Perhaps ANT as a wireless alternative ?

john_s · 2011-09-21 21:49

Now that a p-wireless is EOL perhaps there's some merit to look into ANT
http://www.thisisant.com/products as an alternative....

I'd be glad to hear form anybody who's already familiar with ANT devices.

Thanks,
John

Tracy Allen · 2011-09-22 00:55

I waxed enthusiastic about ANT after meeting a rep ensconced in the Nordic booth at the embedded systems conference a couple of years ago. At the time I had a project that needed something like that, namely very long life on low power. The protocol is another one built on 802.15.4, but highly proprietary and you have to pay $$$ to play. At the time (I don't know about now), the main apps for ANT were in personal area networks, such as to relay information from your tennis shoes and your heart over to your watch or your trainer. I thought at the time, wouldn't that be a nice way for Parallax to get into bio-sensors, without the implications of wiring up a body. Just buy off the shelf ANT compatible devices and listen in. But it doesn't work that way. It is definitely not an open protocol, not for hobbyists or academics. Also, the available ANT modules had limited ADC and counter channels, little programmable, but if it fit the mold, then it could easily be plug and play, after you pay. In the meantime, my own project ended up using XBees. Texas Instruments now has their system too, e.g., the Chronos watch, that is or will give competition to ANT and is far more flexible and available to everybody, albeit a steeper learning curve.

john_s · 2011-09-22 09:13

So I cross ANT off from my lousy crystal ball prediction and concentrate on what you and Gian plan to surprise us with Prop and a wireless of your choice.
In the meantime I will contact ANT directly and report my findings...

Tracy Allen · 2011-09-22 10:41

Pop over an see them! They are located just outside Calgary.

I wouldn't write them off. Their IP is a unique protocol stack and mesh/timing scheme that is quite different from others. I misspoke when I said it was build on top of 802.15.4 Phy layer. It appears to be unique at that level too. They are now a subsidiary of Garmin and their firmware runs on both the Nordic and the TI silicon.

john_s · 2011-09-22 10:47

I will... and report my findings.

p.s. they're NOT 25 but 31km from my place :-)

Tracy Allen · 2011-09-24 09:49

It looks like a lot of synergy has been taking place. I ran across an ad from Panasonic for their PAN1327 that combines both ANT and Bluetooth in one module. The footprint, including antenna, is less than one square cm. One of the stumbling blocks I ran into a couple of years ago was how to bridge over from ANT to a mobile phone, and the options at the time seemed quite murky. This new chip is positioned as a bridge. The bluetooth is dual mode, i.e., both new low power and old fashioned standard for a tradeoff between compatibility and power consumption. The product is a collaboration with TI. It has a TI CC2567 at its core, and the dev kit is (or will be, no price listed) sold by TI. Not surprisingly, support is focused around the MSP430.

john_s · 2011-09-24 13:03

Very interesting link to that Panasonic site. I'll have something to ask about when visiting ANT folks in Cochrane. Ultra low power... hmmmm.
I remember how impressed I was with BS2 sleep mode and 27uA and your findings with solution on how to achieve it reliably every time (without knowing why I 'discovered' it on my own and kept patching my code to achieve the same by moving some 'extra' commands around, why you found and explained the real reason why).

We're probably talking around single uA this time with TI uC and what they call "practical wireless sensor networks (WSN's)".

Perhaps ANT as a wireless alternative ?

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