Experimental: ANT Frequency Agility

This example requires the following SoftDevice: S212

Important: Before you run this example, make sure to program the SoftDevice.

The ANT Frequency Agility example is designed to showcase the ability of ANT to move to a different RF channel when RF interference occurs, potentially improving the quality of service for point-to-point ANT connections in noisy RF environments. When the RF connection is lost, the ANT protocol on both the master and slave endpoints hops according to the RF channel list defined by the application.

You can use this example in one of the following ways:

• with one development board and one ANT USB stick connected to the PC application ANTware,
  

  ANT Frequency Agility example with ANTware
• with two development boards.
  

  ANT Frequency Agility example with two development boards

Testing

Note: You can use a custom channel or encryption when running any of the ANT examples. When adding a new channel or encryption, remember to update SoftDevice ANT event handler configuration.

You can test the ANT Frequency Agility example in the following ways:

• Testing the Transmitter using ANTware II
• Testing the Transmitter with the Receiver

Testing the Transmitter using ANTware II

1. Compile and program the Transmitter application on a board.
2. Run ANTware II. Select your ANT PC dongle (for example, ANTUSB-m) from the available devices. Configure the device channel by loading the device profile configuration from the following file: <InstallFolder>\examples\ant\experimental\ant_frequency_agility\ant_frequency_agility_tx\ant_frequency_agility_tx_test.xml. Alternatively, you can configure the device channels manually:
   1. Set the channel assignment to slave and select frequency agility.
   2. Set the channel ID according to the following table:

      Parameter	Value
      Device number	0
      Device type	3
      Transmission type	5

   3. Keep the default values for all other settings.
3. Click Auto-Open.
4. Once the slave endpoint acquires the master (indicated by receiving broadcasts in the ANTware Log window), you can begin to test the buttons and LEDs on the board.
5. Open the Simulation tab on the right-hand side of the ANTware application.
6. Modify the Respond With field to either of these values:

   TX Buffer Value	Description
   01-00-00-00-00-00-00-FE	Turns on BSP_LED_0 on the board.
   01-00-00-00-00-00-00-FD	Turns on BSP_LED_1 on the board.
   01-00-00-00-00-00-00-FB	Turns on BSP_LED_2 on the board.
   01-00-00-00-00-00-00-F7	Turns on BSP_LED_3 on the board.

7. Select the Auto Send Response to Received Msgs check box, responding to Acknowledged messages.

ANTware will now respond with its own message every time it receives an ANT broadcast message to control the LEDs on the board. The buttons on the board allow you to modify the contents of the broadcast messages that are transmitted to ANTware.

Testing the Transmitter with the Receiver

1. Compile and program the Transmitter application on a board.
2. Compile and program the Receiver application on a board.
3. Press the buttons on one of the nodes to control the state of the LEDs on the other node.