nRF24Z1 Audio Streamer

Archive New Product Ideas
1

Nordic has a new rf chip capable of real time CD-quality audio streaming, and seems to be a monster. On board voltage regs., ADC, DAC, SP/DIF,I2s and upto 4Mbit/sec, 2:1 optional compression.

The nRF24z1 is in a 6x6mm QFN(36) package. With the availibility of the MP3 breakboard, folks could stream MP3’s directly from pc to their mobile applications!

I think this would be a perfect match for SPE, as a compliment to the MP3 and RF products. After all a major point of MP3 technology is life on the go. Robotics is NO exception!

Mp3 is just the surface, these puppies can ALSO STREAM VIDEO. Now this feature is just sick!!! With LCD Monitor prices at a crazy low and YOUR GPS systems. GBA gps meets Palmero’s pal …Steroids!!

$4 bucks a pop in moderate 10K quanities…

A nice neat Spark Fun breakout … 30 dollars…

Helping imagination run wild…Priceless.

2

If it can actually do CD-quality, I’d skip the MP3 streaming and throw it into a set of speakers for surround sound so I could just plug them into the 120 as opposed to running the speaker cabling. Pretty hot.

3

I’m very interesting in a breakout board for this IC, too. If you guys had a way for me to preorder as a show of support for this one, I’d do it. Please consider this as a product.

Wayne

4

This does sound like a good idea. I’ve been considering a couple hobby projects involving nRF24Z1, and I’m sure a lot of other people would too. Being able to buy it on a breakout board as opposed to trying to etch and solder your own PCB is worth a few extra bucks IMHO.

5

I also will voice my support. It would be great if Sparkfun supported this chip. It is also useful for its 4MBps data rate.

Also, FYI the device does not have an on board ADC or DAC though it does have good support for adding such peripherals.

6

I have a board laid out for the nRF24Z1 but not yet tested. If the board works, I’ll be selling them on my site relatively soon. Your suggestion of $30/board as a selling price is very reasonable, and I may be able to get them lower than that.

7

If I may make a suggestion for these; perhaps the addition of a good audio ADC and DAC to two versions of this, or suitable breakout boards which could interface to your nRF24Z1 breakout.

I see you have chosen the SPI interface for the nRF24L01 boards you are selling… A breakout of the I2S interface, possibly in addition to the SPI would be really nice for direct interface to ADC/DAC & standalone memory units.

I have experience with ADI’s 1871 ADC and 1854 DAC and both are great and should work with the nRF…

8

The 24L01 boards can only interface over SPI, so there wasn’t really an option there. They’re just general-purpose digital data transceivers, not audio-specific like the 24Z1. The current breakout of the 24Z1 has all pins broken out except for the clock and RF pins (the antenna output will be broken out in the same way as the 24L01/24LU1 boards).

I also have a board for the Wolfson WM8737L ADC that I’m going to test out. As for a DAC, I have a layout for Wolfson’s WM8751L, but I haven’t had the board fabbed for it, as it wouldn’t fit on my last panel. I chose both of these parts because they are super-low-power, and I am ultimately looking to make portable wireless audio transmitters and receivers (the first project is a transmitter for guitar). If these are successful, I may lay out more Hi-Fi-quality ADCs and DACs for products that need the higher fidelity and aren’t intended to be portable.

9

Ah, good deal.

There is certainly a market for a low cost drop-in wireless stereo audio bridge, specifically one marketed at amateur electronics designers.

10

Hello,

We have an eval board for the nrf24z1 it comes in two parts. A breakout board for the nrf24z1 which contains the nrf24z1 plus the rf electronics and a carrier board which houses the CODEC, buffers and a small msp which does all the house keeping. The carrier board is not quite ready we are just mopping the cuts and straps, but it should be back and on sale shortly.

Regards

Iain

http://www.hotsolder.co.uk

11

I’ve not got a breakout board like some of you, but I do have a fully functional nRF24Z1-based board with USB, optical and analog ins/outs. In addition, it’s got a spare breakout for GPIO and does all the signal selection for you. The range is up to 300 feet thanks to the PA onboard. The sound is stellar! Right now I’m tweaking the design and trying to shave a few $ off the BOM.

Stu

12

I see the previous two posts have announced availability of PCBs for this part, but no further details. This was quite a while ago. Are these PCBs available?

Two of us are working on a schematic for this but I wouldn’t be adverse to buying somebody’s board if it suits our requirements.

13

Seconded. I would love to see a breakout for this, as would many people I work with.

14

Here’s a link to HotSolder’s breakout board:

http://www.hotsolder.co.uk/nrf24z1-eval … -172-p.asp

The board we’re planning won’t be a breakout board, it will basically just be an enhanced version of Nordic’s eval board with an onboard LNA and PA for greater range.

15

TI now has the CC8520 as well:

http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/cc8520.html

16

Yes, the CC8520 looks like a better solution and we’re going to build our board based on it instead.

17

I know this thread is kind of old, but I finally got around to finishing up my nRF24Z1 breakout boards. They are $29.99 each for either the [nRF24Z1 Breakout Board with Chip Antenna or the [nRF24Z1 Breakout Board with RP-SMA.](http://store.diyembedded.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=20)](http://store.diyembedded.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=19)