MSC-AT50-915

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Rev. 0.1 6/12 Copyright © 2012 by Silicon Laboratories EZRadio-2WayLink-DK EZRadio-2WayLink-DK EZR ADIO ® T WO -W AY L INK D EVELOPMENT K IT U SER ’S GUIDE 1. Overview Thank you for your interest in Silic on Laboratories Si4x55 EZRadio® Two- Way Link Development Kit. The Silicon laboratories Si4x55 EZRadio Two Way Link Developmen t Kit (P/N EZR-LEDK2W-XXX) contains everything you need to familiarize yourself with and evaluate the Si4455 transceivers. Th e kit has three versions: one for the 434 MHz band, one for the 868 MHz band, and one for the 915 MHz band. The key features of the development kit are as follows: The base boards have an LCD display and four LEDs to display information and four push-buttons to receive user commands. Additionally, the Silicon Labs Toolstick Base Adapter is integrated on the board to be easily connected to the PC. The RFpico board provides connection to the Si4455 transceivers. All supported types of RFpico boards can be applied to the base board. The provided software pack contains all the documentation and files needed to develop a user application. The kit supports the use of the Silicon Laboratories Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for software debugging and the use of the Keil & SDCC C compiler, assembler, and linker toolchain. The kit supports use of the Wireless Development Suite (WDS) for setting radio parameters and managing application firmware. The base boards come with the Si4455 range test demo application. The range test demo implements Packet Error Rate (PER) measurement. PER is generally used in wireless systems to measure the quality of the RF link in given circumstances. Note: Although the development kit comes with Si4455 RFpico boards, the range test demo application also can be used with RFpico boards that come with Si4355 receivers.

Table 1. Kit Contents

2 MSC-LCDBB930-PER LCD base board with range test demo code

2 MSC-AT50-434 434 MHz antenna

2 USB-XTEN-MINI USB cable (USBA-USB mini)

6 AA AA alkaline battery

2 MSC-AT50-868 868 MHz antenna

2 MSC-AT50-915 915 MHz antenna

Figure 3. LCD Base Board with Connected RFpico Board Debug Adapter is also integrated on the board to allow easy connection to the PC. board EEPROM. RFpico can be connected to the LCD base board with RFP1 and RFP2 connectors. updating the firmware, refer to the "WDS User's Guide for EZRadio Next Generation".

Rev. 0.1 5 2. Range Test Demo 2.1. Basics As earlier described, the range test demo is used to provide measured results on the quality of the RF link. The demo uses two RFsticks: one as the ‘transmitter’ (TX) and the other as the ‘receiver’ (RX). Both RFsticks can be either transmitters or receivers. The transmitter sends packets to the receiver repeatedly with half second intervals. The packet includes the address of the transmitter and number of the sent packet. The packet number increments from packet to packet. The receiver receives the packet and checks its address. If their addresses match, the packet number is stored. The receiver then sends back an acknowledge packet (ACK) to the transmitter. The ACK packet also includes the address and packet number of the received packet. PER can be calculated with the following equation: where: PER: packet error rate (%). PTX: number of sent packets. PRX: number of received packets. Transmitter can calculate PER using the following data: PTX: packet counter to be included in the packet. PRX: number of all the received acknowledge packets. Receiver can calculate PER using the following data: PTX: packet number included in the last received packet. PRX: number of all received data packets. 2.2. RF and Packet Parameters This section provides information on user parameters of the range test demo. All the parameters (excluding fre- quency band and self node address) can be changed in the demo through its menu system (see section “2.4. Menu System of the Range Test Demo”). The following parameters are available: RF parameters Frequency band (defined by the HW) Communication frequency Modulation Data rate Output power Packet parameters Packet length Maximum number of sent/received packets Self node address (defined by the HW) Destination node address Demo parameters are stored in the MCU’s flash memory and restored after power-on reset. Default values are loaded if no parameters were previously stored in the flash. It is also possible to define custom RF parameters fo r communication. Custom parameters can be stored with the Wireless Development Suite (WDS). For more information on creating and storing custom RF parameters, refer to the “WDS User’s Guide for EZRadio Next Generation”. PER PTX PRX– PTX

The RFpico board has an on-board antenna and RF matching to provide solutions for supported frequency bands. A stand-alone antenna can also be used with the SMA connector. band information out of the on-board EEPROM and selects the appropriate frequency range. test demo supports all the three bands. The demo can be used with low band RFpico boards as well. The user can select from three different data rates. Table 3 lists the available data rates. Table 2. Frequency Options for the EZRadio Two-Way Development Kit Table 3. Available Data Rates

Rev. 0.1 7 2.2.4. Output Power The current version of the range test demo does not su pport changing the output power. The output power is defined for +11 dB for all the frequency bands. 2.2.5. Packet Length The user can define the length of the communication packets. The packet length contains 4 bytes of preamble, 2 bytes of synch word, at least 7 bytes long payload, and 2 bytes of CRC. Increasing the packet length increases the length of the used payload. The length of the whole packet can be selected from 15 bytes to 72 bytes. 2.2.6. Maximum Number of Sent/received Packets The user can define the maximum number of sent and received packets. The demo stops after the defined number of packets received or sent. The following packet counts can be selected: 200, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000, 10000. 2.2.7. Node Addresses Each node of the range test demo reads the serial number of the connected RFpico board. The least significant byte of its serial number (0 - 255) is used as node addr ess. The user has to define t he address of the destination node in the menu system to pair the appropriate nodes. 2.2.8. Custom Parameters As described earlier, the user can store custom RF para meters into the devices with WDS. One custom field is available in each of the nodes. If custom parameter mode is selected, the RF parameters (frequency, modulation, data rate) are defined by the stored custom parameters and they cannot be changed. Note: Since custom parameters belong to a defined frequency band, the firmware goes to error state if the frequency band of the custom parameters mismatches with the frequency band of the device. 2.3. Error states In case of critical error, the demo goes to error state. Power-on-reset can force the demo out of error state. In error state, LED4 is continuously ON and an error message is shown on the LCD screen. Critical errors: 1. Error message: No RFpico board found! Connect an EZRadio RFpico then Reset! Cause: There is no supported RFpico connected to the LCD base board. Solution: Connect a supported EZRadio RFpico board (Si4455 or Si4355) and reset the application. 2. Error message: Not supported radio! Connect a Si4x55 type RFpico then Reset! Cause: The connected RFpico board holds unsupported radio. Solution: Connect a supported EZRadio RFpico board (Si4455 or Si4355) and reset the application. 3. Error message: Not supported custom frequency band! Custom freq band mismatches with RFpico. Cause: Frequency band of the connected RFpico board mismatches with frequency band of the stored custom parameters. Solution 1: Change custom parameters with WDS to match with the connected RFpico board. Solution 2: Change the connected RFpico board to match with the stored custom parameters. Solution 3: Use selected parameters instead of the custom parameters.

Rev. 0.1 13 3. Schematics Schematics of the RFstick boards can be seen on the following pages. Complete manufacturing file pack with CAD/CAM files and BOMs can be found at www.silabs.com.

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16 Rev. 0.1 CONTACT INFORMATION Silicon Laboratories Inc.

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