longer range measurement, antenna must be higher to have LMPI. To
have LMPI, 60% clearance is required. For example, if transmitter and receiver is 1000 meters away, both antennas
must be 3.33 meters above ground and away from any obstruction.
The followings are Bluetooth range measurement results.
Antenna height LMPI 1.52 meters 0.55 meter
BT840XEE with ANT000 range, 125 Kbps >4500 meters 1920 meters
BT840XEE with ANT000 range, 1Mbps 1170 meters 1170 meters
•
•
Bluetooth ranges of BT840X and BT840XE at 125 Kbps and LMPI, is verified to exceed 4500 meters, maximum
range of test site used in May 2019.
•
Range of BT840XE with +21.0 dBm max TX is longer than BT840X with +22.6 dBm max TX. Antenna ANT000 is
almost omni-directional. The integrated antenna of BT840X is not. Range is shorter for some angles. Result is the
average of 12 measurements.
•
The Bluetooth range between two BT840XE and ANT060 is not measured yet.

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Recommendation for Long Range Applications
The followings are certification test result summaries of long range nRF52840 modules. Antenna gain is added to TX
power measured by FCC test labs. FCC test labs measure the maximum transmission power of all frequencies to make
sure none exceeds FCC regulation.
BT840F Bluetooth range is average of 12 measurements. BT840X, BT840XE, and BT840E are verified at ranges
indicated. Theoretical ranges are longer. We can not verify because of test site limitation.
module BT840F BT840F BT840E BT840X BT840XE
BT Antenna PCB trace PCB trace ANT060 PCB trace + PA PA+ANT060
Max TX FCC, ISED +8.8 dBm +6.7 dBm +14.4 dBm +22.6 dBm +27.0 dBm
Max TX, CE, RCM (EIRP) +8.5 dBm +5.4 dBm +8.2 dBm +16.07 dBm +16.07 dBm
BT range,1 Mbps (FCC TX) 1000 meters 1170 meters >1170 meters
BT range, 125 Kbps(FCC TX) 3000M, est. 2300 meters >3400M, est. >4500 meters >4500 meters
FCC ID X8WBT840F X8WBT840 X8WBT840F X8WBT840X X8WBT840X
CE Compliant Compliant Compliant Compliant Compliant
RCM Compliant Compliant Compliant Compliant Compliant
TELEC 201-190710/00 201-190710/00 201-190710/00
Receiver sensitivity gain of the SKY66112 LNA (Low Noise Amplifier) in BT840X/XE is measured at 1.5 dB.
Transmitter gain is 22.6-8.8=13.6 dB. BT840E is certified with a 6dBi antenna ANT060.
•If you use the same module for both sides, BT840X/XE provides the best range. However, power consumption of
BT840X/XE is high, battery life is short.
•If your beacons and sensors do not use Fanstel long range modules, BT840E with ANT060 provides the best receiver
sensitivity in gateway application.
BT840/BT840E/BT840F were re-certified in 2019 for both Bluetooth and IEEE 802.15.4 in 2019. Modules with date
codes 2001 or newer are made per 2019 FCC certification specifications.
BT840XE Maximum Link Budget Calculation
BT840XE is FCC and ISED certified with ANT060, a 6 dBi antenna. Using the following specifications:
•nRF52840 receiver sensitivity is -95 dBm at 1Mbps per Nordic product specifications.
•nRF52840 receiver sensitivity is -103 dBm at 125 Kbps per Nordic product specifications.
•SKY66112 receiver gain is measured at 1.5 dB by Fanstel. The receiver gain is 11 dB per Skyworks data sheets. Fanstel
measures the increase in Bluetooth range in the Arizona desert without and with SKY66112.
•BT840XE Max TX power is +21.0 dBm per FCC test report.
•Maximum gain of ANT060 is 6 dBi per antenna manufacturer.
The link budget between two BT840XE.
•Up to 129 dB at 1Mbps.
•Up to 137 dB at 125 Kbps.