Simultaneous use of WiFi and Bluetooth

Hi,

I am developing a hardware and software platform based on your Verdin Mini/TorizonCore/.NET products and toolchain. I have a potential application that will require simultaneous Bluetooth and WiFi connection - Bluetooth to some sensors and WiFi to the cloud. Is this possible using only the on-board radio module on the Verdin Mini SoM? If so is it realistic and practical, or am I likely to bump my head up against any hardware and/or software limitations?

I’m not looking for any detail at the moment, I just need to know if it is something I can confidently assume will be doable.

Thanks for your input.
Peter

Greetings @bcpberry,

I see a couple of possible issues here that may affect you.

First of all, simultaneous WiFi and Bluetooth is a use-case that is known to be “problematic”. That is to say, it “should” work but it doesn’t work well from what we and other customers have observed. Now it could work well enough for your use-case but that’s hard to say without testing it yourself.

The second issue, is that Bluetooth has some known issues when running on TorizonCore specifically. For example we’ve noted that trying to connect to a typical cell phone via Bluetooth doesn’t work for a currently unknown reason. Again though this might work just fine to connect with your sensors.

All in all, there are known issues currently on the driver/software level, but it is possible that things may work. It’s honestly hard for me to say, as it’s very use-case dependent from what I understand.

As for your use-case it sounds like just bluetooth connection to some servers for data-gathering than using WiFi for external connection. Or is there more to it than that?

Best Regards,
Jeremias

Hi @jeremias.tx,

Thanks for that fast response, and honest answers to my questions. What you say is not at all surprising, and is pretty much what I was expecting, but it is very useful to me to have you verify that - thank you.

The application is conceptually fairly simple - a black box with connections to multiple sensors, some wired, some Bluetooth, some processing in the black box, and then connection of the black box to the cloud.

Based on what you say say, I am looking at a Verdin module on a custom carrier board, with the on board radio doing the WiFi and nothing else. For the wireless sensors I’ll put a dedicated Bluetooth module on the carrier board connected to one of the Verdin serial interfaces.

If you have any advice or recommendations regarding such a scenario I would be very interested - particularly if you are aware of any existing carrier board that may meet this need.

Thanks again, all the best,
Peter

For the wireless sensors I’ll put a dedicated Bluetooth module on the carrier board connected to one of the Verdin serial interfaces.

This approach sounds feasible.

If you have any advice or recommendations regarding such a scenario I would be very interested - particularly if you are aware of any existing carrier board that may meet this need.

None of our off-the-shelf carrier boards would be fitting for this since they just rely on the on-module WiFi/BT chip. However, we do have a list of hardware peripherals (including Bluetooth) that have been seen to work on our products by either us or other customers: Peripheral Devices

This could be helpful for you in terms of finding an alternative hardware for Bluetooth. Though in the end you’ll of course need to test it against your use case.

Best Regards,
Jeremias

@jeremias.tx Thanks for the input, and the peripheral devices link. Very helpful.

Best regards,
Peter

Glad I was able to assist.