ANT Forum

The attached image shows the position of the components. [img size=762]http://www.thisisant.com/images/fbfiles/images/ANT_EZ430_Interface.png[/img]      

I'm trying to have the interface board built at a pcb supply house and they are telling me that there are missing layers to the Gerber files...in particular the gts,gbs,gko layers. Is there a file that contains all of the layers to support pcb manufacture?      

kebinw - 06 September 2011 11:50 AM

The attached image shows the position of the components. [img size=762]http://www.thisisant.com/images/fbfiles/images/ANT_EZ430_Interface.png[/img]

@kebinw, the link for the components position file is no longer good. Can you please tell me how to navigate to this file? thanks!

Also, has anyone been able to develop the eZ430 development board or does anyone know of a way to purchase the development board?

thanks again!      

All,
the link is now working again. Can anybody tell me what the two 10-pin pin outs correspond to? I'm assuming that the 14-pin pin out is for the eZ430 target board and the molex connector is for the ANT module.

thanks for looking!

     

Please have the revised eZ430 PCB and Sch files attached.      

Can anybody provide the silkscreen and solder mask information and PCB fabrication drawings?

And, is there any order history with a fabricator other than AP circuits? I can't order with them.      

Hi,

Unfortunately this design is considered obsolete and unsupported, but if you don't mind describing your project in some detail, we can suggest some solutions for you. If you do still require the additional PCB layer design files, we can investigate the recovery and release of these files for you.

Best regards      

Harrison,
Thank you for your response.
I am working on an energy harvesting project that uses renewable sources of energy to produce a low voltage that will ultimately power sensors to monitor the health of structures. I would like to use the ANT modules to demonstrate that my power source can support a low power sensor and wireless transmission of the data collected. I am new to RF development and am just trying to start small--with the LED blink demo described in the ANT reference design.

All of the demos in the reference design manual require the ANT module to eZ430 Interface board, so if you can help me find any additional files on this component, I would greatly appreciate it. However, if there is a better solution that you recommend, I'm also all ears.

Thanks again!      

Harrison,

just a bit more detail on the PCB challenges:

I am trying to order off of sunstone, and am getting the message:

Your Plated Drill file may not be an NC Drill file.
Also, their customer service tells me that all files need to be in RS-274-x format, not RS-274-D format. Are the files posted above in this format?

Lastly, I can get the PCB made without the silkscreen and soldermask information, but would prefer to order with it if possible. Do you have files for the top silkscreen and top and bottom soldermask in RS-274-x format?

Thank you!      

Hi,

The fastest recommendation I can give would be to purchase a dev kit containing battery boards, IO boards, modules etc which you can find at multiple distributors including Digikey. SensRcore can provide basic functionality such as lights on/off, but for more complex functionality you would need a microcontroller.

Thus, my next favorite recommendation would be to use the embedded reference designs on the website with an MSP430 experimenter's board such as TI's FRAM series which is one of their lowest power microcontrollers and flywire an ANT Module to it. Modules do not require any special buffering, matching, etc to interface to a microcontroller (though voltages still need to match), so flywiring should work as well.

The lowest power option most likely is using an nRF51422 System on Chip, you can find evaluation/development kits for this device at several distributors. These boards do not have the same quality of antenna design as the modules but it should be sufficient for prototyping.

I would take a look at our Power Estimator to see what works for your application.

If you would still like the full design files for the eZ430 interface, it will take some time to find and package them.

Cheers      

Harrison,
I already have the TI ANTC7EK1 development kit and two AT3 (ANT11TS33M5IB) modules, two IO boards, and eZ430-F2013 Development Tool. Because I am new to RF development, ease of implementation and having good documentation with clear demo instructions for the user is more important to me than having the lowest power consumption.

For those reasons, I'm inclined to continue down my current path of using the eZ430 development tool and AT3 sensRcore module connected by an ANT module to eZ430 interface board. So please send any documents you find on the interface board. However, I am also going to be looking into the flywire solution you mentioned.

Thank you so much for the recommendations!      

Hi Rachel,

In the short term, the fastest, easiest and best documented way to get a demo working would be to follow the SensRcore Manual to configure the AT3 module using ANTware II, which should also include demo scripts.

I would say the nRF51422 kit is also well supported by Nordic Semiconductor and would be an excellent choice as well.

To help with fly-wiring, each datasheet contains the schematic for each mode of serial communication, and also a quick browse of the interfacing document should be helpful.

I will certainly look into seeing what we have available for the eZ430, and I will let you know what we can do.

Cheers