Here at TI, we are busy (in a good way) with expanding and improving our Bluetooth® low energy offerings. The interest in our products is very high, especially around the latest SimpleLink™ Bluetooth low energy CC2640 wireless microcontroller (MCU). To simplify the design process for you, our apps engineering team has therefore compiled this list of ten steps to finish your CC2640 wireless MCU design based on frequently asked questions from customers, check it out here.
I’ll give you the highlights and some insider tips here:
Start by picking your wireless connectivity technology. I’ll assume for now that you chose Bluetooth low energy, perhaps because you want to enable a rich UI (user interface) by connecting your product directly to a smartphone, tablet or computer. Or maybe you are building a beacon?
Next, you need to get a development kit. The insider tip here is to try out the SimpleLink SensorTag kit or the recently released SimpleLink CC2650 LaunchPad™ development kit – it has all the capabilities you need for Bluetooth low energy development including DevPack and BoosterPack™ plug-in modules with breakout pins and a debugger. Check out the DevPacks here and the BoosterPacks here.
Once you have your favorite evaluation module, we have multiple software tools to get started developing. Some examples are the SmartRF Protocol Packet Sniffer, which lets you visualize Bluetooth low energy traffic, and the Sensor Controller Studio, which allows you to leverage the embedded Sensor Controller of the CC2640.
After this, you are most likely thinking about hardware design. We have a hardware design checklist for the CC2640 wireless MCU, or perhaps you want to use an RF module (and thus avoid the sometimes challenging RF design)? LSR provides a great module based on the CC2640 wireless MCU.
When testing is done, certification and standards compliance is up next and you can learn more about the process here. You will find our listings on www.bluetooth.org/tpg/listings.cfm with our qualification IDs etc. and search for “CC2640.”
Last but not least, you can find more information on the CC2640 wireless MCU in the product test mode and in an application note on production testing.
Good luck with your Bluetooth low energy design! And let us know in the comment field what is missing from our ten steps wiki. We’ll work to update it for you.
Just looking for a video introduction to Bluetooth low energy? Check out our intro video on this topic here.
Order the new CC2650 LaunchPad development kit now!
