25 March 2015, Farnell element14 has introduced the Texas Instruments SimpleLink
multi-standard CC2650 development kit, including all the hardware required to evaluate the SimpleLink ultra-low-power wireless MCU platform, to its industry leading development kit range in Europe.
Priced at £225, the CC2650DK device can be used to evaluate the SimpleLink Bluetooth Smart CC2640 wireless MCU and the ZigBee/6LoWPAN CC2630 wireless MCU, as well as the multi-standard CC2650 wireless MCU.
The kit includes two SmartRF06 evaluation boards, two CC2650 evaluation modules, two micro-USB cables and a getting started guide, which is available with free next day delivery. The CC2650 evaluation module contains the wireless MCU and shows a variant of the RF layout using the 7x7 package, internal bias and differential RF output (variant 7ID).
The board is equipped with a high performance PCB antenna, although an SMA connector can also be attached to connect the radio to external test equipment.
The SmartRF06 evaluation board is specifically designed for running radio performance tests and for developing software.
The kit is equipped with a 128x64 pixels LCD screen, five pushbuttons, four LEDs, an SD card holder, a 3-axis digital accelerometer, an analogue ambient light sensor, break-out pins and an integrated XDS100v3 debugger.
The CC2650DK comes pre-programmed with a packet error rate test, which can be used to test the practical range of the radio, whether in Bluetooth low energy mode or in IEEE 802.15.4 mode.