Hi,
We'd like to make use of the CC1120DK evaluation kit to evaluate some of the CC1120 functions. The main things that interests us is to obtain accurate RSSI signal sample values at the receiver Rx end, and to accurately set the transmitter Tx carrier frequencies.
I have seen the TrxEB boards run a micro-controller application to measure the PER at a fixed frequency. This is good for general demonstration and range evaluation etc, but are there several other ways to configure the CC1120 ICs via the SmartStudio software, to allow manual (or automatic) carrier frequency modification (or sweeping) ?? Would the SmartStudio software allow the recovery of the RSSI of a receiver connected to the PC to evaluate RSSI readings as functions of other Tx parameters for instance ??
For instance we would like to sweep a Tx carrier frequency over say 300 KHz at 2KHz step (no modulation required), and to receive at the Rx end the RSSI values at each of these Tx carrier frequencies. It doesn't seem like the TrxEB boards are that configurable, but does the SmartStudio software allow for this flexibility ?
Otherwise the only thing I can assume is that we'd need to run our own custom application to obtain and display the RSSI values received .... Any thoughts or advise on how it may be possible to perform this with the CC1120DK evaluation kit ???
Thanks in advance, Marn
Yes - the things you mention above (TX sweep, output RSSI values on the receiver side + many other things) can be done with SmartRF Studio and a TrxEB+CC1120 connected to a PC. It won't do any automatic carrier frequency adjustment, though, but the manual method that you outline above can be performed quite easily.
You can download SmartRF Studio and take a look at the various options without having the hardware connected to the PC. The functions will be disabled when you operate in "offline mode", but you should get a good idea of what you can do with the tool.