Texas Instruments CC2520 User manual

CC2520 Development Kit
User’s Guide
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Table of contents
1INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 3
2ABOUT THIS MANUAL ................................................................................................. 3
3ACRONYMS................................................................................................................... 4
4DEVELOPMENT KIT CONTENTS................................................................................. 5
5GETTING STARTED...................................................................................................... 7
5.1 SMARTRF STUDIO ............................................................................................................ 7
5.2 INSTALLING SMARTRF STUDIO AND WINDOWS DRIVERS...................................................... 7
5.3 USING THE HARDWARE .................................................................................................... 11
5.4 USING SMARTRF STUDIO WITH SMARTRF05EB AND CC2520EM .................................... 13
5.5 RUNNING THE SOFTWARE APPLICATION EXAMPLES .......................................................... 15
6RF TESTING ................................................................................................................ 16
6.1 OUTPUT POWER TESTING ................................................................................................ 16
6.2 PACKET ERROR RATE (PER) TESTING ............................................................................. 17
7SMARTRF05EB ........................................................................................................... 18
7.1 USB MCU...................................................................................................................... 19
7.1.1 Boot loader and standard firmware .................................................................................................................19
7.1.2 USB MCU pin out ............................................................................................................................................20
7.2 MODE SELECTION SWITCH ............................................................................................... 21
7.3 POWER SOURCES ........................................................................................................... 21
7.3.1 Battery power ..................................................................................................................................................21
7.3.2 DC Jack...........................................................................................................................................................21
7.3.3 USB power ......................................................................................................................................................22
7.3.4 Laboratory power supply .................................................................................................................................22
7.4 UART RS232 INTERFACE ............................................................................................... 22
7.5 JOYSTICK ....................................................................................................................... 23
7.6 LCD............................................................................................................................... 23
7.7 BUTTONS........................................................................................................................ 23
7.8 LEDS............................................................................................................................. 23
7.9 SERIAL FLASH................................................................................................................. 23
7.10 DEBUG CONNECTORS (P18 AND P20) ............................................................................. 24
7.11 EM CONNECTORS ........................................................................................................... 24
7.12 BREAK-OUT HEADERS AND JUMPERS (P1 AND P4) ............................................................ 25
8CCMSP-EM430F2618 .................................................................................................. 27
8.1 JTAG INTERFACE AND POWER SOURCE............................................................................ 27
8.2 BSL OR UART CONNECTOR ............................................................................................ 28
8.3 SPI MODES .................................................................................................................... 28
8.3.1 SPI Mode 1 (SPI_M1) .....................................................................................................................................28
8.3.2 SPI Mode 2 (SPI_M2) .....................................................................................................................................29
8.3.3 SPI Mode 3 (Bypass mode) ............................................................................................................................30
9CC2520EM ................................................................................................................... 30
10 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ......................................................................... 31
11 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 33
12 DOCUMENT HISTORY ................................................................................................ 33

