Other Parts Discussed in Post: CC1350, LAUNCHXL-CC1350

We recently announced the SimpleLink™ dual-band CC1350 wireless microcontroller (MCU) supporting Sub-1 GHz and Bluetooth® low energy on the same chip. It is the first dual-band SoC in mass production to support a wide range of use cases combining long-range, low-power Sub-1 GHz communication with local and ubiquitous Bluetooth low energy connectivity. This means that the CC1350 wireless MCU can communicate with both your smartphone app and neighboring devices which are more than a couple of kilometers away.

TI has created a wide range of software and tools to aid you in efficiently designing these new applications centered on the new dual-band CC1350 wireless MCU LaunchPad™ development kit ($29).  As part of the broader LaunchPad ecosystem, the LAUNCHXL-CC1350 LaunchPad kit can also interface with TI’s offering of BoosterPack™ plug-in modules. 

The CC1350 wireless MCU has a wide range of options for the RF front-end. On the CC1350 LaunchPad kit, you will find a differential RF output with an external switch that is automatically controlled to toggle between a Sub-1 GHz PCB antenna and a 2.4 GHz PCB antenna. Alternatively, it is possible to move a resistor for each of the antenna feeds and get the RF output to a compact coaxial connector (JSC). This connector can also be used for a simple snap-on connection to the new CCAntenna Development Kit. The Antenna Development Kit is an evaluation kit that contains a wide range of Sub-1 GHz and 2.4 GHz antennas, fully characterized and suitable for use with the CC1350 solution and other TI wireless connectivity devices.

The CC1350 LaunchPad kit comes in two frequency flavors:

  • LAUNCHXL-CC1350US: optimized for 915 MHz operation and suitable for the US and Japan markets.
  • LAUNCHXL-CC1350EU: optimized for 868 MHz operation and suitable for the European market.

The only difference between these two boards is in the values of the antenna tuning components of the Sub-1 GHz RF path.

Out-of-the-box, the CC1350 LaunchPad kit is pre-programmed to support Bluetooth low energy peripherals with simple services for interacting with LaunchPad kit I/O through LEDs and pushbuttons. More importantly, it also exposes an over-the-air download (OAD) service that allows firmware updates of the CC1350 device’s Flash over the Bluetooth low energy connection. The accompanying TI SimpleLink Starter smartphone app offers firmware images that program the CC1350 wireless MCU to act as a Sub-1 GHz end node (sensor) or central hub. Using two or more LaunchPad kits, you can use the app to program one board as the central hub and one or more boards as end nodes. Within minutes, you will be up and running with a Sub-1 GHz sensor network. In order to revert to Bluetooth low energy mode for maintenance/upgrade, simply press and hold both buttons on the board for six seconds.

The LaunchPad board contains an integrated XDS110 JTAG emulator for the ARM® Cortex®-M3 core within the CC1350 wireless MCU. This XDS110 emulator unlocks a free license to the Code Composer Studio™ integrated development environment (IDE) and compiler. You can download the software development kit (SDK) that supports the CC1350 device through the integrated resource explorer in the IDE, or from ti.com. For an even faster start, check out our cloud-based development ecosystem on dev.ti.com/LAUNCHXL-CC1350. You will be writing code and flashing new firmware in minutes!

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