First Project - open source CC1111 proto board build

Thread Starter

vortmax

Joined Oct 10, 2012
102
Hi everyone, I'm new to the board and somewhat new to circuit design (I've debugged and fixed existing boards but never built anything myself), and I've decided to learn by diving in the deep end.

I was inspired by some of the cool stuff I've seen with hacking the im-me devices and Chronos watches, which are all cc111x based devices. So what I'm planning on doing is creating a proto board based on the CC111F32 chip. My end goal is to have a dev board with a working radio (antenna on chip) and all of the IO pins and usb broken out for easy access.

To make things more interesting, I'm going to try this without buying Ti's CC debugger tool. I'd rather not spend $50 on a tool I'm not sure I will use that often, so my plan is to build a programmer based on the GoodFET project instead.

I don't have much to show besides a very small parts list, but I hope to keep this updated as I progress.

So does anyone here have experience playing with this chip or even interfacing with it via GoodFET?

wish me luck
 

Thread Starter

vortmax

Joined Oct 10, 2012
102
Thanks for that link. I considered one of those, but I think I can build it (and the programmer) for way less than $75. Those boards are also already printed with a tuned antenna. The design I have in my head will let me attach RF front ends and different antennas using breakout boards.

It is pretty cool that Ti releases the actual board masks and full schematics for their proto boards though. It sure makes figuring out the details much easier.
 
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