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1 Introduction
Thank you for purchasing a CC2520 Development Kit.
The CC2520 is Texas Instrument’s second generation ZigBee/IEEE 802.15.4 RF transceiver
for the 2.4 GHz unlicensed ISM band. This chip enables industrial grade applications by
offering state-of-the-art noise immunity, excellent link budget, operation up to 125 degrees
and low voltage operation.
In addition, the CC2520 provides extensive hardware support for packet handling, data
buffering, burst transmissions, data encryption, data authentication, clear channel
assessment, link quality indication and packet timing information. These features reduce the
load on the host controller.
The CC2520 Development Kit includes all the necessary hardware in order to properly
evaluate, demonstrate, prototype and develop software targeting not only 802.15.4 or ZigBee
compliant applications, but also proprietary applications requiring a DSSS radio.
Make sure to subscribe to the Low-Power RF eNewsletter to receive information about
updates to documentation, new product releases and more. Sign up on the Texas
Instruments Low Power Wireless web site www.ti.com/lpw.
2 About this manual
This manual contains reference information about the hardware components of the CC2520
Development Kit.
Chapter 4 will briefly describe the contents of the development kit and chapter 5 will give a
quick introduction to how to get started with the kit. In particular, it describes how to install
SmartRF Studio to get the required drivers for the evaluation board, how the hardware can be
used and mentions the software that is available for the development kit. Chapter 6 explains
some simple methods for performing practical RF testing with the development kit. Chapter 7,
8 and 9 describe in detail the hardware that can be found in the kit. A troubleshooting guide
can be found in chapter 10. Appendix A and B contain the schematics for the SmartRF05EB
and CCMSP-EM430F2618 respectively.
The CC2520DK Quick Start Guide (www.ti.com/lit/swru139) has a short tutorial on how to get
started with the kit. The CC2520 Software User’s Guide (www.ti.com/lit/swru137) has details
about the software examples and information about other software options for the CC2520.
The PC tools SmartRF®Studio and SmartRF®Flash Programmer have their own user
manuals.
Please visit the kit web page on www.ti.com/cc2520dk for additional information.
See chapter 11 for a list of relevant documents and links.

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3 Acronyms
ADC Analog to Digital Converter
BSL Bootstrap Loader
DK Development Kit
EB Evaluation Board
EM Evaluation Module
FET Flash Emulation Tool
IC Integrated Circuit
JTAG Joint Test Action Group
kB Kilo Byte (1024 byte)
LCD Liquid Crystal Display
LCL Local
LED Light Emitting Diode
LPW Low Power Wireless
MCU Micro Controller
PER Packet Error Rate
RF Radio Frequency
RX Receive
SoC System on Chip
SPI Serial Peripheral Interface
TI Texas Instruments
TX Transmit
UART Universal Asynchronous Receive Transmit
USB Universal Serial Bus

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4 Development Kit contents
The CC2520 Development Kit includes hardware and software that allows quick testing of the
CC2520 RF performance and offers a complete platform for development of advanced
prototype RF systems.
•Evaluate the CC2520 right out of the box. The kit can be used for range testing using the
pre-programmed PER tester running on the MSP430F2618.
•Use SmartRF Studio to perform RF measurements. The radio can be easily configured to
measure sensitivity, output power and other RF parameters.
•Prototype development. All I/O from the CC2520 are available on pin connectors on the
SmartRF05EB and on the CCMSP-EM, allowing easy interconnection to other devices or
controllers.
The development kit contains the following components
•3 x SmartRF®05EB
•3 x CC2520EM evaluation modules
•3 x Antennas
•2 x CCMSP-EM430F2618
•1 x MSP-FET430UIF debug interface
•3 x USB cables
•Documents
Figure 1 - CC2520 Development Kit Contents

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SmartRF05EB
The SmartRF05EB (Evaluation Board) is the main
board in the kit with a wide range of user
interfaces:
•3x16 character serial LCD
•Full speed USB 2.0 interface
•UART
•LEDs
•Serial Flash
•Potmeter
•Joystick
•Buttons
The EB is the platform for the evaluation modules
(EM) and can be connected to the PC via USB to
control the EM.
CCMSP-EM430F2618
This is a generic microcontroller board with an
MSP430F2618. The MCU Board can be plugged
into the SmartRF05EB and it is compatible with
most TI LPW RF-IC EMs.
CC2520EM
This is the CC2520 Evaluation Module (EM) with
the RF IC and necessary external components
and matching filters for getting the most out of the
radio. The module can be plugged into the
SmartRF05EB directly for control from SmartRF
Studio or into the CCMSP-EM430F2618 for
control from MSP430. Use the EM as reference
design for antenna and RF layout.
MSP-FET430UIF
This is the MSP430 USB Debug Interface for
programming and debugging applications running
on the MSP430F2618. It connects to the PC via
USB and uses JTAG to communicate with the
microcontroller.

