**Indoor Positioning System with Bluetooth 5.1 Modules**

I recently acquired two Bluetooth 5.1 modules, the NINA-B411, and built around them as an indoor positioning system. Both of these boards are being used together to determine where the tracker boards are located because they use Angle of Arrival technology by measuring the phase shift between the different antennas on the board.

To understand this better, I think it's best to demonstrate it; but in order to get there, I had to go through quite a few steps which involved installing the s-center software, uploading the correct firmware to not only one big board but also one small board and then powering everything. Summarized, this sounds like a quick process but all in all it took me around 2 hours.

As you can see, this blue LED blinks meaning the tracker is sending out data and the receiver board is spitting out messages over the serial monitor meaning the system works. Now first off, I used the Graphical User Interface of the given software to confirm that the azimuth angle and elevation angle changed according to where I positioned the tracker and as you can see this worked perfectly fine.

At this point, we could use this information to track the position of the transmitter in my house on a map which is an application that is already out there, but I was not able to test it. Instead, I wanted to take the angle information from the serial monitor and feed it into a servo system which then in theory should always point to the tracker.

But then I sadly realized that I am not a very good programmer because I had to think of how to pull this off with processing and the Arduino IDE. But then I remembered that ChatGPT can help you with programming and thus I am now a very talented programmer that solved this problem in 15 minutes.

After hooking up some hardware to the Arduino and positioning everything correctly, it was time for the first big test and I am happy to report that this servo system worked pretty much immediately the way I imagined it. So yeah, this Bluetooth Positioning System is definitely very promising for tons of applications; only problem right now is the price of the dev kit.

But I bet cheaper PCB designs will pop up sooner or later so definitely look out for that. And last but not least we got this development kit here from Crocus which after unpacking comes with 4 identical PCBs that have a big copper bus bar on top.

When removing that, we can see the CT452 IC underneath which can basically measure the magnetic flux density next to it and convert that into an analog voltage. So when powering the board and measuring its output voltage, we can see a normal value of 1.65V which quickly changes when I bring a magnet close.

Now of course this magnet is a complete overkill since its magnetic flux density of 380mT is way too much for the 6mT limit of the IC. No, measuring magnets is not the goal; instead, this IC is used to measure current because that also creates a magnetic field.

So far when it comes to measuring current I either used an IC that measures the voltage drop across a low-value resistor or I used a current clamp which also measures the magnetic flux density but obviously it has to be placed around a wire. But with this solution you can really just have the wire going next to the IC; in theory at least, because of course when you move the wire around, the magnetic field changes as well as the output voltage.

That is why the PCB comes with either PCB traces you can use or a Bus Bar which yes; does require to cut the wire. I got to say that I was very happy with the test results of this thing because while pushing up to 20A next to it, the output voltage was stable, repeatable and very linear even when reversing the current direction.

But keep in mind that the voltage change is pretty small when measuring smaller currents because this thing can handle 75A or even 300A with its bus bar. So when for example measuring a small fluctuating current, then you always have to look out for noise and preferably come up with a low-noise amplifier circuit.

But other than that, the IC does its job like intended and I was very happy to learn about this method of measuring current. And with that, my dev board haul is complete and it was certainly fun for me and I hope I gave you a good overview of what these newest ICs are capable of.

