Texas Instruments CC1110, CC2510 User Manual

CC1110 & CC2510

Mini Development Kit

User’s Guide

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Table of contents

INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................3

1

2 ABOUT THIS MANUAL ..............................................................................................................4

3 ACRONYMS...................................................................................................................................5

4 MINI DEVELOPMENT KIT CONTENT...................................................................................6

5 GETTING STARTED....................................................................................................................8

5.1 SETUP........................................................................................................................................8

6 USING THE HARDWARE.........................................................................................................10

6.1 POWER SOURCES.....................................................................................................................10

6.1.1 Battery Power.................................................................................................................10

6.1.2 External Power Supply...................................................................................................11

6.2 BUTTONS.................................................................................................................................11

6.3 LEDS ......................................................................................................................................11

6.4 DEBUG CONNECTOR (DEBUG) ............................................................................................11

6.5 I/O PIN CONNECTORS (INTIO)................................................................................................12

6.6 ANTENNA OPTIONS ................................................................................................................. 12

6.7 HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT ....................................................................................................13

7 USING SMARTRF STUDIO WITH SMARTRF CC1110/CC2510 TARGET BOARDS.....14

7.1 TESTING TX PARAMETERS......................................................................................................17

7.2 TESTING RX PARAMETERS......................................................................................................17

7.3 LINK AND RANGE TESTING ......................................................................................................17

8 USING SMARTRF PACKET SNIFFER WITH SMARTRF CC1110/CC2510 TARGET

BOARDS...............................................................................................................................................19

9 SOFTWARE APPLICATION EXAMPLES.............................................................................21

9.1 RUNNING AND DEVELOPING SOFTWARE APPLICATION EXAMPLES .........................................21

10 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS.................................................................................. 22

11 REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................23

12 DOCUMENT HISTORY.........................................................................................................24

A SMARTRF CC1110 TARGET BOARD.....................................................................................25

B SMARTRF CC2510 TARGET BOARD.....................................................................................26

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1 Introduction

Thank you for purchasing the CC1110 Mini Development Kit 868-915 MHz or the CC2510
Mini Development Kit.

The CC1110 and CC2510 are System-on-Chip (SoC) devices from Texas Instruments
designed for low power wireless applications. CC1110 operates in the sub-1 GHz unlicensed
ISM bands while the CC2510 operates in the 2.4 GHz unlicensed ISM bands. The CC1110
and CC2510 combine the excellent performance of the state-of-the-art CC1101 and CC2500
RF transceivers respectively with an industry-standard enhanced 8051 MCU, up to 32 kB of
in-system programmable flash memory and up to 4 kB of RAM, and many other powerful
features.

The CC1110 and CC2510 are highly suited for systems where very low power consumption is
required. This is ensured by several advanced low-power operating modes. The small 6x6
mm package further makes it suited for applications with size limitations.

The CC1110 and CC2510 mini development kits include all the necessary hardware in order
to evaluate, demonstrate, prototype and develop software targeting proprietary applications
requiring a sub-1 GHz or 2.4 GHz radio.

Make sure to subscribe to the Low-Power RF eNewsletter to receive information about
updates to documentation, new product releases and more. Sign up on the Texas
Instruments Low Power RF web site www.ti.com/lprf

.

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2 About this Manual

This manual contains both tutorial and reference information regarding the hardware
components of both the CC1110 Mini Development Kit and the CC2510 Mini Development
Kit.

Chapter 4 briefly describes the content of this development kit and chapter 5 and 6 gives a
quick introduction to how to set-up and use the hardware. Chapter 7 describes how to use the
kit with SmartRF
capture devices with the SmartRF Packet sniffer [8]. Chapter 9 mentions other software that
is available for the mini development kits. A troubleshooting guide can be found in chapter 10.
Chapter 11 provides a list of relevant documents and links. Appendix A and B contain the
schematics for the SmartRF CC1110 and SmartRF CC2510 target boards respectively. The
complete reference design for both the target boards are further available on the mini
development kit web pages on the TI web site, see [4] and [5].

The CC1110 Mini Development Kit 868-915 MHz Quick Start Guide [1] and the CC2510 Mini
Development Kit Quick Start Guide [2] are short tutorials on how to quickly and easy get
started with the two mini development kits and how to use the preprogrammed link test on the
kits. The CC1110 & CC2510 Mini DK Software Example User's Guide [3] describes the
source code and has more detailed documentation on the preprogrammed link test that
comes with the kit.

The CC Debugger User’s Guide [6] covers all the details regarding the CC Debugger tool that
comes with this kit. The user’s guides for the PC tools SmartRF Studio [7] and SmartRF Flash
Programmer [9] give details on the use of these PC tools. Relevant design notes and
application notes for the CC1110 and CC2510 mini development kits, and the CC1110 and
CC2510 datasheet and errata note can be in the device product folders ([14] and [15]). Also
visit the kit web pages [4] and [5] for additional information.

