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CC8520: can't get devices to pair...

Koen Smeets85
Prodigy 30 points

Part Number: CC8520
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: CC8521, CC2590, CC2591

Hello all,

Having exhausted my avenues, turning to you for advice.

I have had PCBs made from the Gerber files of the CC85XX-CC2590EM Reference Design.

Have built five of these boards, all of which I can program and they do come up with LED blinking in 'alone' mode.

However, no joy at pairing.

Have used fixed pairing based on master deviceID (I confirm the IDs are correct).

Have tried with external antenna (SMA connector) and with the onboard antenna (in both cases leaving C114 unpopulated)

The deviceID of the master (a CC8521) is 0x203BCB44   

 

I do have access to a scope, but before going down that route wanted to check if I am missing something obvious.

The purepath configurator files I am using are attached.

The voltage on XPAEN pin is around 0.6. I cannot see any obvious electrical / soldering errors.

 

Any help/pointers greatly appreciated!

wireless configurator config files.zip

  • 0
    Prodigy 30 points

    Hello, here some further diagnostics that may be of use:

    CC2590 PAEN (5) CC2590 EN (6) CC2590 ANT (11)
    Slave 0V VDD 0,85V (FWIW)
    Master 0.18V 0.21V 0.05V (FWIW)

    Above table seems to suggest that at least the slave is RX mode.

    And the master is sending, then listening (?)

  • 0 in reply to Koen Smeets85
    TI__Guru** 106705 points
    Hi Koen,

    The voltage levels you are measuring on the CC2590 control pins for the master device are not correct. These should be either 0 V or VDD (as you see on the slave). Are you sure the configuration is correct?

    Have you tried running unmodified example projects to see if that works?

    Cheers,
    Fredrik
  • 0 in reply to Fredrik K
    Prodigy 30 points

    Hi Frederik, thank you for your reply!

    I managed to get a pair working now; probably because in purepath configurator I set the "Hardware platform" option in the configuration type to 'custom design': I think I forgot to mention that I only had the little 4x5 cm boards made with just the cc85xx and the cc2590 (so not the full evaluation board that goes with the evaluation module).

    With this setting, when I programmed a board as master I could see it flashing the LED in the default 'pairing' method (fast, rapid blinks), this was the first time I saw this blinking pattern.

    Trying a second board things started working. So happy camper here. Probably the first one still has a poor solder.

    All this is leading me to believe that the issue was not with the voltage levels to the CC2590 as suggested: matter of fact, the voltage levels on PAEN and EN on the working pair are as posted in my previous post. Supporting my assumption that the master is alternating between send and receive mode, leading to an average between common and AVDD.

    After all, what good would it be the master make itself known to the environment without switching to RX mode listening for answers?

    Range now with external antenna indoors is about 10 meters when stationairy (no line of sight). Interesting the signal drops immediately when only moving an inch.

    I had hoped for a bit more range, though.

    Seems the CC2591 gives an additional 8 dBm, so will try to use that one of these days.