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5 Getting started
Please refer to the CC2520DK Quick Start Guide (www.ti.com/lit/swru139) for a short
introduction on how to use the kit.
5.1 SmartRF Studio
SmartRF Studio is a PC application developed for configuration and evaluation of many of the
RF-IC products from Texas Instruments, including the CC2520. The application is designed
for use with an applicable SmartRF evaluation board, such as the SmartRF05EB, and runs on
Microsoft Windows.
SmartRF Studio lets you explore and gain knowledge about the CC2520 as it gives you full
overview and access to the RF-IC’s registers to configure the radio and has a control
interface for simple radio operation from your PC.
This means that SmartRF Studio will help radio system designers to easily evaluate the RF-IC
at an early stage in the design process. It also offers a flexible code export function of radio
register settings for software developers.
The latest version of SmartRF Studio can be downloaded from the Texas Instruments website
(www.ti.com/smartrfstudio), where you will also find a complete user manual.
5.2 Installing SmartRF Studio and Windows drivers
Before your PC can communicate with the SmartRF05EB over USB, you will need to install
the driver files for the EB. The latest SmartRF Studio installer includes drivers for Windows.
A brief set of installation instructions for Microsoft Windows XP will be given here, but also
Windows 2000, Windows NT and Windows 98 are supported. Please consult the SmartRF
Studio User Manual for further details or the troubleshooting section if needed.
After you have downloaded the SmartRF Studio from the web, extract the zip-file, run the
installer file and follow the instructions. Pick a complete installation to include the SmartRF
Studio program, the SmartRF Studio documentation and the necessary Windows drivers
needed to communicate with the SmartRF05EB.
You can now connect your SmartRF05EB to the computer with a USB cable and turn it on. A
“Found New Hardware” dialog box will prompt you to locate the missing driver.
It is highly recommended to install SmartRF Studio before you
connect the SmartRF05EB to the computer.

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Figure 2 - Connecting the SmartRF05EB for the first time (Windows XP)
If you did a complete install of SmartRF Studio, the driver to use is already copied to your
hard drive. Select “No, not this time” and continue with “Next”.
Figure 3 - Select automatic installation of software (Windows XP)

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Select “Install the software automatically” to install the driver for the SmartRF05EB. Windows
should automatically find the location of the driver to use. If unsuccessful, go back and
manually specify to look in specific location and select the directory C:\Program Files\Texas
Instruments\Extras\Drivers for the needed *.inf and *.sys driver files.
Figure 4 - The driver installation is completed (Windows XP)
The driver is now installed and the computer should be ready for use with SmartRF Studio.
You can verify that the driver is properly installed by opening the Device Manager and see
that when the EB is connected the “Cebal controlled devices” list contains “SmartRF05EB”
and that it is not labelled with an exclamation mark.

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Figure 5 - Properly installed SmartRF05EB software (Windows XP)
When launching SmartRF Studio, the evaluation board should now appear in the SmartRF05
DK tab. Double click on the device, and a new window opens – giving access to all of the
registers on the chip as well as making it possible to perform various RF test.
Figure 6 - SmartRF Studio with a CC2520EM connected to a SmartRF05EB

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5.3 Using the hardware
The hardware in the kit can be used in two different modes. Either connect the CC2520EM
directly to the SmartRF05EB (Figure 7) or connect the EM to the CCMSP-EM and then
connect this assembly to the EB (Figure 8).
Figure 7 - CC2520EM and SmartRF05EB
The first option (Figure 7) should be used when the RF Module is controlled by SmartRF
Studio via the USB controller on SmartRF05EB. It is also possible to implement software
running on the microcontroller (CC2511) on SmartRF05EB to control the EM directly.
Figure 8 - EB with EM and MCU board
The second case (Figure 8) can be used when the RF module is to be controlled by the
MSP430 on the CCMSP-EM430F2618 board.

