Sub-1 GHz IoT Development Board

Overview

For the Fall 2018/Spring 2019 academic year in the University of Texas at Austin ECE Capstone Design Program, Texas Instruments tasked us with developing a highly compact, low-power, IoT development board, which employs the CC1310 SimpleLink Sub-1 GHz Ultra-Low Power Wireless Microcontroller.

Our solution, which we call the "CC1310 Blade," is a smart and small development board that offers an exciting alternative to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Zigbee because Sub-1 GHz frequencies excel at penetrating barriers, transmit over greater distances, and consume less power.

Hardware

The CC1310 Blade is designed according to the Adafruit Feather form factor, so users can take advantage of the powerful Texas Instruments development tools and hardware while incorporating them into their familiar Feather ecosystems.

System Specifications:

• Adafruit Feather form factor
• 0.9" x 2.0"
• CC1310 Sub-1 GHz wireless microcontroller (7mm x 7mm RGZ package)
• 915 MHz operating frequency [in the United States]
• 5 V micro-USB power input
• JTAG programming interface
• 128 KB flash and 8 KB SRAM
• 2 user-programmable LEDs
• 1 user-programmable switch
• 19 available GPIO pins (5 analog, 14 digital)
• Compact PCB helical antenna
• uFL connector for external antenna attachment
• JST-PH Li-Ion battery connector and charging circuit
• CR1220 coin cell battery holder

Note: Photos are of Revision C board unless otherwise stated. Minor corrections were made in Rev D which include GPIO pin swapping, battery connector line swapping, and simple silkscreen correction.

You can find the schematic, board design files, and the bill of materials at the CC1310-Blade-Hardware GitHub repository.

GPIO Pinout

Bill of Materials (Download spreadsheet version from GitHub repository)

Software

We have two demo programs. The GitHub repository for our open source demo software can be found at the CC1310-Blade-Demos GitHub repository.

CC1310 Wireless Lamp Demo

The first demonstrates the CC1310 Blade working with the Adafruit Latching Mini Relay to turn on and off a lamp wirelessly. Users can compile the "rfEasyLinkTx_CC1310_LAUNCHXL_TI_single_trigger_btn_REVC" code and flash it on one CC1310 Blade (Rev C or D), and this will configure the Blade to be the transmitting device. A second Blade can be configured as the receiving device with the Adafruit Latching Mini Relay installed on top. Once the mini relay is wired to a lamp correctly, it will turn it on and off with the press of the user programmable button on the transmitting Blade. See diagram and video of the demo below.

CC1310 Blade Wireless Temperature Sensor

The second demo enables one CC1310 Blade (Rev C or D) to transmit ADC values from the TMP36 analog temperature sensor to a LaunchXL-CC1310, which can receive the data wirelessly and display them on a computer console. This project can be compiled and flashed using the "adcsinglechannel_CC1310_LAUNCHXL" code. In this example, the Blade should be flashed with the TX code and the LaunchXL should be flashed with the RX code. The TMP36 temperature sensor should be plugged into the 3.3V, GND power pins and one analog GPIO pin.