Texas Instruments (TI) has been busy in the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth® design arenas with their SimpleLink™ CC3000 Wi-Fi module and now their SimpleLink™ CC2541 Bluetooth low energy wireless MCU devices showing up in plenty of designs. The SimpleLink™ CC2541 SensorTag is a low cost ($25), award winning development board that allows engineers to add Bluetooth low energy in just hours. The SensorTag provides 6 low-power MEMS sensors, requires no embedded software knowledge for development, and includes Android and iOS apps completing either a reference design or learning environment. The sensor-based designs are well suited for devices for fitness, medical, educational, toys, remote controls, mobile phone accessories, proximity, and indoor locationing.
The SensorTag's uniqueness lies in its focus on wireless sensor applications for smartphone app developers. The development board allows software developers who require Bluetooth connected sensors to start developing right out of the box with both the hardware and sample Android/iOS apps. Various sensors can be used in the system including temperature, humidity, pressure, accelerometer, gyroscope or magnetometer sensors. The SensorTag can also serve as a reference design for integration in a more specific application.
The SensorTag block diagram and schematic shows the CC2541 I2C interface for easy development and board spacing. This should lead to small, portable and low power designs. TI also provides the design files to assist in SensorTag modifications for more specific designs.
SensorTag Block Diagram
The CC2540 USB evaluation kit can also be helpful as a development platform for Bluetooth low energy applications or as an RF packet sniffer. The included software application allows for monitoring, display, and decoding of Bluetooth data packets transmitted over-the-air. Troubleshooting is always easier when you can see the actual data being transferred, rather than relying solely on what the software should have sent or received.
Using the SensorTag to add Bluetooth low energy connected sensors to smart devices couldn't be easier. The EE Times verified this by awarding TI's development kit with "best of the year" honors at the EDN ACE awards ceremony. If your forte is apps development rather than hardware design, then most of the hard work is completed for you. At a very low cost, you could be testing within hours of receiving your Android/iOS SensorTag device.
Texas Instruments has sponsored promotion of their industrial communications solutions on ENGINEERING.com. They have no editorial input to this post - all opinions are mine. Bruce Schreiner