Beginner
10 min

Achieve reliable RF communication for diverse applications with cc2500 and PIC32MZ2048EFM100

2.4GHz transceiver capable of various modulation schemes like OOK, 2-FSK, GFSK, and MSK

ccRF Click with Curiosity PIC32 MZ EF

Published Jan 31, 2024

Click board™

ccRF Click

Dev. board

Curiosity PIC32 MZ EF

Compiler

NECTO Studio

MCU

PIC32MZ2048EFM100

Develop a tiny radio station for things like remote control, home appliances, or other gadgets that need to send or receive information wirelessly

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Hardware Overview

How does it work?

ccRF Click is based on the CC2500, a low-power, high-performance 2.4GHz transceiver from Texas Instruments, operating in the worldwide ISM frequency band from 2400MHz to 2483.5. The CC2500 has excellent receiver selectivity and blocking performance with an embedded packet handler engine suitable for packet-oriented systems. It also has a highly configurable baseband modem that supports various modulation formats (OOK, 2-FSK, GFSK, and MSK) and user-configurable parameters like frequency channel, output power, and air data rate. The transceiver has a programmable data rate from 1.2 to 500kBaud depending on frequency range over a PCB trace 2.4GHz antenna, making the ccRF Click

suitable for ultra-low power designs. The CC2500 has a built-in state machine that switches between different operation states (modes) to achieve optimum performance for many applications. Change of the states is performed using command strobes or internal events such as TX FIFO underflow. These states take care of Sleep, Idle, Active, Receive or Transmit modes, Wake-on-Radio (WOR), and more. In addition, the CC2500 comes with on-chip support for synchronization word detection, address check, flexible packet length, and automatic CRC handling. The ccRF Click uses an SPI serial interface to communicate with the host MCU. There are two pins in addition, the GD0 and GD2, routed where the RST and PWM pins of

the mikroBUS™ socket stand by default. With the GD2 as a digital output pin, the user can get test signals, FIFO status, clear channel indicator, serial output RX data, and more. The GD0 as a digital output pin can be used to get the same data as the GD2, plus it can provide serial input TX data. This Click board™ can only be operated with a 3.3V logic voltage level. The board must perform appropriate logic voltage level conversion before using MCUs with different logic levels. However, the Click board™ comes equipped with a library containing functions and an example code that can be used as a reference for further development.

ccRF Click hardware overview image

Features overview

Development board

Curiosity PIC32 MZ EF development board is a fully integrated 32-bit development platform featuring the high-performance PIC32MZ EF Series (PIC32MZ2048EFM) that has a 2MB Flash, 512KB RAM, integrated FPU, Crypto accelerator, and excellent connectivity options. It includes an integrated programmer and debugger, requiring no additional hardware. Users can expand

functionality through MIKROE mikroBUS™ Click™ adapter boards, add Ethernet connectivity with the Microchip PHY daughter board, add WiFi connectivity capability using the Microchip expansions boards, and add audio input and output capability with Microchip audio daughter boards. These boards are fully integrated into PIC32’s powerful software framework, MPLAB Harmony,

which provides a flexible and modular interface to application development a rich set of inter-operable software stacks (TCP-IP, USB), and easy-to-use features. The Curiosity PIC32 MZ EF development board offers expansion capabilities making it an excellent choice for a rapid prototyping board in Connectivity, IOT, and general-purpose applications.

Curiosity PIC32MZ EF double side image

Microcontroller Overview

MCU Card / MCU

default

Architecture

PIC32

MCU Memory (KB)

2048

Silicon Vendor

Microchip

Pin count

100

RAM (Bytes)

524288

Used MCU Pins

mikroBUS™ mapper

NC
NC
AN
General Purpose I/O
RA9
RST
SPI Chip Select
RPD4
CS
SPI Clock
RPD1
SCK
SPI Data OUT
RPD14
MISO
SPI Data IN
RPD3
MOSI
Power Supply
3.3V
3.3V
Ground
GND
GND
General Purpose I/O
RPE8
PWM
NC
NC
INT
NC
NC
TX
NC
NC
RX
NC
NC
SCL
NC
NC
SDA
NC
NC
5V
Ground
GND
GND
1

Take a closer look

Click board™ Schematic

ccRF Click Schematic schematic

Step by step

Project assembly

Curiosity PIC32MZ EF front image hardware assembly

Start by selecting your development board and Click board™. Begin with the Curiosity PIC32 MZ EF as your development board.

Curiosity PIC32MZ EF front image hardware assembly
Thermo 28 Click front image hardware assembly
Prog-cut hardware assembly
Curiosity PIC32 MZ EF MB 1 - upright/background hardware assembly
Necto image step 2 hardware assembly
Necto image step 3 hardware assembly
Necto image step 4 hardware assembly
Necto image step 5 hardware assembly
Necto image step 6 hardware assembly
Curiosity PIC32 MZ EF MCU Step hardware assembly
Necto No Display image step 8 hardware assembly
Necto image step 9 hardware assembly
Necto image step 10 hardware assembly
Debug Image Necto Step hardware assembly

Track your results in real time

Application Output

1. Application Output - In Debug mode, the 'Application Output' window enables real-time data monitoring, offering direct insight into execution results. Ensure proper data display by configuring the environment correctly using the provided tutorial.

