CC2500 evalkit

Wireless & IoT
1

Hi guys,

I am thinking of getting the CC2500 evalkit from TI - CC2500emk. It’s 100$. There are some cheap eval kits and modules on the net. Didn’t find anything on SFE though.

I am not sure what to expect from the cheap ones. There’s also 50$ MSP430 kit with 2 cc2500s. But I don’t wanna learn another uC. I know PIC and used the 8051 long time ago.

Can the cheap ones interface with the TI software that configures the cc2500 registers?

There’s also a new chip cc2540, that looks like a lot of fun but its not out yet. There are 2 demo videos on TI website.

2

Any reason not to choose a chip or module based on IEEE standards?

3

Steve, I don’t mind the standard. I am looking for a low cost, low power, easy to implement 2.4GHz wireless transceiver.

I would like 1Mbps data rate, but can live with less (250Kbps).

4

hithesh123:
Steve, I don’t mind the standard. I am looking for a low cost, low power, easy to implement 2.4GHz wireless transceiver.

I would like 1Mbps data rate, but can live with less (250Kbps).

You know the difference between the air link bit rate and the net rate (after overhead)? 60% is not uncommon.

IMO, easiest to use is XBee. Plug and play for many apps, no special firmware needed.

Not the cheapest, but to recreate the transparent serial and virtual wire, virtual A/D firmware will cost you a lot of time.

And using a standard like 802.15.4 means the MAC and PHY are all done for you, with error correction, addressing, etc. Esp. the peer to peer mode of 802.15.4 (no PAN coordinator)

Better to start with a ready to go module than a chip, unless you are building 10,000.