Other Parts Discussed in Post: CC1101

Hey Champs, 

Before anything I am the Mktg mgr for the LPRF product line, which includes the new CC430 series of devices.

I just wanted to give you a heads-up on the recent progress made on the CC430 development tools. Here the picture of our first CC430 EM board that works in the 868Mhz and 915Mhz frequency bands. In brief it is a 4-layer board featuring the last version of our PCB (rev 3.0). It features a CC430F6xxx device with a bunch of connectors that are useful to extend the functionality of the hardware.

 

Compared to the CC1101 and CC1110 devices, they are a couple of new features which need to be highlighted.

1.   The first thing you can notice is the presence of the 14-pin JTAG connector on the top right of the board. This means that the CC430 EM board can be directly used as a target board for the MSP430 Flash Emulation Tools (or FET, see http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/folders/print/msp-fet430uif.html). This means that the CC430 is a true JTAG based architecture. All the designers  who used proprietary emulation solution in the past will appreciate ! BTW I know that the LPRF tools team is working on a similar debugger, that should be released in 1st half… Stay tuned !

2.   The second interesting point is a located at the bottom of the board. If you have good eyes, you will see a string of passive components located between the CC430 and the antenna connector (there is no PCB antenna on this EM but you can hook-up a whip antenna). The reason for these passives devices is that the TI guys have changed the RF matching network they were using on the CC1101. The main difference is that the matching features a band-pass filter instead of a low-pass filter. This easy solution allows designers to get rid of the spurious emissions of the CC1101 radio @ 660Mhz and 699Mhz. The final outcome is that the matching is really optimized for maximum sensitivity (-110dBm @ 3V, 868Mhz and 1.2Kbps). Nice to see !

To close on this, attached the schematics of the band-pass filter that is used on the board…

Will tell you more when I progress with working with the board, talk to you soon !

Thanks, Emmanuel.

 

CC430 EM RevC PG06 BPF update.pdf
Anonymous
  • Hi friends Iam VENKATESWARA REDDY. My M-Tech PROJECT IS BASED ON THE CC430mc so where can i get these boards.

    please send the details to my mail----   tvreddy451@gmail.com

  • Hi,Emmanuel,

    I intend to use CC430x6137 chip in my project. Therefore I have got 2 CC430 EM boards and downloaded both Toggle_LED demo project code and SmartRF Studio from TI website.

    Everything works fine while PATABLE setting is as provided in the example: 0x50/0x51, which means output power 0dBm.

    However, if I set +10dBm on both boards, in RF Studio - value 0xC4, no link is established i.e. no LEDs are lit. In CC430's electric specs file, value 0xC2 is given that matches +10dBm. I tried with that also and still doesn't work. With all values up to 0x50(0x51) i.e. up to 0dBm, everything acts fine, as expected.

    I have to mention that no other parameter (CORE register) is changed, only PATABLE.

    Could you provide me with details how to set +10dBm output power ?

    Thanks,

    Gordan

  • Eric

    We are shipping very limited quantities of CC430 samples under waiver. Please send me a note with the following information

    1) CC430 device you are looking for (with or without LCD driver)

    2) Quantity (<5)

    3) your location

    Thanks

    VC

  • Emmanuel,

    I had a call with the Technical Support Center, but they said that no samples or parts will be available until Q4.

    So, is there really any way to obtain some samples (by signing a waiver if necessary) or not ?

    Thanks,

    Eric

  • John,

    Today. I recommend you get in touch with your TI representative or the Technical Support center. The reason is that we will need you to sign a waiver until the final version of the silicon is released.

    Thanks, Emmanuel.