Wireless Communication using FLEX and ERIKA Enterprise Basic

A demo showing a simple point to point wireless communication between two nodes, composed of a FLEX Board with a CC2420/EasyBee transceiver board, implemented using Erika Enterprise Basic.

 

Latest update:

A poster was presented at PERICOM 2009 conference. Check the download section below.

 

 

The goal of this demo is to provide basic tools to develop more complex wireless applications, using the Erika kernel in conjunction with the FLEX Board .

 

Authors

 

Hardware

Software

  • Erika Enterprise Basic 1.4.1

PC Side Application

We used a PC connected to the FLEX Board as console. To visualize the data from the FLEX we used these softwares: Hyperterminal (Windows Systems) or Minicom (Linux). The setting was 115200 bit/sec without flow control.

The PC is connected to the FLEX by a RS232(COM) port. In our case by a USB/RS232 cable converter. The FLEX Board uses its UART1 to communicate with the PC. To interface the FLEX UART signals (0V/3.3V) and the PC RS232 signals (+12V/-12V), we used the IC MAX233CPP provided by MAXIM. This is not mandatory, one can use their own preferred line driver/receiver IC.

 

Flex Side Application

The CC2420/EasyBee can be connected through the FLEX Thru Hole Daughter Board or by the proper connector on the FLEX Demo Daughter Board . Note that, when the Flex Demo Board is used, both FIFOP and FIFO pins change, to accomodate this we must uncomment the following define statement in <hal.h>: #define FLEX_DEMO_BOARD.

Below are the pin connections between FLEX and CC2420/EasyBee connectors:

FLEX   EasyBee
+3.3V_OUT   3.3V
GND   GND
RG0_PIN90   RESETN
RG12_PIN96   VREG_EN
RD14_PIN47 or RE9_PIN19   FIFO
RG9_PIN14   CSN
RG8_PIN12   SI
RG7_PIN11   SO
RG6_PIN10   SCK
RG1_PIN89   CCA
RD13_PIN80   SFD
RF6_PIN55   FIFOP
Note: Please refer Flex schematic and CC2420/EasyBee data sheets for more details.

Download

  • Poster presented at SAC 2009 , Honolulu (USA)

 

External links

None.