ANT Forum

Hi,

Is there any idea about how one can configure ANTware to include RSSI in extended messages.

I bought ANTC7EK1 dev kit in 2011. I have AP2 modules in addition to this. Would I able to get RSSI bytes with these modules.

     

Configuring ANTWareII to include RSSI in extended messages:

- Expand the device view of the C7 module in the Available Devices panel.
- Click on the tab labelled Cfg/Dbg in the extended area.
- Enable/Disable your required extended messages (Timestamp, RSSI, Device ID)
- Click Set ANTLibConfig

Note: The ANTLibConfig can be set while channels are open.

AP2 modules do not have RSSI reporting capabilities so you would have to use the C7 modules to get RSSI readings.

     

usamak - 21 August 2013 10:47 AM

Configuring ANTWareII to include RSSI in extended messages:
AP2 modules do not have RSSI reporting capabilities so you would have to use the C7 modules to get RSSI readings.

I also would like a way to see the received power from my remote device. I have the ANTUSB-M device and the dongle from Nordic's dev kit but understand that they do not support reading RSSI from within ANTWareII.

I have seen the C7 module description from here: http://www.thisisant.com/developer/components/c7-modules/#43_tab but i,t is not clear what I need to get it hooked up to ANTWareII (or similar). It does not appear to have an USB interface.

Can you give me a reference to a suitable device (with C7 module) with which RSSI measurements can be done?

thanks for any help      

You would need to obtain the C7 module option (ANTC782M5IB) that comes with a molex connector to connect to an ANT USB interface board.

The best way to get started would be to use a C7 Evaluation Kit (ANTC7EK1), more information on this kit can be under the "Dev. Kit" tab of the page you linked. This development kit comes with four C7 modules w/ molex connectors and two ANT USB interface boards.

Digikey Link: (http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/ANTC7EK1/1094-1001-ND/2748491).
The development kit is also available with other distributors (http://www.thisisant.com/developer/components/find-a-disti). If you don't need to purchase the full dev. kit you can also find individual components from our distributors. One USB ANT interface board and one C7 module w/ Molex connector would allow you to achieve the functionality you are looking for.

If you were building a PC application that required RSSI, I would recommend using the C7 modules. If you wanted to just use RSSI values for testing and embedded development, you can also use the Nordic Development Kit you have, and connect it via UART to obtain RSSI readings on your computer.

Let me know if you have any questions.

     

The task is to evaluate our embedded ant+ device with respect to antenna performance. So the idea is to log the RSSI on the pc for various antennas and tunings on our target - i.e. no expensive network equipment required. Appears as a good strategy to me.

1) I understand, from your previous comments here, that with the ANTC7EK1 it would be relatively straight forward to setup the PC to display/record the RSSI. Am I right?
I would rather like to avoid having to study yet another microcontroller architecture and host programming interface for making this measurement on another microcontroller architecture - if you know what I mean.

2) With Nordic Development Kit you wrote that it could also be used via serial port to display RSSI. And I agree having experience with the nRF51422, the problem is however, that there are no example or at least I could not find it, on how to extract the RSSI value from the chip. -- EDIT While I write this, I see that NS has disclosed a method on how to do this - yesterday: https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/index.php/sample-rssi-code-of-nrf51422#reply-5655 .

I will give this a try, but would still like your comment to point 1 above.

again - thanks a lot.      

1.) Yes, with the C7 development kit, it would be a really simple procedure to receive and log RSSI values using the ANTWareII tool.

2.) The ANT messaging required to set up RSSI information on an ANT module is described in the RSSI Extended Information App Note (http://www.thisisant.com/resources/an16-rssi-extended-information/). Using the C7 Development kit with ANTwareII will allow you to automate this messaging procedure for a quick set up. This messaging can also be implemented on the nRF51422 platform using Nordic's SDK (described in the Nordic Semi Forum post you linked).

     

By modifying the ant_broadcast_rx example code from Nordic Semiconductor's evaluation kit for nRF51422 I got the eval-kit to operate as a receiver and sending the RSSI values via serial port to the PC. This works very well - (until usbser.sys: serial port driver makes a BSOD crash of the computer after some minutes - but this is another story). It is very sensitive and one can measure the influence of reflections and attenuations in the RF field for even smaller objects.

Usamak - thanks for pointing at the right tools and sending me in the right direction. Much appreciated.