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Getting Started with ANT Development in Embedded Systems

This is a start-up guide for ANT development in embedded systems. It lists the hardware requirements as well as the resources available for developing ANT enabled embedded applications. Moreover, this guide provides reference design examples on how to implement ANT in embedded systems.

ANT is a wireless protocol ideal for ultra low power networking applications. ANT chip and module network processor solutions contain the ANT protocol stack and offer a serial interface to an external application micro-controller. The external micro-controller will contain the custom application code, along with the serial drivers and configuration messaging to interface to ANT.

Contents of an ANT Node

Each node in an ANT network consists of an ANT protocol engine and a host controller (MCU). The ANT engine encapsulates the complexity of establishing and maintaining ANT connections and channel operation within its firmware. The host controller is thus free to handle the particulars of an application with only a limited burden in initiating ANT communications to other nodes, which it does via a simple serial interface between host and ANT engine; please refer to figure 4-1 in page 8 of 'ANT Message Protocol and Usage' document for more details.

Note:
IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO LOAD CUSTOM CODE ON ANT CHIP AND MODULE SOLUTIONS; AN EXTERNAL MICRO-CONTROLLER IS REQUIRED TO RUN APPLICATION CODE with the exception of SensRcore on AT3

ANT requires minimal resources in the application micro-controller. Basic ANT connectivity can be enabled with less than 1 kB code space and an Asynchronous or Synchronous serial interface. Micro-controller choice is up to the developer, and driven by the requirements of the application.

Requirements

1) ANT development kit
2) External Micro-controller*
3) Code Composer/IAR Embedded Workbench

*An interface board may be required to connect the ANT engine to the micro-controller depending on the choice of the micro-controller

USB Driver Installation

To use the USB interface boards in the ANT development kit, you will need to install ANT USB1 Driver. For instructions on how to install USB driver, refer to ‘ANT Development Kit User Manual’ document here:
http://www.thisisant.com/pages/developer-zone/development-kit-manual

You can verify that the USB driver installation is successful by connecting the USB interface board; with an ANT module mounted on it, to a PC. The USB board will be listed in the Device Manager as a Universal Serial Bus controller. Also, the name of the device will be displayed as ‘USB ANT USBXpress Device’.

Related Documents

It is important to read the following documents to facilitate ANT development in embedded systems:

1) ANT Message Protocol and Usage
2) Interfacing with ANT General Purpose Chipsets and Modules
3) ANT Development Kit User Manual

Familiarizing with the ANT Protocol

Any developer working with ANT should be familiar with the concept of an ANT channel, the basic building block of all ANT networks. As such, it is highly recommended to review and understand the "ANT Message Protocol and Usage" document, available in the Developer Zone here
http://www.thisisant.com/pages/developer-zone/ant-protocol-and-usage

Sections 1 - 5 of this document provide an overview of the main features and functionality of the protocol, and are an essential resource for understanding ANT. The rest of the document describes in detail the messaging interface for configuring channels and exchanging messages with ANT. While it is not necessary to dive into the later sections of the document initially, you will need to refer to those sections frequently during your development.

Additionally, the ANT Basics presentation (~ 1 hr) provides an introduction to the technical details of ANT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw-_UGjER1I&feature=player_embedded

To gain hands-on experience with ANT, we recommend next to get familiar with ANTwareII. ANTWareII is a GUI application used for the control of ANT devices, and it is an excellent resource to explore the capabilities of ANT. AntwareII can be used to setup ANT channels and experiment with ANT’s multiple configuration commands. This application, along with its user guide, can be downloaded from the Developer Zone of the website.
http://www.thisisant.com/pages/developer-zone/software-tools
[img size=600]http://www.thisisant.com/images/fbfiles/images/antware.png[/img]

Interfacing ANT to an External Micro-controller

‘Interfacing with ANT General Purpose Chipsets and Modules’ is a key document that ANT developers need when developing embedded applications using ANT. This document details the interfacing requirements to connect ANT to an external micro-controller, and describes the Synchronous and Asynchronous serial interface modes.

‘ANT Message Protocol and Usage’ document describes in detail all the serial messages that can be used to configure ANT. It is highly recommended to use ANTwareII to get familiar with the features of the protocol and format of the messages. The debug logs generated by this application can be very valuable reference when creating an embedded implementation.

Reference Design Examples

1) ANT Embedded Reference Designs:

You can find sample embedded code for the MSP430 micro-controller here:
http://www.thisisant.com/pages/ant/ant-embedded-reference-code

These examples will help you learn how to communicate with the ANT engine, configure an ANT channel and transmit/receive data. There is also a user manual for the reference designs, gerber files and schematics for creating an interface board. Also, these reference designs are created using IAR Embedded Workbench so downloading the KickStart edition will enable you to use the reference designs.

Note:
These reference designs implement only 'bit synchronous' serial interface communication

2) ANT+ Embedded Reference Designs:

You can find embedded implementations of ANT+ device profiles and ANT-FS client for the MSP430 micro-controller here:
http://www.thisisant.com/pages/ant/ant-embedded-reference-designs
http://www.thisisant.com/pages/ant/ant-fs-specification

These reference designs are created using the free edition of Code Composer Studio.

Note:
These reference designs implement 'bit synchronous', 'byte synchronous' and 'asynchronous' serial interface communication

The figure below shows ANT/micro-controller connectivity for the ANT-FS embedded client reference design.
[img size=840]http://www.thisisant.com/images/fbfiles/images/New_Image.PNG[/img]