Category: Haowen’s Status Reports

Accomplishments

This week, I focused on setting up the development environment and checking the ANT-B10. I installed the nRF Connect SDK (v2.6+) and the required toolchain dependencies. I also spent time fixing local path and driver issues to get the environment working properly.

After receiving the u-blox ANT-B10 antenna array, I checked the board for any visible damage and powered it on through USB to make sure it was working. I also reviewed the datasheet to locate the SWD and UART pins for future connections. Finally, I ran basic checks to confirm that the development tools could compile and flash test programs successfully. I spent around 12 hours on SDK setup, troubleshooting, reading documentation, and initial hardware checks.

Schedule Status

On schedule. Since the material hasn’t arrived yet, this week was mainly spent getting the development environment ready and checking the board. This should make it easier to move on to wiring and communication tests next week.

Next Week’s Deliverables

1. Connect the external SWD programmer and USB-to-TTL adapter to the ANT-B10 board and check whether it produces stable serial output.
2. Establish UART communication at 115200 baud and test basic AT commands to confirm that the ANT-B10 responds correctly.
3. Set up the nRF-based tag to broadcast BLE packets at 20 Hz with Constant Tone Extension (CTE).
4. Configure the ANT-B10 to scan for and receive CTE packets from the tag.

Accomplishment

Focused on getting our basic development environment set up and making sure the physical boards work. Installed VS Code, nRF Connect SDK (v2.6+), and toolchain dependencies, spending a good chunk of time troubleshooting local path issues and drivers. Unboxed the u-blox ANT-B10 antenna array and RPi Pico WH, checked the boards for any physical defects, and powered them up via USB to confirm power LEDs were solid. Cross-referenced the ANT-B10 datasheet to identify the SWD and UART pin headers for future wiring. Ended the week by running a basic LED blink / Hello World sanity check on the boards to ensure neither came dead-on-arrival (DOA) and our local toolchains can compile binaries properly. Spent around 12 hours total across SDK setup, troubleshooting environment paths, reading datasheets, and initial board verification.

Schedule Status

On schedule. Materials arrived mid-week, so keeping this week focused on environment setup and basic check sets us up smoothly without rushing into complex wiring.

Next week’s deliverables

1. Wire up the external SWD programmer and USB-TTL adapter to the ANT-B10 bare board and confirm stable serial log output.

2. Set up the RPi Pico WH to broadcast 20 Hz BLE packets with CTE (Constant Tone Extension).

3. Flash the Nordic direction_finding RX sample to the ANT-B10 and check for raw angle output over UART.

Executive Summary

This week, I conducted in-depth feasibility research on our BLE 5.1/5.2 Angle of Arrival (AoA) tracking pipeline, clarified the system data flow across team roles, and validated the hardware stack integration plan for our incoming components.

By offloading raw microwave-frequency switching and phase demodulation directly to dedicated silicon, we confirmed a low-complexity architecture that avoids sub-nanosecond FPGA timing constraints while delivering reliable angle metrics.

Key Accomplishments This Week

1. Architecture Research & Technical Feasibility

• Silicon-Level AoA Offloading: Researched the Nordic nRF5340 + u-blox ANT-B10 hardware pipeline. Confirmed that the nRF5340 Network Core executes CTE (Constant Tone Extension) I/Q sampling natively in silicon via Nordic’s direction_finding_connectionless_rx SDK module, outputting processed scalar angles over UART rather than raw high-frequency RF vectors.
• Comparative Trade-off Analysis: Evaluated alternative approaches (e.g., direct FPGA RF sampling and UWB). Concluded that 2.4 GHz BLE AoA using our off-the-shelf kit provides the optimal balance of power, cost, and reduced timing complexity for a water/poolside environment.

2. System Data Flow & Team Alignment

• Wearable vs. Base Station Setup: Clarified the hardware topology across Signal, Hardware, and Software sub-teams:
  • Wearable Tag (Swimmer): A lightweight transmitter (Pico + BLE radio emitting standard CTE frames) with no heavy compute overhead.
  • Base Station (Poolside): Fixed u-blox ANT-B10 8-antenna array connected to the nRF5340-DK, streaming angle scalars over a 3-wire hardware UART link (TX, RX, GND) at 115200 baud to the processing core.
• Multipath Noise Strategy: Designed a two-stage embedded filtering pipeline (Median Filter for splash outlier removal + Moving Average for trajectory smoothing) to mitigate surface water reflections.

3. Development Setup Preparation

• Unboxed arriving hardware components (nRF5340-DK, u-blox ANT-B10, Pico WH) and prepped the nRF Connect SDK environment for VS Code.

Next Week’s Goals (Planned Tasks)

1. Hardware Benchmarking & “Hello World” Test: Assemble the ANT-B10 board onto the nRF5340-DK, flash the official SDK sample code, and verify raw Azimuth/Elevation scalar outputs via a serial terminal during walking tests.
2. UART Pipeline Integration: Wire the nRF5340-DK to the Pico WH over hardware UART and establish basic packet receiving logic.
3. Draft UART Packet Protocol: Define the binary/JSON payload structure for streaming filtered coordinates downstream to the Software team’s dashboard.

Accomplishments

• Reviewed the finalized NRF24L01+ wireless module datasheet and documentation to identify power, RF, and integration requirements.
• Researched antenna placement and enclosure thickness guidelines to inform the wireless enclosure design.
• Identified key power and RF considerations, including the 3.3V supply requirement, power stabilization, RF channel matching, and Wi-Fi interference avoidance.

Progress / Next Steps

• Finalized the wireless module selection and established baseline electrical/RF requirements.
• Use the identified antenna and enclosure constraints to evaluate candidate enclosure materials and dimensions.
• Next, prototype the wireless module in the proposed enclosure and validate communication reliability and range.

Deliverables

• Documented NRF24L01+ module specifications and integration requirements.
• Compiled preliminary antenna placement and enclosure design guidelines.
• Established initial wireless design constraints:
  • Supply voltage: 3.3V
  • Power stabilization: 10 µF capacitor across VCC and GND
  • RF configuration: Matching channels between transmitter and receiver
  • Interference: Avoid RF channels 2–4 due to overlap with common Wi-Fi bands