ANT Forum

I am a total newbie to ANT but I like what I see. In my application I would like to attach my sensors directly to an N5 module (N5150M8 probably) and run my application on the N5 SOC.

Admittedly overwhelmed by the wealth of documentation, I am unsure of where to look on how to do this. I've found the ANT Message Protocol and Usage doucment useful, but it seems to be written from the perspective of an MCU connected via a serial link. In chapter 7, second paragraph is the enticing line (emphasis mine):
"In the case of SoCs and mobile devices the interface to ANT is handled via libraries and the message framing described in section 7.1 below is not needed."

Yup, this is what I want. Where do I find documentation to the libraries mentioned above?

If this has been posted and I'm just not using the correct search phrase, please forgive the duplicate (but please also provide a link

Tom

     

Glad to hear you like it

For the N5 SoC you will be using the nRF51 API which is hosted on the chipset manufacturer's website. The ANT Message Protocol and Usage doc though will still explain how ANT and the features function, as this is common across all devices.      

Thanks for the fast response! I guess that makes sense (in a way) if the ANT Network Interface code is unique to that platform. But, from a newbie perspective, I expected that the module manufacturer, Dynastream in this case, would have it in their SDK.

Does this mean that profiles are developed uniquely for each platform rather than using a common interface?

Tom

     

There is an N5 Starter Kit SDK which adds reference examples for the N5 series module, but for simplicity it's typically easier to point to just one source for the API as there are various different manufacturers of chipsets which support ANT.

Each manufacturer can interpret differently what each command should be named for their own platform, or could build additional features which can affect the usage of the protocol (such as variable channel count in the latest S210/S310 SoftDevice).

However, the ANT Protocol and how the functions operate do not differ between chipsets, thus there is typically a common network interface to every chip regardless of the manufacturer; Nordic Semiconductor, TI, Mobile Phone/Tablet chip manufacturers, etc. In the N5 Starter Kit SDK there is a "Network Processor" hex file which will emulate the common serial command interface seen on the TI/Nordic based C7, AT3, AP1, AP2, etc modules/chipsets. Internally that code calls different function names, but the actual behaviour of those functions remain the same.

Correct, profiles must be developed for each platform rather than a common interface, though the N5 is the first ANT SoC, and all other devices have been network processors which used the common ANT Serial Interface.      

Ah, ok, that this is the first SOC makes sense - it's hard to generalize when there's only one

Thanks for the explanation. I have no doubt I'll be back!

Now, to wade through the eclipse/gcc development tool mire...

Tom