2. UART Terminal - Use the UART Terminal to monitor data transmission via a USB to UART converter, allowing direct communication between the Click board™ and your development system. Configure the baud rate and other serial settings according to your project's requirements to ensure proper functionality. For step-by-step setup instructions, refer to the provided tutorial.

3. Plot Output - The Plot feature offers a powerful way to visualize real-time sensor data, enabling trend analysis, debugging, and comparison of multiple data points. To set it up correctly, follow the provided tutorial, which includes a step-by-step example of using the Plot feature to display Click board™ readings. To use the Plot feature in your code, use the function: plot(*insert_graph_name*, variable_name);. This is a general format, and it is up to the user to replace 'insert_graph_name' with the actual graph name and 'variable_name' with the parameter to be displayed.

Software Support

Library Description

This library contains API for ccRF Click driver.

Key functions:

  • ccrf_writeBytes - Sequential ( burst ) write function.

  • ccrf_readBytes - Sequential ( burst ) read function.

  • ccrf_defaultConfiguration - Default configuration function.

Open Source

Code example

The complete application code and a ready-to-use project are available through the NECTO Studio Package Manager for direct installation in the NECTO Studio. The application code can also be found on the MIKROE GitHub account.

/*!
 * \file 
 * \brief ccRF Click example
 * 
 * # Description
 * This example demonstrates the use of an ccRF Click board by showing
 * the communication between the two Click boards configured as a receiver and transmitter.
 *
 * The demo application is composed of two sections :
 *
 * ## Application Init
 * Initializes the driver and logger, performs the Click default configuration and 
 * displays the selected application mode.
 *
 * ## Application Task
 * Depending on the selected mode, it reads all the received data or sends the desired message
 * every 2 seconds.
 * 
 * \author MikroE Team
 *
 */

#include "board.h"
#include "log.h"
#include "ccrf.h"

// Comment out the line below in order to switch the application mode to receiver
#define DEMO_APP_TRANSMITTER

// Text message to send in the transmitter application mode
#define DEMO_TEXT_MESSAGE           "MIKROE - ccRF Click board\0"

static ccrf_t ccrf;
static log_t logger;

void application_init ( void )
{
    log_cfg_t log_cfg;
    ccrf_cfg_t cfg;

    /** 
     * Logger initialization.
     * Default baud rate: 115200
     * Default log level: LOG_LEVEL_DEBUG
     * @note If USB_UART_RX and USB_UART_TX 
     * are defined as HAL_PIN_NC, you will 
     * need to define them manually for log to work. 
     * See @b LOG_MAP_USB_UART macro definition for detailed explanation.
     */
    LOG_MAP_USB_UART( log_cfg );
    log_init( &logger, &log_cfg );
    log_info( &logger, " Application Init " );

    // Click initialization.
    ccrf_cfg_setup( &cfg );
    CCRF_MAP_MIKROBUS( cfg, MIKROBUS_1 );
    ccrf_init( &ccrf, &cfg );

    ccrf_default_cfg( &ccrf );
    
#ifdef DEMO_APP_TRANSMITTER
    log_printf( &logger, " Application Mode: Transmitter\r\n" );
#else
    log_printf( &logger, " Application Mode: Receiver\r\n" );
#endif
    log_info( &logger, " Application Task " );
}

void application_task ( void )
{
#ifdef DEMO_APP_TRANSMITTER
    ccrf_transmit_packet( &ccrf, DEMO_TEXT_MESSAGE, strlen( DEMO_TEXT_MESSAGE ) );
    log_printf( &logger, " The message \"%s\" has been sent!\r\n", ( char * ) DEMO_TEXT_MESSAGE );
    Delay_ms ( 1000 );
    Delay_ms ( 1000 );
#else
    uint8_t data_buf[ 64 ] = { 0 };
    uint8_t data_len = sizeof( data_buf );
    if ( CCRF_CRC_OK == ccrf_receive_packet( &ccrf, data_buf, &data_len ) )
    {
        log_printf( &logger, " A new message has received: \"" );
        for ( uint16_t cnt = 0; cnt < data_len; cnt++ )
        {
            log_printf( &logger, "%c", data_buf[ cnt ] );
        }
        log_printf( &logger, "\"\r\n" );
    }
#endif
}

int main ( void ) 
{
    /* Do not remove this line or clock might not be set correctly. */
    #ifdef PREINIT_SUPPORTED
    preinit();
    #endif
    
    application_init( );
    
    for ( ; ; ) 
    {
        application_task( );
    }

    return 0;
}


// ------------------------------------------------------------------------ END

Additional Support

Resources

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