Multiple connections Pmod BT2

[joinhairn]

Hi everyone. I am currently working on inter-fpga communication using bluetooth with each fpga needing to connect with two other fpgas, receiving from one and transmitting to another. I was wondering if the PMOD BT2 would be able to handle multiple bluetooth connections? If not, are there any bluetooth modules that would allow for it? Thank you.

[JColvin]

Hi @joinhairn,

I do not think the Pmod BT2 can handle multiple connections as it does not support the Bluetooth 5.0 (iirc, this is the version of Bluetooth that allowed multi-pairing, at least in the sense of remembering multiple connections without having to re-authorize different pairing every time. Caveat that I'm not fully immersed in the Bluetooth technology capabilities). Regardless, for your setup with one FPGA receiving and communicating to different boards, it would need two separate Pmod BT2s on it, which of course is more hassle and more expensive.

The Pmod BLE or the Pmod ESP32 may be able to support the simultaneous connections, but both of those modules would likely require firmware updates (as they came out before BT 5.x was ubiquitous) and I imagine that the host controller to properly handle the simultaneous connection would need to be created, neither of which Digilent has support for.

I do not know if wireless communication is a requirement on your end, but sending data over physical wires (such as UART) between the FPGAs would almost certainly be easier and faster communication than the overhead of managing a wireless stack on an FPGA. If you are needing to do wireless communication, I do not have any specific recommendations from Digilent that will nicely meet your needs.

Thanks,
JColvin