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Ultra Low Power Wireless Transmitter

Fredoo.net
Intellectual 730 points
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: SIMPLICITI, CC2511, CC2510, CC1101

Hello,

What is in your opinion or according to you experiences the best chip for a ULP Wireless Transmitter ?

I narrowed it down to these following solutions for now but I am open to any suggestions, (my criterias are 1 MUC for basic computation, 1 ADC, RF Transmitter for a 30m range)

MSP430 + Anaren A1101R04C

CC430 (SoC with MUC + RF)

My question is also on the sleep mode which one would be drawing less current, is it possible to completely deactivate the RF module when embedded in the SoC (CC430) ? 

What else has to be considered in your opinion ? 

I would also need a USB receiver to receive the data from the module.

I would want to stream data over RF as simply as possible just to get the data through to the receiver, would you recomment SimpliciTI or ?

Thanks .. 

  • 0
    Expert 1670 points

    Sorry I'm not able to fully answer this, but I would suspect part of your decision will be based on how much processing you need to do and how much other I/O you'll need. Personally, I like the chipcon series using the 8051 uC core, such as the CC1110 (SoC uC + RF <1Ghz) and the CC1111 (SoC uC + RF + USB) because they're the simplest and cheapest solutions and have excellent range. If you only require 30m range, then you can do the CC2510 (SoC + RF 2.4Ghz) and the CC2511 (SoC + RF + USB) and simplify the antenna a bit using just a loop and antenna without a balun.

    If you need the extra processing power, then you'll have to go to the MSP430 or CC430 options you listed. I've done sensor networks that need to read and process ADC data and transmit wirelessly, plus control USB and a number of other simple I/O functions, and the 8051 core has always had enough power for me. 

    As for power usage - you can power down the RF modules with SoC options, so that your power is in the <500nA range. 

    The CC1111EMK (http://www.ti.com/tool/cc1111emk868-915) comes with some examples to run it as a wireless serial port (emulated through USB). 

  • 0 in reply to Chad Christensen
    Intellectual 730 points

    Thanks a lot for your insights, I am now trying to do a thorough check on the numbers but it isn't easy.

    I think the CC1110 is a very good option though if I check the numbers given in the Datasheet for power consumption the MSP430 has lower energy requirements than the CC1110.. this is confusing as it says that the MSP430 is also using the CC1110... 

    Besides ...my disapointment is growing towards the people who write these datasheets because they lack honesty  ...

    How about a thorough, honest and detailed check. 

    Let's bring the three best options of each company and compare them ! 

  • 0 in reply to Fredoo.net
    Expert 1670 points

    The CC430 and the CC1110 both use the same CC1101 transceiver, but each are mated to a different microcontroller.

    As far as the power consumption - I believe the MSP series uses less power while sleeping - but my experience has always been that this is a small part of the power budget. The majority of my power comes from turning on the transceiver to receive and transmit data, and from my peripheral hardware - and these power levels are the same regardless of which microcontroller. Your actual power will depend more on how often the transceiver needs to turn on, how long it needs to stay on (depends on data rate and calibration time), and how often you transmit.

    Consider this as a rough estimate for power usage:

    If you implement a sensor that wakes up each second to 'sniff' for data and perform a little sampling / processing, and rarely transmits, you could be looking at an average power usage of ~40uA. If you run off of 2 AA batteries, you'd have a usable power of ~2000mAh. 2000mAh / 40uA = 50,000 hours, or a little under 6 years. This is a little optimistic considering AA alkaline batteries self-discharge over time.

    As far as datasheet honesty - I haven't found any of the TI specs to be horribly inaccurate. They do have some good app notes about average power consumption on some actual chips; and values have been pretty good for me. If you're looking at other silimar products, I'd recommend looking at Nordic Semiconductor, Microchip, and Atmel for their wireless microcontroller options.

  • 0 in reply to Chad Christensen
    Intellectual 730 points

    Thanks a lot for your insights, I've tried to look at all the posibilities and in my opinion it seems that the MSP430 + CC1101 seems like the way to go for ULP Wireless.

    I've found a very thorough study in a TI App Note :

    http://www.ti.com/lit/an/slaa378d/slaa378d.pdf

    it goes very deeply into details about the specifics and how to get  a really low-power system. 

    Somehow it was somewhere in the midst of all the TI Docs and I never found it before ...

    As for me I'll go for the ANAREN EZ4x Module Series that provides a very good dev kit for a prototyping solution.