Support for Nordic line of NRF7000 series RF SOC

[Flyfpvguy]

Hello, I was wondering if the NRF7000 series of RF chipsets are supported. From what I can see, there are default examples for placing the chip in monitor provided by vendor examples from Nordic, and I think (not 100% sure) that it supports packet injection as well. It also apparently has STBC enabled by default as well, so I was wondering if it would be supported.

I am interested in this chip since it has decent availability and Nordic is pretty open when it comes to support, compared to companies like Realtek.

I am also open to doing the hardware design for this chip if it is found to suitable, as I have a decent amount of experience when it comes to PCB design, and I want to create an easy to use solution that can be ordered, assembled, and shipped via companies like JLC or pcbway.

I think this would greatly improve the ease of use of WFB-NG, and it would mean not having to buy a specific wifi-adapter from some sketchy vendor and having to hack around trying to get it to work

Please let me know if this is something that has interest.

Thank you!

[svpcom]

Hi!
Yes. It is very interesting. My only questions are:

• Is it possible to to packet injection?
• As I understand that it is SPI ? What is max possible bandwidth it supports?
• What is its TX power? Does it supports (can drive) external power amplifier?
• Does it have linux drivers? If it is SPI only then need to create some spi to usb adaptor.

[Flyfpvguy]

Hello!
Thank for for the rapid response.
The Nordic docs show the ability to send raw wifi packets, but they do not name packet injection by name specifically. Is sending raw wifi packets the same as packet injection? https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ncs-2.6.99-cs1/page/nrf/samples/wifi/raw_tx_packet/README.html
2. Yes, it communicates via SPI or QSPI. The maximum data rate it supports is 86mbps
3. it has a max output power 20dbm, and from what I can tell, it doesn't seem to support external modules
4. Yes, it has linux drivers provided via github https://github.com/NordicPlayground/nrf70-linux-driver

I also found the datasheet via farnell for the NRF7002, which is the superior one of the three.
https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/4393752.pdf

If this RF SOC is not found to be suitable, are there any other potential candidates? Preferably ones that are sold through major distributors like Mouser or Digikey to make the hardware design and bring up easier.

Thanks!

[svpcom]

Do you have NRF7002 eval board and RPI4 ? It yes then you could try to run wfb-ng on top of it. It should work out of box (if injection is supported).

[Flyfpvguy]

Thanks, I do not have the eval board atm, but I plan on getting it and trying it out. Upon closer inspection of the datasheet, it seems at 5.8ghz, and MCS7, the power output is only 13dbm, which is very low. I will keep working at this and see if WFB-NG works for this chip, but I will keep looking for other suitable alternatives. TI has their newest line of CC33xx and CC35xx series of RF companion chips and RF mcus respectively, so I will try and see if there is any support for monitor mode and packet injection as well.

Please let me know if there any other chips worth looking at as well.

Thanks!