BC832, Micro BLE 5.3 Module for Wearable IoTs

BC832 is a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 5.3 with NFC module using Nordic nRF52832 SoC. A chip antenna is integrated.

Size of this micro module is 7.8x8.8x1.3mm. It has 16 castellated pins for applications needing limited number of GPIOs. Additional 20 LGA (Land Grid Array) pins provide access to all nRF52832 GPIO pins.

Specifications

Nordic nRF52832 CIAA with ARM Cortex M4F
512 KB flash, 64 KB RAM
Complete RF solution with integrated antenna
NFC-A tag interface for Out Of Band pairing
128-bit AES HW encryption
Serial Wire Debug (SWD)
Nordic SoftDevice Ready
Over-The-Air (OTA) firmware update

Up to 30 GPIOs, firmware configurable and Peripherals

12 bit/200KSps ADC, 8 configurable channels with programmable gain
Type 2 near field communication (NFC-A) tag
64 level comparator
15 level low power comparator with wake-up from system OFF mode
Temperature sensor
3x 4-channel pulse width modulator (PWM) units with EasyDMA
Digital microphone interface (PDM)
5x 32 bit timers with counter mode
Up to 3x SPI Master/Slave with Easy DMA
Up to 2x I2C compatible 2-wire master/slave
I2S with EasyDMA
UART (CTS/RTS) with EasyDMA
Programmable peripheral interconnect (PPI)
Quadrature Demodulator (QDEC)
AES HW encryption with EasyDMA
Autonomous peripheral operation without CPU intervention using PPI and Easy DMA
3x real time counter (RTC)
BC832: production will continue, not recommended for a new design.
BC832-p: uses a nRF52832 CIAA G to support approtect. This module is for all new designs.

Power:

Operation voltage: 1.7V to 3.6V
Peak current: 5.4 mA RX, 5.3 mA TX at 0 dBm.
0.4 uA OFF mode, 1.8 uA idle

RF Performance

RX sensitivity: -96 dBm
TX power: -20 to +4 dBm in 4 dB steps
Line of Sight Range: 50 meters (150 feet).

Miscellaneous

Sizes: 7.8x8.8x1.3mm
Operation Temperature: -40°C to +85°C
Integrated shield to resist EMI

Certifications:

FCC ID: X8WBC832
IC (Industrial Canada) ID: 4100A-BC832
Europe: Compliant
Japan (TELEC): 201-200838/00
QDID: 97989

Measuring Bluetooth Ranges in Mesh Networks

Bluetooth Mesh Evaluation board is preloaded with mesh protocol testing firmware. Up to 65536 nodes are supported. Each node can be addressed and controlled by smartphone.

Bluetooth range between a pair of BC832 is shorter than between a phone and a BC832. A different firmware is required to measure the range between a pair of BC832.

Measuring BC832 Bluetooth range with a smartphone

Procedures for measuring Bluetooth ranges.

Download BlueNor Mesh User Manual from the DOWNLOAD section below.
Download BlueNor Mesh APK from Google Play Store.
Follow Procedures to Send Message in Mesh Network in the manual.
Test for the maximum range to receive an ACK from node A.

Enclosure of final product will reduce Bluetooth range. Interference from other wireless sources, walls, and other physical objects will also reduce Bluetooth range. Bluetooth range in end user environment will be shorter.

Datasheets, certificates, evaluation board schematics are available for download.

Evaluation Board EV BC832

EV BC832 is preloaded with BlueNor nRF5x application and SoftDevice S132 V5.0.0 Bluetooth 5 stacks. It can be used with Android app BlueNor nrf5x available at Google Play Store. You can send commands from an Android phone to toggle LED light on evaluation board. You can also send button pressing signal from evaluation board to Android device.

SDK and Android app source codes are available for download in the Bluetooth 5 Codes section of Download BlueNor Document. Other application codes can be downloaded from the same webpage.

To load other codes or to develop your own, a Nordic nRF52 DK is required but not included.