Reference design simplifies Bluetooth smart remote development

4th January 2016

Jordan Mulcare

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Nordic Semiconductor announces it has launched its latest 'nRFready Smart Remote 3' reference design that is said to make the development of advanced Bluetooth smart remotes as easy as clicking on a list of check box options and so minimising time-to-market and unnecessary design risk.

Targeting remote control OEMs/ODMs and smart TV, set-top box, and digital media device manufacturers, the nRFready Smart Remote 3 reference design is designed to deliver a rich, intuitive, and engaging end-user experience. It employs state-of-the-art voice input and speech recognition control, a 6-axis motion sensing 'Air-mouse', multi-touch trackpad technology, plus 39 developer-programmable buttons and legacy IR hardware support (to control IR-only products).

"One area we have worked hard to really further optimise is the voice input control," explains John Leonard, Product Marketing Manager, Nordic Semiconductor. "This includes developing an even more robust wireless link for wireless audio data and 20% better current consumption compared to Nordic's previous nRFready Smart Remote 2 solution."

Leonard claims that developing advanced Bluetooth Smart remotes using the nRFready Smart Remote 3 reference design has been made "check-box-clicking" easy thanks to a newly-developed configuration Wizard that works in the Keil development environment.

"The Wizard and underlying software is built in a modular format that has refined the developer element down to a list of check-boxes that allow every parameter of the remote to be configured and fine-tuned," explains Leonard. "This includes large chunk function decisions such as whether to employ a track-pad or motion sensing, down to specifying the number of milliseconds it takes for the remote to wake-up from sleep mode."

In operation, the nRFready Smart Remote 3 reference design employs Nordic's nRF51822 System-on-Chip (SoC) and so is designed to work as an add-on for Nordic's existing nRF51 Development Kit (DK). An nRF51 DK is required to use this reference design but is not included and must be purchased separately. The add-on contains all the external sensor devices that can interface with the nRF51 DK.

Additionally, there is a complete product example remote control included in the kit which can be used directly for evaluation, testing, and demonstration. All necessary firmware and host software (including support for Linux) is provided to implement a full design at both ends of the application.