SoluM Adopts nRF52832 SoC for KIKO Air
Smartphone air quality alarm via Bluetooth LE wireless connection
Clearly separate RF protocol software and developer app code.

As the fine dust problem becomes increasingly serious, consumer interest in air quality itself is growing.

Nordic Semiconductor announced on the 21st that SoluM, a domestic electronics company, has adopted Nordic’s nRF52832 SoC for Bluetooth LE wireless connectivity of its Bluetooth LE (Bluetooth Low Energy) and Wi-Fi-based smart air quality meter, ‘Keyco Air’.
Kiko Air, which can be used immediately by plugging it into an AC outlet, can monitor volatile organic compounds (TVOC), humidity, and temperature using multiple built-in sensors. For example, it can detect sudden temperature changes caused by fire or heater defects, or harmful indoor air pollution conditions. Additionally, using the Bluetooth LE wireless connection provided by the Nordic SoC, it can send alarms regarding indoor air quality to the user's smartphone, categorized by specific pollution categories, conditions, and severity. The indoor air quality status can also be checked through the color LED built into the device itself (very bad - red LED blinking, bad - red, average - purple, good - blue).

Once installed and configured, the Kiko Air can be paired with users' Bluetooth 4.0 or higher smartphones or tablets using the low-latency Bluetooth LE wireless connection provided by the Nordic SoC. Through the iOS and Android 'SoluM Kiko' app, users can check various data related to indoor air quality as well as other environmental conditions. By connecting to Wi-Fi, the device can remain connected to the smartphone even when it is out of the Bluetooth LE range.

Nordic's nRF52832 SoC is a multi-protocol SoC ideal for Bluetooth LE and 2.4GHz ultra-low power wireless applications. Based on a 64MHz, 32-bit Arm Cortex M4F processor, the nRF52832 features 2.4GHz multi-protocol wireless capabilities (Bluetooth 5, ANT, and proprietary 2.4GHz RF software support), supports an RX receiver sensitivity of -96dBm, 512kB of flash memory, and 64kB of RAM.

This SoC comes with Nordic’s S132 SoftDevice, a Bluetooth 5 certified RF software protocol stack that enables advanced Bluetooth LE applications. The S132 SoftDevice is equipped with a Bluetooth LE stack including Central, Peripheral, Broadcaster, and Observer, and can perform up to 20 connections simultaneously.

Nordic's software architecture facilitates product development by clearly separating RF protocol software from the developer's application code.

"The reason we adopted Nordic's nRF52832 SoC is that it is supported by easy-to-use and convenient development tools, and it is a solution capable of implementing optimal low-power Bluetooth LE wireless connectivity," said Nammin Kim, a manager at SoluM.