Due to the corona I've been searching for some new projects and hobbies, and one of them would be to start a new arduino project.
I have several things I would like to try. One would be to measure temperature and humidity in the house. A light sensor would be cool as well, as I have some projects in mind related to my plants at home.
If that would work well, I would like as well to give it a try and control my IKEA tradfri light bulbs with an arduino. The motion sensor would play a cool role here.
It would be interesting as well if I could power it somehow with a normal usb charger.
I have experience coding in R, python and javascript as I'm a data scientist. But aside of that I've never worked with any arduino like stuff.
I've been googling and trying to search for sources on where to start, but there's way too much to know where exactly to start.
My questions are:
- Is the Arduino 33 BLE Sense a good option for the projects I want? Or would it be better to start with a simpler board and add some sensors to it?
- Can I just power it by plugging it to an USB charger like the ones used to power an iPhone?
- Can I use this to control a IKEA tradfri lamp or set of lamps?
I'm really sorry if some questions here sound basic but I've never played with anything like this.
Thank you
Hi, you asked three good questions.
Is the Arduino 33 BLE Sense a good option for the projects I want? Or would it be better to start with a simpler board and add some sensors to it?
Yes, it is a good option for the projects you want as the sensors are pre-installed, so not much can go wrong with poor or wrong connections between the board and sensors. You also have the option to add other sensors to it later (and face the challenge of wiring it up correctly).
However, this is a new addition to the Arduino family so you could still find issues with libraries and functionality due to unknown or known software bugs that have yet to be resolved. So if this is a worry then it is better to start with an older product which is more mature.
Can I just power it by plugging it to an USB charger like the ones used to power an iPhone?
Yes, if you are not adding additional sensors to the board. If new sensors are added then you have to do the math and figure out total power consumption etc.
Can I use this to control a IKEA tradfri lamp or set of lamps?
I believe IKEA use Zigbee for their smart wireless products and the nRF25840 Nordic chip used on the nano 33 sense board has the capability of using Zigbee wireless communication . However, I'm not personally aware of an Arduino library that is readily available for use with the nano 33 Sense board. There is a NordicSemiconductor library (from their SDK), though, but it can be quite an involved process porting that across as there is little guidance available. There may be other Arduino Zigbee libraries available but they are probably not suitable for this chipset.
Thank you for your really thorough and helpful reply.
I only have one question left about powering it through USB.
On the documentation they say that "Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense only supports 3.3V I/Os and is NOT 5V tolerant so please make sure you are not directly connecting 5V signals to this board or it will be damaged. Also, as opposed to Arduino Nano boards that support 5V operation, the 5V pin does NOT supply voltage but is rather connected, through a jumper, to the USB power input."
However, I all USB ports on my mac output 5V. So I'm a bit confused on how to power a Nano 33 Sense without frying it. If there's any documentation or anything even if basic, please let me know and I'll make sure to read it. I'm happy to understand how this all works :).
To answer your question, look at the schematic: https://content.arduino.cc/assets/NANO33BLE_V2.0_sch.pdf
Top left of schematic shows what's happening. Hopefully this gives you the assurance that it is all taken care of when powering the board using the USB connector. As in, VUSB (5V) is stepped down to +3V3 via NINA-B3X.
I recommend you get an Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense and an Arduino Nano 33 IoT.
This will allow you
- use ether one of them and BLE to talk to a phone app and learn about Bluetooth LE
- use one of them as a BLE server/peripheral and one of them as a BLE client/central allowing them to control each other
- use the Arduino Nano 33 IoT with WiFi and send data to a Raspberry Pi/PC/MAC or cloud solution for data analysis
The Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense has some more sensors and therefore will allow you to get more data.
The Arduino Nano 33 IoT has Bluetooth and WiFi but not as many sensors. Bluetooth and WiFi do not work at the same time but you can switch back and forth. So, you can collect data from the Nano 33 BLE Sense via BLE and then send them over WiFi to the cloud or Raspberry Pi/PC/MAC.
Klaus_K:
I recommend you get an Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense and an Arduino Nano 33 IoT.
Thank you. So why not getting a Nano 33 IoT and some grove sensors? Wouldn't be cheaper and easier in the end, or am I missing something important here?
filipeteixeira:
Wouldn't be cheaper and easier in the end, or am I missing something important here?
You said you wanted to try things and you are a data scientist. When you want to look into communication you often need two devices. That is why I recommended to get both boards. And as a scientist you can afford two boards and have some flexibility. 
There are always cheaper options but with the two boards I recommended you can start experimenting a lot faster and better supported. There are already some sensors on board. Once you worked trough a couple of examples and got used to the tools you can get yourself some additional sensors and extend your setup. Often when beginners run into their first issues they do not know whether there is a hardware or wiring issue, whether the library fits the sensor they have or whether it is their code.
With the setup I recommended you can get started faster, because Arduino provides the libraries for the sensors on board directly. Once you know how to work with them it will be easier to use other libraries.
If you really want to start with just one board get the Arduino Nano 33 IoT instead of the Nano 33 BLE Sense.