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Purchasing the CC2431 ZigBee Development Kit

spachner
Expert 1535 points
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: CC1100, CC2431, CC2510, CC2530

Dear TI,

I have developed systems successfully with CC1100 and CC2510 and would like to follow up with a Zigbee system for locationing. The CC2431 ZigBee Development Kit CC2431ZDK seems a good starting point since I would like to start with the locationing example which comes with the kit.

Unfortunately the CC2431ZDK is quite expensive although a bunch of HW will be delivered then.

Fortunately I have already 4 SmartRF04EB Evaluation Boards ready on my desk from the old projects and ask my self why to buy the same hardware again with the CC2431ZDK kit.

Is there a possibility to purchase just the

  • CC2431EM Evaluation Modules
  • Battery Boards for use with the CC2431EMs

separately and save some money?

regards

spachner

  • 0
    TI__Expert 3595 points

    There are the EMs available, the CC2431EMK gets you two EMs and antennas for $99.  I am not as up on the battery boards, but have to assume those can be gotten seperately.

  • 0 in reply to Chris M
    Expert 1535 points
    Hi Chris, great, thank for the quick answer. I assume that I can run the same location demo (like advices in the video at http://e2e.ti.com/videos/m/low_power_rf__zigbee/97454.aspx) with let say 10 CC2431EM boards, running 9 as reference nodes and 1 as the moving blind node. There is no specific need for having the CC2430EM Evaluation Modules and the CC2430DB Demonstration Boards which are included in the original CC2431ZDK kit? I further assume that the Z-Location Engine PC App can be connected by COM/UART via a SmartRF04EB V1.9 which I have already. The last thing would be how to get the order number and price for the battery boards or would they come for free when ordering a bunch of (e.g. 5) CC2431EMK kits ;-) spachner
  • 0 in reply to spachner
    Expert 1535 points

    Dear TI,

    I kindly repeat my question how to purchase battery boards fitting to the CC2431EM boards. Could you please tell me how to order them and at what price.

    Thanks a lot.

    regards

    spachner

  • 0 in reply to spachner
    TI__Prodigy 510 points

    Spachner,

    The SOC_BB boards - battery boards - are available for purchase.

    http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/folders/print/soc-bb.html

    Brian

  • 0 in reply to PME_BLUM
    Expert 1535 points

    Thanks for your answer, there so many boards and kits available from TI, not easy to look through. :-)

    Now I even found the CC2431DK which consist of 10 CC2431EMs & 10 battery boards. Since I will start with Zigbee development the CC2431DK seems to be the most cost effective starting point. I am only interested in ranging, so I do not need temperature or other sensors on the eval boards, though battery boards are sufficient for me to drive the CC2431EM.

    Please acknowledge that when just purchasing the CC2431DK all the same Zigbee software I need is available from TI as it would come compared to when purchasing the dedicated Zigbee development kit CC2430ZDK (which would cost double the price).

    Am I right?

    Thanks again.

    regards

    spachner

  • 0 in reply to spachner
    Intellectual 300 points

    Hi,

    You might consider the cc2530, since these ones support the newer version of zigbee (zigbee 2007) and zigbee PRO. there is even a special Zigbee DK for this one, which i can recommend by personal experience.

    Good luck,

    Lennart

  • 0 in reply to Lennart
    Expert 1535 points

    Hi Lennart,

    I am especially interested in ranging which is supported in hardware by the CC2431 and I presume that the ranging demo which is available from TI is a good starting point for my own ranging application. Unfortunately the CC2530 has not incorporate the ranging hardware.

    spachner

  • 0 in reply to spachner
    Intellectual 300 points

    Hi Spachner

    Ok, that seems clear. I was only making a suggestion, sorry it didnt help you out of your real problem

    Lennart

  • 0 in reply to Lennart
    Expert 1535 points

    Nothing to regret at all, its good to know that there is a comunity who cares on each others. :-)

    spachner

  • 0 in reply to spachner
    TI__Prodigy 510 points

    spachner,

    A point of clarification that may help you out.  The CC2431 comes with a built in location engine calculation, performned in hardware, to assist with a form of triangulation (actually using more than three reference x,y coordinates to estimate location based on RSSI).  This is not doing pure ranging, which would be very innacurate given the inconsistency in 2.4 GHz RF, but is doing a form of triangulation similar to what is done with GPS and satellites (but on a much more local level do to communication distances and power).  If you are simply trying to use RSSI to determine "range" in some form in your application than the CC2431 location engine component is not going to help you, but the chip in general returns a fairly accurate RSSI which can be used for this (please remember how obstacles, environment, antenna, and humidty will drastically affect results).  If this is in fact what you are looking to do then the CC2530 is a more appropriate chip as it is the second generation 802.15.4 SoC and provides better performance at a cheaper price. 

    Hope this was helpful,

    Brian