It's then just down to your software to set up addresses and such to target the communication.įor Arduino-to-Arduino communication the nRF24L01+ is far less trouble as you set everything simply in your code. This means that getting Bluetooth devices to talk to each other takes a certain amount of time and effort, but nRF24L01+ devices are ready to go the moment they are powered on. Bluetooth devices have to be 'paired' before they will communicate.

The biggest difference in how they work though is when it comes to connecting devices together. It presents an 'SSP' profile and gives 'master' mode operation to emulate a serial port connection between your Arduino and any other device that knows about Bluetooth and SSP. The HC-05 though is a Bluetooth module which is designed to talk to anything else that also talks Bluetooth - such as your phone or computer. That's not to say they're bad - they're great modules, and the same RF core and protocol is used in many many other devices by Nordic that are used all over the place - the most notable of which is wireless keyboards and mice. They use their own proprietary protocol that is incompatible with any other system. NRF24L01+ modules can only communicate with other nRF24L01+ modules.

You can only really get rudimentary beacon mode working and that only partially. While some attempts have been made with varying success to get the nRF24L01+ to emulate Bluetooth it is not designed for that.

The main difference is the protocol they use. What is the main difference between HC-05 Bluetooth module and NRF24L0 wireless module?

Wifi vs bluetooth arduino