If you want to see more then feel free to post your suggestions in the comment section below and huge thanks to my Patreon supporters who actually voted for these 4 boards. As always, thanks for watching, don't forget to like, share, subscribe, and hit the notification bell. Stay creative and I will see you next time.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enNow this is an IC aka integrated circuit andthere are dozens of them out there which cando dozens of different things and thus canbe used for dozens of different circuits.And I feel like everyday new ones with greaterand better technology get released which youknow sounds awesome at first; but then yourealize that most of them need a couple ofcomplementary parts around them to work anddue to the popular SMD package nowadays, youare often times forced to design and makea custom PCB for them.That is a ton of work to test just one IC.But it doesn't have to be this way becauseon Mouser Electronics you can find developmentboards for the newest ICs; ready to properlytest them.And in this video I will do just that with4 of them, that come with some incredibletechnology and features you might not haveseen yet.Let's get started!This video is sponsored by Mouser Electronicswho not only offer all the newest electronicscomponents and development boards, that Ihave been ordering for years now; but theyalso recently created awesome reference guidesthat you can use to get a very good overviewabout a certain topic or component.So check them out through the link in thevideo description.And also a special thanks to Ublox, one ofMouser's electronics suppliers, for providingthe very interesting XPLR-AOA-2 Explorer Kitused in this video.Now the first dev board is a perfect exampleof why such dev boards do exist.Because if we look at the datasheet of theTLE9563 IC that is used here, then we get275 pages of explanation, pinout diagramsand application diagrams that we would haveto turn into a proper functional PCB design.But thankfully this board is already functionaland comes with a way shorter documentationmade up of only 22 pages.Oh and by the way; this board is a BLDC MotorControl Shield for the Arduino.I got interested in it because when it comesto controlling BLDC motors, that I do loveto use for various projects, you frequentlyhave to settle with such a generic ElectronicSpeed Controller.Now don't get me wrong, they do work finemost of the time; but all you can basicallyinput is a servo signal which then dictateshow much power goes into the motor and thushow fast it spins.This RPM is not constant though when a loadgets attached, you can not reverse and orfine adjust safety parameters.But if you want those features then the mostpopular option is a VESC, which let me tellyou works beautifully, but they are kind ofpricey.This dev board though only costs half of thatand according to its documentation shouldbe customizable with its settings as well.So let's get testing which we can either dowith the uIO stick or the Arduino Board.And I started out with the uIO Stick whichwas definitely not cheap to get.But after hooking it up, as well as a powersource and a BLDC motor; I installed the requiredsoftware and was able to connect to the systemand oh boy this truly is a development environment.Now this software is not meant to get a motorspinning which mine also never did here.No; it is to fine adjust pretty much all availableelectrical details which honestly was a bittoo much for me at this point because it hasbeen a while since I worked with such ESCsystems.So let's unplug the stick and instead solderin header pins for an Arduino Uno which waseasier said then done because for some reasonmy soldering points were all closed up withsolder.So after lots of frustration and spendingone hour with the board, I finally got iton an Arduino Uno.But to make amends, the board comes with asuperb Arduino library tutorial where theyexplain what jumpers to put on, what libraryto install and how to write simple code.So after uploading the most basic examplesketch and controlling everything throughthe serial monitor; I was super happy to findout that the motor spins very smoothly, theRPM is adjustable, you can reverse and evenselect an RPM mode in which the system doesits best to hold the selected RPM even whena load gets attached, lovely.And of course the board also comes with ahall effect encoder input which makes themovement of the motor even more reliable.So all in all I had a difficult start withthis dev board; but it clearly showed me thatthis IC is awesome for BLDC motor control.And yes the VESC is still more suitable forthe end consumer especially with its GraphicalUser Interface, but this IC and Dev Boardwhose schematic by the way is available foreveryone to remake could certainly be a promisingalternative.Ok; moving on to the next dev board kit whichcomes with one big PCB and three small onesthat are build around the IQS231 IC whichis a Capacitive Proximity Touch Controllerwith movement detection.That sounds pretty fun; so let's simply grabone, push it in, plug in power and turn theboard on.And as you can see when I bring my fingerclose to the Sense Electrode, the LEDs nextto the IC start lighting up.Now the blue one means my finger is in proximityrange and the green LED indicates that therehas been movement or the electrode got touched.And I have to say this system did work superreliably while testing.But you might ask yourself now why this isspecial because there are already capacitivetouch sensor boards out there that work justfine.Well, the problem with those is that you reallyhave to touch them for