Monat: November 2011

What is ANT+ and what can you do with it and a MSP430 + Android ?

ANT+ Between MSP430 and Android

„Smartphones are equipped with dizzying array of wireless communication capabilities.   Some of these features just go totally unnoticed. One such wireless communication protocol is called ANT+. A friend of mine wanted to make a working prototype of an idea he had using ANT+ technology. While there are other mcu’s (read atmega/arduino) already had some libraries and code written for communicating against ANT+, it wasn’t enough for me.

  • Most of the existing code only worked as a slave, where it just tried to receive data sent by Garmin Heart Strap.
  • This slave implementation was only on either arduino or PC (python and C)

What I was more interested in was to leverage the ANT+ radio to not just receive data, but also send data. I wanted the mcu to interact with the world and use ANT+ to transmit data to my cellphone, for example.“

http://jbremnant.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/ant-between-msp430-and-android/

What is ANT ?

„ANT™ is a proven protocol and silicon solution for ultra-low power practical wireless networking applications.  Designed for 2.4 GHz operation, ANT is perfectly suited for any kind of low data rate sensor network topologies in personal area networks (PANs) and practical wireless sensor networks (WSN).

ANT has been intentionally engineered to simplify practical wireless network development and optimize network efficiency.  ANT-powered network nodes can operate for years on a coin cell battery compared to months for other technologies.  Rich in capabilities, ANT provides reliable data communications, flexible and adaptive network  operation and cross-talk immunity. “

http://www.thisisant.com/pages/technology/what-is-ant

Today was the first time I realized this technology. It’s definitly worth further investigation.