Continue to Site

Welcome to EDAboard.com

Welcome to our site! EDAboard.com is an international Electronics Discussion Forum focused on EDA software, circuits, schematics, books, theory, papers, asic, pld, 8051, DSP, Network, RF, Analog Design, PCB, Service Manuals... and a whole lot more! To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

Register Log in

zigbee design help needed.

Status
Not open for further replies.
V

vishnupg

Member level 3
Joined
Dec 24, 2009
Messages
64
Helped
1
Reputation
2
Reaction score
1
Trophy points
1,288
Location
india
Activity points
1,719
has anyone designed their own zigbee module using single chip zigbee solution from any manufactures.
i am in to design a zigbee module so please help by providing informations or files that you have
 

no i am not intending to buy a readymade module.i am planing to design a zigbee module myself using a zigbee transreceiver chip.

the selection of chip and design thats where i need help
 

vishnupg said:
i am planing to design a zigbee module myself using a zigbee transreceiver chip.
Click to expand...

Have a look at ATmega128RFA1.
http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/8266S.pdf?source=cms
http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/doc8266.pdf

It is not exactly a stand alone ZigBee tranceiver chip, because both tranceiver and MCU are integrated in one IC. If you need to further separate the components, then this chip uses ATmega1281 MCU if I remember correctly and the tranceiver is AT86RF230 or AT86RF231.
http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/2549S.pdf
http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/doc2549.pdf
http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/doc5131.pdf

You can program it from the scratch, but the guys from Atmel are offering a ZigBee stack:
Atmel Products - MCU Wireless - Single-Chip Solutions - BitCloud - ZigBee PRO

If you choose to use these components separately, then as you understand you will get involved with the analog layout design part. Furthermore if you need extra output power than +3dBm or increased receiver sensitivity, then you can look into front end modules.
View attachment DST-00405_SiGe_SE2436L_Datasheet_Rev_1_0_SF_Jan-10-2011 (1pager).pdf
View attachment DST-00322_SiGe_SE2432L_Datasheet_Rev_2_0_SF_Apr-4-2011.pdf
View attachment cc2591.pdf

Of course you can further split the components and build your own output unit from RF switches PA and LNA, but I think it is better to stay with the security of an integrated FEM solution.
If you search the web, you could find application notes for all the attachments.

Hope this is what you are looking for! :wink:
 
Last edited:
yes alexxx thankyou very much. this is exactly what i was looking for. let me just see through and will replay tomorrow?

my problems is that i am a hardware guy but if i go designing this i dont know to write program or stack for this.
so how can i test this?
do you have any experience in designing this stuff?
please help if you can because i can get samples of this from vendors so i am willing to try it.but software and testing is the problem
 

vishnupg said:
my problems is that i am a hardware guy but if i go designing this i dont know to write program or stack for this.
so how can i test this?
do you have any experience in designing this stuff?
Click to expand...

It is far more difficult to write it from the scratch. Furthermore the stack is ZigBee certified, your code won't. So far I was using zigbit modules, and a few weeks before I succesfully tested the single chip solution. Now I am designing a sample using the SiGe 2436 FEM. I am using the Atmel stack in all cases.
 
so you mean you already tried with ATmega128RFA1 and got it working. And now you are trying to raise it power to acheive higher distance coverage.

can you share your work here so that i can refer?
please note that i am not having any development board with me. then is it possible to proceed with the project

if we are using atmel stack then do we have to write any program?
can we directly burn a hex in to the controller,are they providing it?
 
Last edited:

vishnupg said:
so you mean you already tried with ATmega128RFA1 and got it working. And now you are trying to raise it power to acheive higher distance coverage.
Click to expand...
Exactly. I was not at all satisfied with the distance.


=vishnupg said:
please note that i am not having any development board with me. then is it possible to proceed with the project
Click to expand...
You should purchase two if money is not a problem. My opinion on this described in this post:
https://www.edaboard.com/threads/233180/#post995343
Take a look at 2 dev kits:
ATmega128RFA1 Development Board - SparkFun Electronics
**broken link removed**
I purchased two of the second link, but didn't noticed it works with STK600 on the first place (even for power on). But I do not have an STK600, so the boards entered surgery room before they even powered on! :smile: But at the end of the day they worked OK.


vishnupg said:
can you share your work here so that i can refer?
Click to expand...
As soon as I bought the kits and got them working, I knew exactly what design should I use for my custom boards if you get my point :wink:. Let us not forget that designs for those are free to find in the web. But amplifying the signal is another story, finding a FEM to be easy to work with is not easy. I think SiGe FEMs are the most convenient.


