ST TN100 RF User manual

January 2009 Rev 1 1/37
UM0579
User manual
TN100 RF evaluation kit
This document describes the TN100 RF evaluation kit (TN100/M32B-EVAL) used to
evaluate the capabilities of the TN100 device for ranging operations and RF data
transmission based on the Chirp technology.
The entire package consists of two TN100 sensor boards (version 1.1) and a complete
software package.
Both boards are exactly the same and are equipped with:
■a board (TN100-RCM) which integrates both an STM32 microcontroller and a TN100
transceiver
■a set of sensors to detect temperature and accelerations
■one reset (S1) and three general-purpose buttons (S2 to S4)
■four general-purpose LEDs (LD1 to LD4), Tx/Rx activity LED (LD5), power supply LED
(LD6)
The sensor boards act as source of information providing data regarding distance
measurement (ranging), temperature, accelerations, and status.
The software consists of:
■The ST TN100 Application running on a host PC used to interact with the sensor boards
and easily perform ranging operations, packet data transmission, and retrieval of on-
board sensor data. Additionally, it offers a graphical representation of the two-node
network constituted by the sensor boards.
■Firmware running on the STM32 microcontroller including: driver for the TN100 device,
drivers for all the sensors such as MEMS, temperature, internal protocol used to
exchange data, and commands, among nodes and the PC.
More details on boards and software are provided in the following sections.
Figure 1. TN100 sensor board with STM32 microcontroller
www.st.com
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Contents UM0579
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Contents
1 Reference information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1 Acronyms and definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 Description of the delivered package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 Hardware overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Software overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3 TN100 sensor board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.1 Description of connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.1.1 JTAG connector (CN1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.1.2 Extension connector (CN2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.1.3 Extension connector (CN3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.1.4 USB connector (CN4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.1.5 RS-232 connector (CN5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.2 General-purpose and reset buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.3 LED indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.4 Power supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4 Getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.1 Kit setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.1.1 Software installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.1.2 Board setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.2 Application description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.2.1 Running the application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.2.2 Menu bar and toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.2.3 Sensing and control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.2.4 Ranging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.2.5 Data Tx/Rx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.2.6 Send messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.2.7 RF parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.2.8 Packet log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5 Updating firmware nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

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5.1 Upload firmware using HyperTerminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
5.2 Upload firmware using TN100 application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5.3 Loading the boot loader into the sensor board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Appendix A Board assembly setup manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Appendix B Bill of materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Appendix C Artwork prints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Appendix D Schematic diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Revision history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

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Reference information UM0579
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1 Reference information
1.1 Acronyms and definitions
1.2 References
1. TN100 RF board datasheet
2. TN100 High performance CSS transceiver enabling location awareness datasheet
3. LIS302DL MEMS motion sensor 3-axis
4. STLM20W87F analog temperature sensor
5. STM32F103CB STM32 ARM-based 32-bit MCU
Please check the STMicroelectronics web site www.st.com for any available updates.
Table 1. List of acronyms and definitions
Term Meaning
ARQ The Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) scheme is used to achieve correct
data transmission.
CSMA/CA Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance
CSS Chirp Spread Spectrum
FEC
The Forward Error Correction coding scheme is a (7, 4) shortened
Hamming code and consists of 4 data bits and 3 parity bits. The FEC
scheme on the MACFrame reduces the number of retransmissions.
LBS Location-based services
MAC Medium Access Controller
MAC retries Maximum allowed number of retransmission attempts for Data packets.
Ranging Term used to indicate the capability to determine the distance between two
RF devices.
RTLS Real-time locating system
SPI Serial Peripheral Interface bus
TDMA Time Division Multiple Access

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UM0579 Description of the delivered package
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2 Description of the delivered package
The ST RF TN100 Evaluation kit contains the following items:
●One guarantee record card
●Two TN100 sensor boards
●One CD-ROM including the following items:
– Application and firmware source code
–Usermanual
– Board schematics
– Datasheets
Please check the STMicroelectronics website www.st.com for any available updates and
downloads.
2.1 Hardware overview
Figure 2 shows the main components of the sensor boards contained in the package.
The TN100 transceiver is a highly integrated mixed signal chip that uses CSS (chirp spread
spectrum) wireless communication technology. With its unique ranging capability, the TN100
can measure the link distance between two nodes. Thus, the TN100 supports location
awareness applications including location-based services (LBS) and asset tracking (2D/3D
RTLS). Ranging is performed during regular data communication and does not require
additional infrastructure, power, and/or bandwidth. The TN100 transceiver IC is designed to
build up robust, short distance wireless networks operating in the 2.45 GHz ISM band with
extremely low power consumption over a wide range of operating temperatures.
The TN100 supports 7-frequency channels with 3 non-overlapping channels. This provides
support for multiple physically independent networks and improved coexistence
performance with existing 2.4 GHz wireless technologies. Data rates are selectable between
2 Mbps and 125 kbps. The TN100 transceiver includes a sophisticated Medium Access
Controller (MAC) with CSMA/CA and TDMA support as well as forward error correction
(FEC) and 128-bit hardware encryption. Through its high-speed standard SPI interface, the
TN100 can be interfaced with an external microcontroller. It includes a 4-kbit frame buffer so
that several receive and transmit frames can be stored simultaneously in the buffers. This
solution eliminates the problems of different peak data rates between air and microcontroller
interfaces.
ST's STM32 family of 32-bit Flash microcontrollers is based on the breakthrough ARM
Cortex™-M3 core - a core specifically developed for embedded applications. The STM32
family benefits from the Cortex-M3 architectural enhancements including the Thumb®-2
instruction set to deliver improved performance with better code density, significantly faster
response to interrupts, all combined with industry leading power consumption.