"At the beginning of 2015, the intelligent equipment industry still shows a scene of" prosperity ", which is still firm and strong. Various creative smart devices are active in various fields of life, and it is amazing that the primary communication means of smart devices is still WiFi. Whether it is an established enterprise or a new start-up company, how to choose a WiFi communication scheme is still a problem worth exploring in order to complete a smart device project.
If you simply distinguish, engineers will choose whether to adopt a single WiFi SOC single-chip scheme or WiFi network processing chip + external microcontroller scheme according to the functions of the actual project. The former can have lower power consumption and higher integration, while the latter can achieve more functions and more flexible matching, but no matter what choice, Engineers will continue to adjust the circuit structure and composition according to the actual function, power consumption, applicability, cost and other factors of the product, so as to complete the optimization of the best WiFi scheme.
Not long ago, Aiban was lucky to get a set of WiFi development module cc3100 booster pack from Ti in e-league electronics. This is a development module based on WiFi network processing chip, which needs the corresponding microcontroller to realize WiFi communication function. If an engineer has used ti's cc3000 product, it should not be strange to cc3100. Cc3100 can be regarded as an upgraded version of cc3000, but integrates the external DCDC, switch, PA, etc. previously required by cc3000. In addition, according to the author, Ti also has a set of WiFi single-chip solution cc3200 SOC, which integrates an arm cortex-m4 core. It has little difference with cc3100 in WiFi performance and power consumption. However, engineers can choose the best matching scheme according to the actual project requirements. Of course, the focus of this paper is mainly to introduce the cc3100 booterpack development module.
The cc3100 booterpack development module is packaged in a very simple manner. It has the same packaging series style as the previous MSP430 microcontroller development board. The packaging box includes a cc3100 booterpack development board, a microusb cable and a use document.
CC3100 BoosterPack
The cc3100 boosterpack development module is a red 4-layer board with a size of 50.80mm * 43.10mm, which is almost the size of a baby's palm. Although it looks small and concise, there is no subtraction in the functions of the board. Even in some functions, we can see the intention of the designer, such as the antenna design of WiFi chip, The board defaults to the on-board ceramic antenna design. Of course, the external u.fl antenna scheme can also be selected. Only the resistance connection at the compatible design interface needs to be changed. In the whole wifi antenna part, a UMC interface seat for testing WiFi RF conduction performance is also designed to facilitate engineers to understand the performance of the whole WiFi network chip.
In addition, the cc3100 board has many other functions, such as power supply through microusb or external interface; You can choose a passive 32.768KHz crystal oscillator or an active 32.768KHz crystal oscillator of compatible design. In addition to the reset button and user button, the board also has a unique NHIB button, which can make the WiFi chip quickly enter the state of minimum power consumption, which is also the characteristic function of TI's WiFi chip.
As for the specific onboard resources of cc3100 booterpack development module, we can further understand it through the following figure:
Cc3100 booterpack development module onboard resources:
Xcc3100 WiFi network processor
Two 20 pin connector extension interface signals, stackable
On board chip antenna or u.fl external antenna
Power supply through onboard microusb or external expansion interface base
Three buttons, two LEDs
Jump cap for current measurement
8MB serial flash memory (m25px80 micron)
40 MHz crystal, 32 kHz crystal oscillator and optional 32 kHz oscillator
From the above principle block diagram, it is obvious that the whole cc3100 board is based on the circuit structure of Ti xcc3100 WiFi network processing chip, and in the design, the board adopts the interface design compatible with TI's own lanchpad microcontroller board, which can quickly form a WiFi wireless control system through lanchpad msp430f5529. Of course, in the actual design, Cc3100 can match any microcontroller to develop WiFi communication scheme. Compared with single-chip WiFi SOC scheme, the design is more flexible.
XCC3100
Next, let's take a look at ti's WiFi network communication chip xcc3100hz. As shown in the figure below, the whole chip adopts qfn64 package, with a size of 9mm * 9mm. From the package of this model, cc3100 does not seem to have any advantage over the single-chip WiFi chip in volume (of course, it is also related to its integration of many functions), I wonder if there will be an upgraded version with smaller package in the future.
Xcc3100 is mainly composed of WiFi network processor and power management subsystem. The Wi Fi network processor subsystem includes a unique Wi Fi internet-on-a-chip and a dedicated ARM MCU. Of course, this ARM MCU does not act as a host control. It is mainly responsible for Wi Fi and internet protocol processing. In this way, there is no need for external microcontroller to handle these things, It greatly facilitates the selection of external MCU by engineers, or directly realizes the expansion of existing projects through SPI interface and UART interface, which is quite flexible. Other main features of cc3100 are as follows:
802.11 B / g / N RF, baseband and media access control (MAC), Wi Fi driver
Base station, access point (AP) and Wi Fi direct mode
TX power: 18.0 dBm@1 DSSS，14.5 dBm@54 OFDM
RX Sensitivity: 95.7 dBm@1 DSSS，74.0 dBm@54 OFDM
Application data throughput: UDP: 16mbps, TCP: 12mbps
VBAT Wide voltage mode: 2.1 to 3.6V
In addition to integrating many functions, cc3100's low power consumption mode is also one of its main features. Moreover, as we mentioned earlier, cc3100 has an NHIB function pin. Its main function is to quickly enter the mode of minimum power consumption by triggering. In design, only connect the NHIB pin to the GPIO pin of external MCU. The low level is effective. If it does not need to be used, the NHIB needs to be connected to 100k resistance and pulled up.