vishnupg said:
if we are using atmel stack then do we have to write any program?
can we directly burn a hex in to the controller,are they providing it?
Click to expand...
This not exactly how it works. You will need to write your program on the application layer. But all other layers are already functional. With a small effort and by reading the user guide, you could write a demo program for two nodes (coordinator and router or coordinator and end device) to exchange data with each other. Of course as you said you can write it from the scratch, even in assembly (I think) if this is what you mean by saying that you are a hardware guy. You may don't care about certification. If you are not advertising that you are selling ZigBee (even if you had hardware certification, you should pay money to the alliance for that), but just a wireless mesh networking system, then you should have no problems with the law. I just gave you a full and clear picture of all the data for this project in post#4. Of course you can proceed as you originally planned!
 

Hello all,
I am new to this forum..
I am interested in Zigbee development for sensor networks..Till now there is only one free stack available by FreakZ guy
I have little knowledge about hardware..
But the scope of Zigbee technology esp in India is tremendous and I wish to start something with ZigBee mesh network for monitoring (industrial and healthcare applications)
Is there any ZigBee expert who can give a top view of how implementation is to be done.? Just a big picture.
If software becomes more flexible and less h/w dependent you are a winner at cost and technology.
 

tarakIND said:
Till now there is only one free stack available by FreakZ guy
Click to expand...
No this is not the case, there are several stacks available on this. I am using ATMEL's BitCloud for example.
Atmel Products - MCU Wireless - Single-Chip Solutions - BitCloud - ZigBee PRO

I think you are referring to Freaklabs and the stack released by a japanese guy called Akiba. It's been a couple of years since I entered this site, at that time the stack was still under development. Admirable by the way to write a stack by yourself. Is this stack certified, do you have any idea?


tarakIND said:
If software becomes more flexible and less h/w dependent you are a winner at cost and technology.
Click to expand...
I agree that you gain a lot by using software flexible products. However if you take a look at the prices of ZigBee modules, they are still really high. Discouraging I would say if you are to build a big network. New technology costs everybody know that, but I still believe that prices are higher than they should be.


tarakIND said:
how implementation is to be done.? Just a big picture.
Click to expand...
Learn the stack very well, get to know its tools, functions, structures. Build a minimal program for starters with a couple of nodes communicating peer to peer, then raise the nodes number until you have a small network with 5-6 nodes. Make some tests for range, network traffic (a sniffer tool would not be a bad idea) and also I believe a PC program is necessary to have a real time view of the nodes and their properties. Once you have built this small network, you can start expanding it.

Hope this helps.
Alexandros
 

Thanks Alexx for the replies...
Ok, if I download and understand the "BitCloud SDK for AVR Raven" (for Eg).
which devices (hardware transreceivers ) would I need for a controller and the nodes. Assume I want a basic star network to begin with one master and 2 nodes.
What would be the approx cost in this setup?
Appreciate your time here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: alexxx

    alexxx

    alexxx

    Points: 2
    Helpful Answer Positive Rating
tarakIND said:
which devices (hardware transreceivers ) would I need for a controller and the nodes. Assume I want a basic star network to begin with one master and 2 nodes.
What would be the approx cost in this setup?
Click to expand...

Here are a couple of parts:
Communications & Networking Modules | Farnell United Kingdom | Results
Communications & Networking Modules | Farnell United Kingdom | Results

ZigBit modules must be surface mounted, which means that XBee modules have much simpler mainboard design. If you don't want to design a board at this moment, then you could use evaluation kits.
ATMEL|ATAVRZRAVEN|KIT, 2.4GHZ RAVEN EVALUATION | Farnell United Kingdom

Standalone USB:
ATMEL|ATAVRZUSBSTICK|KIT, 2.4GHZ RZRAVEN USB STICK | Farnell United Kingdom

Both Raven and ZigBit have their own stack, I suppose XBee also uses a stack.

Finally a packet sniffer tool:
ATMEL|ATAVRRZ541|KIT, AVR ZLINK 2.4GHZ PACKET SNIFFER | Farnell United Kingdom

Hope that helped.
 
Last edited:

helo alexxx,
please i need to design a zigbee transceiver for transmission of signals.can you help me with useful guidance.
thanks
 


Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Part and Inventory Search

Welcome to EDABoard.com

Sponsor

Back
Top