EVAL-868-ES EVAL-916-ES WIRELESS MADE SIMPLE ® ES SERIES BASIC EVALUATION KIT USER’S GUIDE ORDERING INFORMATION PART # EVAL-***-ES *** = 868, 916MHz DESCRIPTION ES Series Basic Evaluation Kit INTRODUCTION Linx ES Series RF modules offer a simple, efficient, and cost-effective method of adding wireless communication capabilities to any product. The Basic Evaluation Kit is intended to give a designer all the tools necessary to correctly and legally incorporate the ES Series modules into an end product. The development boards themselves serve several important functions: • Rapid Module Evaluation - The boards allow the performance of the Linx ES Series modules to be evaluated quickly in a user’s environment. • Range Testing - Using the on-board encoders and decoders to generate a simplex transmission, a pair of development boards can be used to evaluate the range performance of the modules. • Design Benchmark - During the design process of your product, the boards provide a known benchmark against which the performance of your own design can be judged. • Application Development - An on-board prototyping area is provided to allow a designer to develop applications directly on the development board. All signal lines are available on a breakout header for easy connection to the designer’s circuits. The purpose of this guide is to show the designer how to take full advantage of the basic development boards included with the kit. The kit includes 2 ES Series transmitters*, 2 ES Series receivers*, 2 extra PCBmount RP-SMA connectors, 2 development boards, 2 CW Series antennas, 2 CR2032 batteries, and full documentation. *One part is soldered to the board, one extra for use on your first prototype board. Revised 1/28/08 ES TRANSMITTER EVALUATION BOARD THEORY OF OPERATION 2 The transmitter board is powered by two AAA batteies. It has two SPST pushbutton switches, the state of which is encoded into a data stream using a using a Linx MS Series encoder. If a switch is closed, the transmitter will be enabled while the encoder captures the pushbutton states for encoding and transmission. The encoder will power down the transmitter when the button is released. Only the two switches that control the LED and buzzer on the receiver board have been populated, but if it is desired to use all eight data lines, then the Omron B3S-1002 or equivalent switches can be used. All of the data lines have been wired out to the header to the right of the prototyping area and can be accessed for use with other switches, contacts, or microcontrollers. 8 3 1 TRANSMITTER EVALUATION BOARD 7 4 6 5 9 RECEIVER EVALUATION BOARD 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. The receiver board is powered by a 9V battery. The ES Series receiver exhibits a sensitivity of greater than -97dBm, so under optimum line-of-sight conditions, the transmitter / receiver link can operate over distances of up to 1,000 feet. The data recovered by the ES Series receiver is decoded by a MS Series decoder, and the data lines are updated to match the state of the data lines (or pushbuttons) on the transmitter board. To demonstrate this, one data line is used to drive a LED while another is used to activate a buzzer. Switching transistors are used as drive buffers, as the Holtek decoder cannot directly source the current necessary to operate these devices. This board also has a prototyping area with all of the receiver and decoder lines brought out to a header. Batteries - 3VDC (use 2 AAA style batteries only) Power Switch Continuous ON Switches Momentary Pushbuttons - S0 (D0), S1 (D1) Prototyping Area Breakout Header Reverse-Polarity SMA Antenna Connector ES Series Transmitter Module MS Series Encoder USING THE KIT ES RECEIVER EVALUATION BOARD Using the kit is straightforward. Simply attach the antennas, turn on the power, and press one or both of the buttons on the transmitter board. When S0 is pressed, the buzzer will sound; when S1 is pressed, the LED will turn on. 7 DEVELOPMENT USING THE PROTOTYPING AREA In addition to their evaluation functions, the boards may also be used for actual product development. They feature a prototyping area to facilitate the addition of application-specific circuitry. This area has a connection to VCC at the top and ground at the bottom that can be used to power the added circuitry. 