Several advanced low power consumption modes of cc3100:
Sleep of real time clock (RTC): 4 µ a
Power consumption deep sleep (LPDs): 115 µ a
RX flow (MCU activation): 53 mA@54 Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)
TX flow (MCU activation): 223 mA@54OFDM , maximum power
Idle connection: 690 µ a @ DTIM = 1
Cc3100 not only improves the circuit design of hardware engineers, but also greatly reduces the workload of software engineers. It integrates all protocols for Wi Fi and Internet, minimizing the requirements for host MCU software.
Development preparation
Hardware aided development tool
Texas Instruments is equipped with a special hardware debugging tool cc31xxemuboost for cc3100 booterpack WiFi development module, as shown in the figure below. Cc31xxemuboost is equipped with two ftdi chips, which can enumerate multiple COM interfaces and d2xx debugging interfaces (see driver installation for details). It is completely pin-to-pin compatible with cc3100 booterpack
Of course, the cc31xxemuboost development board is only the development of the cc3100 booterpack, which can not be regarded as a WiFi scheme with complete control function. As we mentioned earlier, the use of the complete WiFi function of the cc3100 booterpack needs to cooperate with the external microcontroller. For this reason, the author will also use the MSP430 f5529 microcontroller board officially recommended by Ti, This low-power microcontroller board can be compatible with cc3100 expansion interface and has complete official routines, as shown in the figure below
Integrated ide tools
The IDE tools corresponding to MSP430 f5529 microcontroller board are familiar to everyone. You can directly use TI's free Code Composer Studio (the third-party IAR also has ready-made routine support), as shown in the figure below. You can download it directly on the official website
What makes you wonder is how to choose ide tools for the combination of cc3100 booterpack and cc31xxemuboost? Here are two recommended: Microsoft Visual Studio Express or eclipse.
Visual studio is a toolkit developed by Microsoft for C + +, Java and other languages. It is very convenient to compile and debug with cc31xxemuboost. However, there is a problem. It is not free software, and the software installation package is also large. Complete use requires more than 10 GB of space.
Eclipse should be quite familiar to software engineers. It is an open-source free ide tool, which is very simple and easy to use. However, if it is used for the first time with cc31xxemuboost, the installation environment is very complicated and troublesome. It is convenient for novices to use Visual Studio directly.
The former is paid software, and the software is relatively large, which is troublesome to download. Eclipse is an open source ide tool, which is widely used. However, if you use it for the first time, the environment you need to install is troublesome. It depends on how users choose.
Drive installation
Download and install the software development package of cc3100 booterpack (Disk C by default) on e-union electronics or ti's official website. The software package contains detailed development documents, routine codes, cc31xxemuboost development board drivers, etc
The drivers of the two microusb interfaces on the cc31xxemuboost development board can be found in the tools folder of the software package installed above. The specific functions of the COM interface after installation are as follows:
The serial ports of J5 interface are as follows:
J6 interface serial port is as follows:
After the interface driver on MSP430 f5529 microcontroller board is installed, CCS ide tool will be installed automatically. The main functions are serial port and debugging interface.
Power on Development
Cc3100 booterpack has an out of box program built in the factory, which can simply configure station and AP mode. It will not be introduced here. If you are interested, please refer to the quick start-up instructions of cc3100 booterpack.
Next, we will learn about the development of cc3100 booterpack board (WiFi AP mode and station mode) through practical operation. The hardware development tool used is cc31xxemuboost and the software ide tool is visual studio 2010. Next, we will actually debug the AP mode and station mode of cc3100 booterpack through visual studio, connect cc3100 booterpack and cc31xxemuboost development board, and power up the development board through J6 interface, as shown in the following figure
AP mode
Open visual studio and load getting_ started_ with_ Ap.sln routine, compilation and debugging
A command window will pop up automatically during debugging. You need to manually enter SSID, password type and password (as shown in the figure below, set to no password)
At this time, you can find the AP joining the cc3100 booterpack through the WiFi of the mobile phone, and you can visit its internal web page, as shown in the figure below
Station mode
Similarly, load the routine getting of station_ Started.sln, compile and debug
The pop-up debugging window requires you to enter the SSID, password type and password of the wireless network you want to join. After entering, the operation of connecting to the Internet will be tested automatically, as shown in the figure below
For the above two debugging modes of AP and station, we need to manually configure the wireless connection, which is also because there is no external MCU control. Next, we realize the automatic connection configuration of the wireless network through the MSP430 f5529 microcontroller board. Connect cc3100 booterpack with MSP430 f5529 microcontroller development board and power on, as shown in the following figure
Open CCS software and load getting_ started_ with_ wlan_ Station routine (under the msp430f5529lp folder of the package you just installed)
From the serial port, we can clearly see the WiFi status. It will be automatically configured and tested without manual input, as shown in the figure below
AP mode can be implemented in the same way, so this paper will not elaborate.
Summary
This paper introduces the characteristics and functions of Ti cc3100 booterpack development module and its application with cc31xxemuboost development tool and MSP430 f5529 microcontroller board. Cc3100 booterpack development module has supporting software and hardware development tools and complete data, which can be quickly used by beginners or senior engineers. The onboard WiFi chip xcc3100 integrates WiFi network processor and power management subsystem, which greatly reduces the electronic components of external circuits. At the same time, the internally integrated proprietary ARM MCU can be fully responsible for Wi Fi and internet protocol processing, reduce the burden of external MCU, and provide flexibility and flexibility for engineers
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