®

Studio [7] and chapter 8 briefly shows how to use the kit hardware as

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3 Acronyms

DK Development Kit
IC Integrated Circuit
ISM Industrial, Scientific and Medical
I/O Input/ Output
kB Kilo Byte (1024 byte)
LED Light Emitting Diode
LPRF Low Power RF
MCU Micro Controller
PCB Printed Circuit Board
RAM Random Access Memory
RF Radio Frequency
RX Receive
SoC System on Chip
SPI Serial Peripheral Interface
SRD Short Range Device
TI Texas Instruments
TX Transmit
UART Universal Asynchronous Receive Transmit
USB Universal Serial Bus
PCB Printed Circuit Board

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4 Mini Development Kit Content

The CC1110 and CC2510 mini Development Kits include the necessary hardware and
software tools to allow quick testing of the CC1110 or CC2510 performance. They further
offer a complete platform to develop prototype RF systems.

• Evaluate the CC1110/CC2510 right out of the box. The kits can be used for range
testing using the pre-programmed link test.

• Prototype development. All I/Os from the CC1110 and CC2510 are available on pin
connectors and/or through holes on the PCB, allowing easy interconnection to other
devices or controllers and also easy debugging.

• Together with the CC Debugger, the SmartRF CC1110/CC2510 target board can be
configured through SmartRF Studio [7] or programmed using SmartRF Flash
Programmer [9]. Debugging can be done using the IAR Embedded Workbench [10].

The CC1110 and CC2510 mini development kits contain:

• 2 x SmartRF CC1110 or SmartRF CC2510 target boards

• 1 x CC Debugger including the necessary cables and connector convertors

• 4 x AAA batteries

• CD with Evaluation version of the IAR EW8051

• Documentation

Figure 4-1 – CC1110 Mini Development Kit 868-915 MHz Content

Figure 4-2 – CC2510 Mini Development Kit Content

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SmartRF CC1110 Target Board

The SmartRF CC1110 target board contains
the RF IC, necessary external components,
battery holders, LEDs, and a PCB antenna.
The module is pre-programmed with a link
test for easy use. The board further includes
user I/Os and access to CC1110 peripherals.

• CC1110 DEBUG interface

• CC1110 SPI

• CC1110 UART

• 2 Buttons

• 2 LEDs

• General purpose I/Os

SmartRF CC2510 Target Board

The SmartRF CC2510 target board contains
the RF IC, necessary external components,
battery holders, LEDs, and a PCB antenna.
The module is pre-programmed with a link
test for easy use. The board further includes
user I/Os and access to CC2510 peripherals.

• CC2510 DEBUG interface

• CC2510 SPI

• CC2510 UART

• 2 Buttons

• 2 LEDs

• General purpose I/Os

CC Debugger

The CC Debugger enables programming
and debugging the flash of the CC1110/
CC2510. It connects to the PC via USB and
uses the DEBUG interface to communicate
with the radio. The PC Tools available for
these purposes are SmartRF Flash
Programmer [9] from Texas Instruments and
IAR Embedded Workbench for 8051 [10]
from IAR Systems. The CC Debugger also
allows the user to control and run tests on
the SmartRF CC1110/CC2510 target boards
using SmartRF Studio [7].

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5 Getting Started

5.1 Setup

The SmartRF CC1110/CC2510 target board is a complete standalone RF reference platform
with user interfaces and connections needed for development with the CC1110/CC2510.

It can be used both standalone (powered from batteries) or together with the CC Debugger
(for testing and debugging purposes) as shown in Figure 5-1 and Figure 5-2 respectively.

Figure 5-1 – SmartRF CC2510 target board standalone

Figure 5-2 – SmartRF CC2510 target board connected to the CC Debugger

The two SmartRF CC1110/CC2510 target boards in the mini development kit are identical
and come pre-programmed with a link test application. When running the out of the box link
test, the boards can be used standalone. The boards can then be powered from either the 2 x

1.5V AAA batteries that are included in this kit or an external regulated power source (not
included in this kit). The power source can be selected with the jumper on the power selection
connector P1 on the boards. Read more about this in section 6.1.

When not using the out of the box link test (i.e. the preprogrammed application) e.g. for RF
evaluation or software development, the SmartRF CC1110/CC2510 target board can be
connected to the CC Debugger. The SmartRF CC1110/CC2510 target board includes
interfaces for programming and debugging the CC1110/CC2510 via the small connector
marked “Debug”.

The boards further provide access to all the I/O signals from the CC1110/CC2510, two LEDs
and two push buttons.

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After assembling the hardware, there are several options for working with the CC1110 and
CC2510 devices:

• Run the link test application that is preprogrammed on the CC1110’s/CC2510’s. The
CC1110 Mini Development Kit 868-915 MHz Quick Start Guide [1] or the CC2510
Mini Development Kit Quick Start Guide [2] included in the kits describes the
necessary steps to run this application.

• Evaluate and explore the RF capabilities of the CC1110/CC2510 using SmartRF
Studio [7]. Chapter 7 provides the details how to do so.

• Develop your own software for the CC1110/CC2510. Install IAR Embedded
Workbench for 8051 [10] and set up your first software project. Section 9.1 explains
how.

• Develop your own hardware with the CC1110/CC2510. See section 6.7.

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