triggering becausethey are not that sensitive.But with this dev board you can be centimetersaway which opens the door for many more applications.Now I am not exactly sure how they pull offthis increased sensitivity because they seemto simply measure as well how often the electrodecapacitance needs to get charged up.But hey it works well and according to itsdatasheet you can even fine tune lots of settingsvia I2C or this Communication port for whichI need a USBProg device.And I thought that I would have one layingaround, but sadly after testing all of them,no one wanted to work with the software givenby the manufacturer.But even without testing this feature I amstill very happy with this dev board and willkeep it in mind for future projects.Next we got my personal highlight from Ubloxwhich after unpacking, comes with 4 identicalbig PCBs and 4 smaller white boxes.Now the big PCBs definitely look impressivewith their lovely-looking traces and 5 antennapads on the back.But the small PCBs inside the white box alsolooked very lovely and are built around theNINA-B406, while the big PCBs were built aroundthe NINA-B411.Both of them are Bluetooth 5.1 modules andthey are being used here together as an indoorpositioning system.That means the antenna board can determinewhere the tracker boards are located becausethey use the Angle of Arrival technology bybasically measuring the phase shift betweenthe different antennas on the board.To understand it better, I think it is bestto demonstrate it; but in order to get thereI had to go through quite a few steps whichinvolved installing the s-center software,uploading the correct firmware to not onlyone big board; but also one small board andthen powering everything.Summarized this sounds like a quick processbut all in all it took me around 2 hours;but as you can see this blue LED blinks meaningthe tracker is sending out data and the receiverboard is spitting out messages over the serialmonitor meaning the system works.Now first off; I used the Graphical User Interfaceof the given software to confirm that theazimuth angle and elevation angle changedaccording to where I positioned the trackerand as you can see this worked perfectly fine.At this point we could use this informationto track the position of the transmitter inmy house on a map which is an applicationthat is already out there, but I was not ableto test it.Instead I wanted to take the angle informationfrom the serial monitor and feed it into aservo system which then in theory should alwayspoint to the tracker.But then I sadly realized that I am not avery good programmer because I had to ideahow to pull this off with processing and theArduino IDE.But then I remembered that ChatGPT can helpyou with programming and thus I am now a verytalented programmer that solved this problemin 15 minutes.So after hooking up some hardware to the Arduinoand positioning everything correctly, it wastime for the first big test and I am happyto report that this servo system worked prettymuch immediately the way I imagined it.So yeah, this Bluetooth Positioning Systemis definitely very promising for tons of applications;only problem right now is the price of thedev kit.But I bet cheaper PCB designs will pop upsooner or later so definitely look out forthat.And last but not least we got this developmentkit here from Crocus which after unpackingcomes with 4 identical PCBs that have a bigcopper bus bar on top.When removing that we can see the CT452 ICunderneath which can basically measure themagnetic flux density next to it and convertthat into an analog voltage.So when powering the board and measuring itsoutput voltage, we can see a normal valueof 1.65V which quickly changes when I bringa magnet close.Now of course this magnet is a complete overkillsince its magnetic flux density of 380mT isway too much for the 6mT limit of the IC.No, measuring magnets is not the goal; insteadthis IC is used to measure current becausethat also creates a magnetic field.So far when it comes to measuring currentI either used an IC that measures the voltagedrop across a low value resistor or I useda current clamp which also measures the magneticflux density; but obviously it has to be placedaround a wire.But with this solution you can really justhave the wire going next to the IC; in theoryat least, because of course when you movethe wire around, the magnetic field changesas well as the output voltage.That is why the PCB comes with either PCBtraces you can use or a Bus Bar which yes;does require to cut the wire.But I got to say that I was very happy withthe test results of this thing because whilepushing up to 20A next to it, the output voltagewas stable, repeatable and very linear evenwhen reversing the current direction.But keep in mind that the voltage change ispretty small when measuring smaller currentsbecause this thing can handle 75A or even300A with its bus bar.So when for example measuring a small fluctuatingcurrent, then you always have to look outfor noise and preferably come up with a lownoise amplifier circuit.But other than that, the IC does its job likeintended and I was very happy to learn aboutthis method of measuring current.And with that, my dev board haul is completeand it was certainly fun for me and I hopeI gave you a good overview of what these newestICs are capable of.If you want to see more then feel free topost your suggestions in the comment sectionbelow and huge thanks to my Patreon supporterswho actually voted for these 4 boards.As always thanks for watching, don't forgetto like, share, subscribe and hit the notificationbell.Stay creative and I will see you next time.