5 2 1 3 4 6 8 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Page 2 Battery - 9VDC Power Switch Prototyping Area Breakout Header LR Series Receiver Module MS Series Decoder Reverse-Polarity SMA Antenna Connector LED - D1 Buzzer - D0 9 NOTE: If added circuitry requires a higher current than can be provided by the batteries, the batteries must be removed and the board powered from an external source. The 9V battery on the receiver board is regulated to 5V and has approximately 50mA available for external circuitry. The holes are plated and set at 0.100” on center with a 0.040” diameter, making it easy to add most industry-standard SIP and DIP packages to the board. On the transmitter board, the data lines from the encoder and the PDN, CLK, CLKSE, and LO_V_D lines from the transmitter have been wired out to a row of plated holes on the right side of the prototyping area. On the receiver board, the data lines from the decoder plus the RSSI, PDN, AUDIO, A_REF and DATA lines from the receiver have been wired out. This allows for easy access to connect external circuitry to the modules, the encoder, and the decoder. Data line D0 is connected to the buzzer and D1 is connected to the LED. Page 3 RANGE TESTING Several complex mathematical models exist for determining path loss in many environments. These models vary as the transmitter and receiver are moved from indoor operation to outdoor operation. Although these models can provide an estimation of range performance in the field, the most reliable method is to simply perform range tests using the transmitter and receiver in the intended operational environment. Simple range testing can be performed with the transmitter and receiver evaluation boards. To prepare the board for range testing, simply turn it on by switching the power switch to the ON position. Pressing S0 on the transmitter will activate the buzzer on the receiver board, while S1 activates the LED. witches SW0 and SW1 have been provided to jumper the buttons and continuously transmit. This will allow the designer to turn on the transmitter and walk with the receiver. As you near the maximum range of the link in your area, it is not uncommon for the signal to cut in and out as you move. This is normal and can result from other interfering sources or fluctuating signal levels due to multipath effects. This results in cancellation of the transmitted signal as direct and reflected signals arrive at the receiver at differing times and phases. The areas in which this occurs are commonly called “nulls” and simply walking a little farther will usually restore the signal. Since the evaluation boards are intended for use by design engineers, they are not FCC certified. The transmitter has been set to approximate legal limits by resistor R9 so that the range test results will approximate the results from a welldesigned, certified product. For applications where Part 15 limits are not applicable or output levels can be legally raised due to protocol duty cycle, R9 can be changed according to the graph on Page 3 of the ES Series Transmitter Data Guide. To achieve maximum range, keep objects such as your hand away from the antenna and ensure that the antenna on the transmitter has a clear and unobstructed line-of-sight path to the receiver board. Range performance is determined by many interdependent factors. If the range you are able to achieve is significantly less than specified by Linx for the products you are testing, then there is likely a problem with either the board or the ambient RF environment in which the board is operating. First, check the battery, switch positions, and antenna connection. Next, measure the receiver’s RSSI voltage with the transmitter turned off to determine if ambient interference is present. If this fails to resolve the issue, please contact Linx technical support. ABOUT ANTENNAS The choice of antennas is one of the most critical and often overlooked design considerations. The range, performance, and legality of an RF link are critically dependent upon the type of antenna employed. Linx offers a variety of antenna styles that you may wish to consider for your design. Included with your kit is a Linx CW Series connectorized whip antenna that should be connected prior to using the kit. Despite the fact that the antenna is not centered on the board’s ground plane, it exhibits a VSWR of <1.7 and suitably demonstrates the module’s best practical performance. Page 4 USING THE BOARDS AS A DESIGN REFERENCE The basic evaluation boards included in this kit are very simple, yet they illustrate some important techniques that you may wish to incorporate into your own board layout. You will observe that the ES mounting pads extend slightly past the edge of the part. This eases hand assembly and allows for better heat conduction under the part if rework is necessary. Next, observe the use of a full ground plane fill on the lower side of the board. This ground plane serves three important