Texas Instruments 2538EM Users Manual

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E2E Forum: www.ti.com/lprf-forum

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1. Kit Contents

2 x SmartRF06 Evaluation Boards (SRF06EB)
2 x CC2538 Evaluation Modules (CC2538EM)
1 x CC2531 USB dongle (sniffer)
2 x Micro USB Cables
Documentation

The RF boards in this kit are FCC and IC
certified and tested/comply with ETSI/R&TTE
over temperature from 0 to 35°C.

2. SmartRF06EB Overview

3. Plug the EM into the 06EB

Insert a CC2538EM board into the
SmartRF06EB as shown above.

Caution! The kit contains ESD sensitive
components. Handle with care to
prevent permanent damage. To
minimize risk of injury, avoid touching
components during operation if
symbolized as hot.

5. Power Options

There are several ways of applying power to the
TrxEB.

 USB (5V)
 2 x 1.5 V AAA batteries
 1 x 3.0 V CR2032 coin cell battery
 External regulated power supply

There are voltage regulators on the
SmartRF06EB that will set the on-board voltage
to 2.1 V or 3.3 V.

Warning! To minimize risk of injury or property
damage, never use rechargeable batteries to
power the board. Always select a power source
that is suitably rated for use with this EVM, not

exceeding 3.6 VDC, with a current output
rating between 0 and 500 mA.

6. Select Power Source

The power source is selected using the Source
switch on the left hand side of the SmartRF06EB.

In “USB” position, the EM is powered over USB,
running at 3.3 V. In “BAT” position, the board is

powered from batteries or an external source,
running at 2.1 V. The 2.1 V regulator can be
bypassed by shorting the pins on the “regulator

bypass” jumper. In this case, the EM is powered

directly from the external source or batteries.

Note that there should only be one active
power source at any one time. Do not leave
the EVM powered when unattended.

7. Welcome Screen

Turn on power with the Main Power switch. You
should now see the Texas Instruments logo and
a short description of the buttons on the LCD.
Pushing any of the five buttons on the board will
take you to the main menu.

NB! If you don’t see anything on the screen
make sure the board is correctly powered
(see step 5 and 6 above).

8. Select Channel

Select which channel to use for the test.

9. Select Mode

One of the boards must operate as a transmitter
and the other as a receiver.
Select transmitter on one board …

… and receiver on the other board.

The receiver is now configured.

Buttons

EM

Connectors

Micro SD

card reader

USB

Main

Power

Switch

Emulator

LEDs

LCD

LEDs

10-pin

ARM Debug

Connector

EM

Breakout

Power

Selection

20-pin

ARM-JTAG

Connector

CC2538 Development Kit Quick Start Guide

Opening the Box and Running the Packet Error Rate Test

March 2013

10. Select TX Power

On the transmitter, select desired output power.

11. Select Burst Size

On the transmitter, select the desired burst size,
that is, the number of packets to transmit.

12. Select Packet Rate

On the transmitter, select the desired packet
rate.

13. Start Sending Packets

The transmitter is now configured and in idle
state. Sending packets is started/stopped by
pressing the Select button.

15. PER Test Results

On the receiver, the statistics window will show
the error rate based on the number of lost or
erreneous packets divided by the total number of
packets that should have been received.

18. References

Please visit www.ti.com and

http://www.ti.com/tool/cc2538dk

On the kit product page, you will find additional
documentation, links to updated software
examples and software tools like SmartRF
Studio.

You will also find a lot of information on the TI
E2E forum at http://e2e.ti.com

We hope that you will enjoy working with the
CC2538 device.

17. Troubleshooting

It you are experiencing problems with this test,
please check the following:

 Nothing is shown in the display! Make sure

the board is powered correctly (see steps 5
and 6 above).

 Please visit the kit web page and check for

updated SW and documentation. Updated
SW can be downloaded to the device using
IAR EWARM or SmartRF Flash
Programmer.

1. Download and Install

Before connecting SmartRF06EB to your PC,
download and install SmartRF Studio from

www.ti.com/smartrfstudio.

2. Launch SmartRF Studio

After installing the tool, connect the EB to the PC
using the USB cable and start SmartRF Studio.
Select the “2.4 GHz” tab and double click the
highlighted CC2538 device icon.

3. Test the Radio

You can now configure the radio, run
performance tests, export register settings and
run link tests with another CC2538 on a
SmartRF06EB connected to the PC.

SmartRF™ Studio