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Figure 9 - EM and MCU board operating standalone
Note that it is possible to operate the CC2520EM + CCMSP-EM standalone (i.e. without the
EB), but this requires some sort of external power. Figure 9 shows the CC2520EM connected
to the MCU board as a standalone unit. The board can be powered through the MSP-
FET430UIF by setting the appropriate switch on the board. See chapter 8 for details.
The development kit comes with two CCMSP-EM430F2618 allowing two complete nodes for
peer-to-peer link testing and simple protocol testing. The additional hardware (SmartRF05EB
+ CC2520EM) can be used for debugging purposes, e.g. packet sniffing or capturing and/or
inserting packets using SmartRF Studio.
Figure 10 - Complete set up of development kit hardware

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5.4 Using SmartRF Studio with SmartRF05EB and CC2520EM
In order to use the SmartRF Studio the CC2520EM is connected directly to the
SmartRF05EB, as shown in the picture below.
Figure 11 - CC2520EM connected to SmartRF05EB
After installation of SmartRF Studio and plugging the EB to the PC via USB, the driver can be
installed as described in chapter 5.2. When starting SmartRF Studio, the following window
should appear:
Make sure you select the tab called SmartRF® 05 DK. The connected evaluation board
should be listed, showing that a CC2520 is available. Double click on the item, and a new
window will appear.

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This is the main control panel for the CC2520 from SmartRF Studio. It lets you perform a
number of things:
•Run TX Test modes for testing of RF output power and spectrum. Connect a
spectrum analyser or a power meter to the CC2520EM SMA connector to perform RF
measurements.
•Run Packet TX and RX tests. For this test, you should have two EBs with
CC2520EMs connected to the PC.
oDouble click on both of the devices in the list, opening two windows, giving
control of the two radios at the same time.
oSelect one to be the receiver and the other to be the transmitter.
oOn the receiver, select the “Packet RX” tab.
oSet up basic test parameters and press the “Start packet RX” button.
oOn the transmitter, select the “Packet TX” tab.
oStart transmission by pressing the “Start packet TX” button.
oThe status window will show the number of packets sent/received and the
current signal strength.
•Alternatively, you can have your own application and test your RX routine by
receiving a packet sent by a radio controlled by SmartRF Studio – or test your TX
routine by using SmartRF Studio to receive packets sent by your application.
•Read and/or modify registers and common settings, such as RF frequency (or
channel) and output power.
The SmartRF Studio user manual has more details.

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5.5 Running the Software Application Examples
The CCMSP-EM boards come pre-programmed with a Packet Error Rate (PER) test
application, making it possible to e.g. perform simple range testing out of the box.
Running the PER test application:
1. Assemble the hardware as described in Figure 8 above. Remember to connect the
antennas.
2. Select an appropriate power source. The boards can be powered either via a USB
cable, by using a DC power or by using 2xAA batteries. Make sure that the power
selection jumper P11 chooses the appropriate power source (right position for
batteries, left for USB power or DC power). See details in section 7.3.
3. Power is turned on by switching position of the main power switch from OFF to ON.
4. Follow the instructions on the LCD by using the joystick to select modes and set up
one node as transmitter and one as receiver.
5. When the test starts, it displays a PER value and an RSSI value on the LCD on the
receiver node.
In order to program the MSP430 MCU on the CCMSP-EM430F2618 board the MSP-
FET430UIF (FET) is needed. Connect the FET to the JTAG connector P12 on the CCMSP-
EM430F2618 and to a PC with a USB cable. Use IAR Embedded Workbench for MSP430 to
download and debug.
Figure 12 Downloading a new application on the MSP430
The CC2520 Software User’s Guide has details about the available software examples.
Full source code for the software examples can be downloaded from the CC2520DK web
page (www.ti.com/cc2520dk).
Please also visit the TIMAC web-site (www.ti.com/timac) for a complete 802.15.4 compliant
MAC layer for the MSP430F2618 and CC2520 platform.