purposes: First, since a 1/4-wave antenna is employed, the ground plane is critical to serve as a counterpoise (you may wish to read Application Note AN-00500 Antennas: Design, Application, and Performance for additional details on how a ground plane affects antenna function). Second, a ground plane will suppress the transfer of noise between stages of a product, as well as unintentional radiation of noise into free space. Third, a ground plane allows for the implementation of a microstrip feed to the antenna. The term microstrip refers to a PCB trace running over a ground plane that is designed to serve as a 50-ohm transmission line between the module and the antenna. A microstrip is implemented on this evaluation board. If you are unfamiliar with microstrip calculations, you may wish to refer to the ES Series data guides or the calculator available on our website. IN CLOSING Here at Linx, “Wireless Made Simple” is more than just our motto, it is our commitment. A commitment to the highest caliber of product, service, and support. That is why, should you have questions or encounter any difficulties using the evaluation kit, you’ll be glad to know many resources are available to assist you. First, check carefully for the obvious, then visit our website at www.linxtechnologies.com or call 541-471-6256 between 9AM and 4PM Pacific Time to speak with an application engineer. Legal Notice All Linx kits and modules are designed in keeping with high engineering standards; however, it is the responsibility of the user to ensure that the products are operated in a legal and appropriate manner. The purchaser understands that legal operation may require additional permits, approvals, or certifications prior to use, depending on the country of operation. ONLINE RESOURCES If you have questions regarding any Linx product and have Internet access, make www.linxtechnologies.com your first stop. Our website is organized in an intuitive format to give you the answers you need. Day or night, the Linx website gives you instant access to the latest information regarding the products and services of Linx. It’s all here: manual and software updates, application notes, a comprehensive knowledgebase, FCC, information and much more. Be sure to visit often! Page 5 GND GND VCC GND VCC PDN R17 100k GND NS VCC R9 GND R16 10k R15 100k R14 100k R13 100k R12 100k PDN GND B1 9V BATTERY POWER SWITCH S4 EN GND VIN U3 BYP VOUT 4 5 VCC GND 1 5 4 3 2 GND GND GND D6 D7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 LV DET GND RF 10 6 7 8 9 /CLK /CLK SEL LV DET GND AUDIO DATA RSS1 LICAL-ENC-MS PDN NC NC 1 16 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 R11 100k D5 D4 D3 D2 VCC VCC D1 D0 SEND GND GND 2-5 RF VCC GND GND VCC Test Strip 1 GND 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 TS1 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 ANT1 CONREVSMA001 NC AUDIO REF + C2 2.2uF VCC RXM-ES NC NC NC VCC GND NC GND RF U1 C3 0.047uF 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 U2 D6 D5 D7 D4 SEL_BAUD0 D3 SEL_BAUD1 D2 GND VCC VCC GND GND D1 TX_CNTL D0 DATA_OUT SEND MODE_IND CREATE_ADDR /CLK /CLK SEL TXM-XXX-ES DATA GND VCC LVL/AM PDN U1 LP2982 5V REGULATOR 3 2 1 GND 2-5 GND ANT1 CONREVSMA001 1 RF GND Page 6 GND EVAL-***-ES Receiver Board Schematic EVAL-***-ES Transmitter Board Schematic Page 7 S7 SW-SPDT SW-SPDT SW1 SW0 S0 S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 VCC R6 100k R10 100k R9 100k R8 100k R7 100k GND /CLK /CLK SEL LV DET PDN D0 D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 GND GND + C1 10uF VCC B1 BAT-AAA S8 VCC C1 10k R2 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 GND C` C B` B A` A U4 D` D E` E F` F VCC 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 GND GND GND GND GND GND GND GND R0 GND R5 100k VCC VCC 100K R7 100K R6 100K R5 100K R4 100K R3 100K R2 100K R1 100K 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 D7 D6 D5 D4 D3 D2 D1 D0 BZ1 GND BUZZER SEND BLUE LED1 R8 100K GND R4 200 CD4069UB HEX INVERTER D5 D4 D3 D2 VCC VCC D1 D0 DATA_IN LEARN GND 0.01uF LICAL-DEC-MS D6 D7 SEL_BAUD0 SEL_BAUD1 GND GND LATCH RX_CNTL TX_ID MODE_IND U2 Test Strip 1 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 TS1 GND GND GND 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R1 100k WIRELESS MADE SIMPLE ® U.S. CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS LINX TECHNOLOGIES, INC. 159 ORT LANE MERLIN, OR 97532 PHONE: (541) 471-6256 FAX: (541) 471-6251 www.linxtechnologies.com Disclaimer Linx Technologies is continually striving to improve the quality and function of its products. 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