Smart home ecosystem uses Nordic solutions for wireless control of appliances

Wonderlabs Limited’s SwitchBot uses nRF52840 and nRF51822 SoCs enabling devices to be controlled from smartphone app

Technology company Wonderlabs Limited, has specified Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF52 and nRF51 Series Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) to power its ‘SwitchBot’ smart home ecosystem.

The smart home ecosystem comprises the SwitchBot Curtain integrating the nRF52840 Bluetooth 5.2/Bluetooth LE advanced multiprotocol SoC and the SwitchBot Bot integrating the nRF51822 SoC, as well as other Nordic-powered, sensor-based smart home devices and peripherals that can be used independently or in conjunction with each other using a proprietary Bluetooth-based mesh networking solution.

Multiprotocol support

The Nordic SoC-enabled Bluetooth LE connectivity ensures SwitchBot products can be wirelessly configured and controlled from the associated iOS/Android ‘SwitchBot’ app on the user’s Bluetooth 4.0 (and later) smartphone. The multiprotocol support provided by the Nordic solutions supports the proprietary Bluetooth-based mesh network where multiple SwitchBot devices can communicate seamlessly.

SwitchBot Curtain is a 135g, 42 by 51 by 110mm easy-to-install motorized device that can transform an existing curtain rod and rail curtain into an automated smart curtain system controlled by the companion app, a remote controller device also integrating the nRF52840 SoC, or a compatible smart home ecosystem such as Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri and HomePod, or Google Home. Using the functionality of its built-in sensors, the device can be scheduled to close curtains at night and open curtains when it senses daylight. SwitchBot Curtain employs a rechargeable 3350mAh Li-ion battery. Nordic’s nRF52840 provides full Bluetooth 5 support for SwitchBot Curtain and the curtain remote controller, including 2x on-air raw data bandwidth (2Mbps); 4x range; 8x broadcasting ability with advertising extensions that increase the advertising packet payload size to 251 bytes, and an improved channel coexistence algorithm.

“We selected Nordic solutions for SwitchBot because of the chipsets’ reliability, low power consumption, support for advanced features such as Bluetooth 5 and Long Range, and multiprotocol support for our own Bluetooth-based mesh protocol which uses demand routing rather than advertisement flooding,” said Connery Li, Founder and CEO of Wonderlabs Limited.