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6 RF testing
RF testing is best performed by using SmartRF Studio together with the Development Kit.
Connect the SmartRF05EB to a PC using the USB interface. Start SmartRF Studio and select
the SmartRF05DK tab. Select the evaluation board with the CC2520EM (several boards can
be connected to a PC at once) - it should be listed as “CC2520 – new device” – and click the
start button. In the main SmartRF Studio window settings can be changed, tests performed
and registers adjusted. RF measurement equipment may be connected to the SMA connector
on the EM.
Please see the SmartRF Studio documentation for more information about how to use the
tool.
6.1 Output power testing
SmartRF05EB USB
CC2520EM
50 Ohm coax cable
Spectrum Analyser
Figure 13 - Output power measurement set up
Instead of connecting an antenna to the SMA connector on the small EM, connect a 50 Ohm
coaxial cable directly to a spectrum analyzer. Use the “TX Test Modes” 1 function in SmartRF
Studio to set up the chip to emit a signal at the desired frequency.
By using good-quality RF cabling, the loss in the cabling should be negligible. However make
sure that the spectrum analyser is calibrated. If possible, check it against a calibrated
instrument such as an RF signal generator. Un-calibrated spectrum analysers can display
errors of several dBs.
1Use either TXFIFO looping or pseudo random data.

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6.2 Packet Error Rate (PER) testing
The PER number is the ratio between number of packets being lost and the total number of
packets being sent. PER relates to the more traditional Bit Error Rate (BER) through the
formula
lengthpacket
BERPER _ )1(1 −−=
The sensitivity threshold of the radio is the lowest input signal strength at which the receiver
can decode the signal with a reasonable degree of correctness. Usually, a PER of 1% is used
as the limit for determining the sensitivity threshold.
It is possible to perform practical range testing with the PER test application which is
preprogrammed on the CCMSP-EM430F2618 boards. Place the transmitter at a fixed location
and place the receiver at a given distance from the transmitter. Then run the PER test to
measure packet errors and possibly the signal strength. Repeat at different distances to get
an idea of the range that can be obtained.
By adding a jammer (a third node that generates either noise on the same channel or a strong
signal on an adjacent channel) it is also possible to measure co-channel rejection and
selectivity/blocking performance.
The same PER test application can be used for simple sensitivity measurements with the
CC2520EM and/or with your own prototype hardware. In this case, connect the unit you want
to test to a known good transmitter with coaxial cables and attenuators. Add more attenuators
until the PER value is 1%. The signal strength at the receiver side is then the sensitivity limit
of the system.
For more information about sensitivity testing, please refer to “DN002 – Practical Sensitivity
Testing” (www.ti.com/lit/swra097).

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7 SmartRF05EB
SmartRF05EB is the motherboard in the system, hosting all of the user interfaces and
connections to external interfaces.
Figure 14 - SmartRF05EB
Figure 15 shows the main components of the board and outlines the main communication
buses.
Figure 15 - SmartRF05EB architecture
The main component on the board is the USB controller. It communicates with the PC via
USB and translates requests from various PC tools (e.g. SmartRF Studio, SmartRF Flash
Programmer) to actions on the board.

