ANT wireless: Difference between revisions

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What's the difference between ANT and ANT+?
What's the difference between ANT and ANT+?
== Protocol spec ==
https://www.thisisant.com/assets/resources/ANT%20Protocol/D00000652_ANT_Message_Protocol_and_Usage_Rev_5.1.pdf


== Some ANT features ==
== Some ANT features ==
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From Garmin
From Garmin
* Heart rate monitor (HRM) chest straps.
* Heart rate monitor (HRM) chest straps. I have one of these.
* Shoe pods. This is an accelerometer that can be clipped to your shoelaces.
* Shoe pods. This is an accelerometer that can be clipped to your shoelaces. I have one of these.
* Bicycle speed and rpm (cadence) sensors.
* Bicycle speed and rpm (cadence) sensors. I have 2 of these.
* Temperature sensor (Garmin "Tempe"), I have one of these.


=== Interfaces ===
=== Interfaces ===


List price for a stick from Garmin is $50; you can get one for $35 from Sparkfun.  
List price for a stick from Garmin is $50; Sparkfun has various breakout boards for < $20.
 
The [https://www.thisisant.com/developer/components/antusb2 Garmin (Dynastream) version] that I have is in a plastic housing and uses a Nordic chip that requires a special USB driver.  


The Garmin version is in a plastic housing and uses a Nordic chip that requires a special USB driver. The Sparkfun version is a bare board with an FTDI serial-USB converter so a generic serial driver will work with it. The bare board also gives you direct access to the RX/TX serial signals from the Nordic chip. Sparkfun also has several breakout boards in the $20 range which means it should be pretty easy to build your own sensors.
This [https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13990 Sparkfun board] with the Nordic nRF52832 breakout board which includes an ARM processor, and the same board also does BLE and NFC.


ANT chips are made by Nordic Semiconductor and Texas Instruments.
ANT chips are made by Nordic Semiconductor and Texas Instruments.

Latest revision as of 04:16, 28 December 2016

ANT is used to implement wireless sensor networks.

ANT is used by Garmin for its heart rate monitors and several other products including the sensor for bicycle speed and rpm and its shoe pod to count steps.

I have one of the HRMs. I got my sister-in-law one of the shoe pod based pedometers for X-mas.

FoxtrotGPS and TangoGPS have support for the HRM now.

What's the difference between ANT and ANT+?

Protocol spec

https://www.thisisant.com/assets/resources/ANT%20Protocol/D00000652_ANT_Message_Protocol_and_Usage_Rev_5.1.pdf

Some ANT features

  • It uses very little power, a sensor can run up to 4 years on a 2032 button cell.
  • Hundreds of sensors can be supported in an ANT network.
  • Any node can be either a master or a slave.

Available hardware

Off the shelf sensors

From Garmin

  • Heart rate monitor (HRM) chest straps. I have one of these.
  • Shoe pods. This is an accelerometer that can be clipped to your shoelaces. I have one of these.
  • Bicycle speed and rpm (cadence) sensors. I have 2 of these.
  • Temperature sensor (Garmin "Tempe"), I have one of these.

Interfaces

List price for a stick from Garmin is $50; Sparkfun has various breakout boards for < $20.

The Garmin (Dynastream) version that I have is in a plastic housing and uses a Nordic chip that requires a special USB driver.

This Sparkfun board with the Nordic nRF52832 breakout board which includes an ARM processor, and the same board also does BLE and NFC.

ANT chips are made by Nordic Semiconductor and Texas Instruments.

Resources

Official information site: http://thisisant.com/

A sample including python on Linux to read an ANT USB stick: http://opensource.quarq.us/ant_usb2_stick/

As mentioned above you can buy chips and breakout boards and USB sticks at good prices from Sparkfun Electronics