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The USB controller communicates with the evaluation module using SPI or UART.
Note that not all of the peripherals on the board are accessible from the USB controller. It has
access to the UART RS232 interface, LCD, one LED (D6), joystick and one button (USB
button). I.e. it does not have access to the serial flash on the board.
The module connected to the EM connector has potentially access to all of the EB
peripherals. It has full access to the LCD, serial flash, four LEDs, 2 buttons, joystick and
UART RS232 interface.
Since many of the peripherals can be accessed from both the USB controller and the MCU
EM, some I/O pins can potentially be driven by two different sources. The standard firmware
running on the USB controller handles this by setting all shared I/O in three-state (high
impedance) and thus avoids conflict.
7.1 USB MCU
The USB MCU is the CC2511F32 from Texas Instruments. It is actually a Low Power
Wireless System-on-chip including a state-of-the-art 2.4 GHz radio, 32 kB in system
programmable flash, 4 kB RAM, a 12 bit ADC, timers and a USB controller. Please see
www.ti.com/cc2511 for detailed information about this controller.
7.1.1 Boot loader and standard firmware
The USB controller is programmed with a boot loader when it is shipped from the factory. The
boot loader allows programming of new code into the USB MCU via the USB cable (i.e. no
extra programmer or hardware needed). The boot loader communicates with SmartRF Studio
or SmartRF Flash Programmer.
When the USB controller starts running, it will check for a valid version of firmware in flash. If
it detects a valid application, the boot loader boots the firmware and cedes control of the
controller.
The standard firmware is used to control the RF EM and communicate with applications
running on the PC via USB.
Updating of firmware is done automatically by SmartRF Studio if it detects an old and/or
incompatible firmware version on the controller. SmartRF Studio and SmartRF Flash
Programmer also allow manual programming of the firmware. Please refer to the respective
user’s guides for detailed instructions.
It is also possible to update the firmware and boot loader on the board by using the debug
interface of the USB Controller. As this is a CC2511, use a SmartRF04EB2to program the
controller. Connect a 10-pin flat cable to the “Ext SoC Debug” plug (P3) on the SmartRF04EB
and to the “USB Debug” plug (P2) on the SmartRF05EB. Use SmartRF Flash Programmer to
do the actual programming.
Note that there is a way to force the boot loader not to start the firmware. Place the EB Mode
Selection switch in the CC2511JOYSTICK position and move the joystick in any direction
(other than the centre position). When the board is turned on, the firmware is not started and
the boot loader will have control of the board. The LED D6 will be blinking with a 1 second
2Not included in this kit
There should not be any EM boards connected to the 05EB while
updating the firmware on the EB.

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interval, indicating that the boot loader is running. Use this method to check whether you have
a working boot loader or not.
If the LED D6 blinks with a faster frequency (10 times per second) the boot loader could not
find a valid application to boot.
The same LED will be on when the firmware is running (indicating OK).
When the boot loader is running, the only functionality that is offered from SmartRF Studio
and SmartRF Flash Programmer is to load a new version of the standard firmware.
7.1.2 USB MCU pin out
The following table shows the usage of I/O pins on the USB MCU.
Pin Function Description
P0.0 SPI_SELECT /JOY_LEVEL
Function depending on switch P21:
NORMAL: When SPI_SELECT is set LOW, it enables a special CC2520 sniffer
interface (for test and diagnostic purposes.
CC2511JOY: Joystick level is an analog value that can be decoded to find the
actual position of the joystick (centre, up, left, right or down)
P0.1 USB_EM_RESET Signal used to reset the EM board
P0.2 USB_CS SPI Chip select for device on EM board
P0.3 USB_SCLK SPI Clock
P0.4 USB_MOSI SPI MOSI (master out, slave in)
P0.5 USB_MISO SPI MISO (master in, slave out)
P1.0 USB_IFC_CTRL Enables the USB interface when it is set high. Set either by the boot loader or
the firmware.
P1.1 USB_DBG_DC Debug clock – used when CC2511 communicates with another LPW Soc via
the debug interface.
P1.2 USB_UART_RTS/USB_LED Dual function: UART Ready To Send and output signal for control of LED D6.
P1.3 USB_UART_CTS/USB_BUTTON Dual function: UART Clear To Send and input signal for USB button event.
P1.4 USB_UART_TX UART TX
P1.5 USB_UART_RX UART RX
P1.6 DGB_DD_DIR /JOY_MOVE
Function depending on switch P21:
NORMAL: The debug data direction signal controls the signal flow on the level
converter for the external debug interface.
CC2511JOY: Joystick move signal input. Set high on any joystick event
(pushed, moved up, left, right or down)
P1.7 USB_DBG_DD Debug data – used when CC2511 communicates with another LPW SoC via
the debug interface.
P2.0 USB_LCD_FLASH_RESET Resets both the serial flash and the LCD on the board when it is set low.
P2.1 CC2511 DBG DD CC2511 debug interface
P2.2 CC2511 DBG DC CC2511 debug interface
P2.3 LCD_MODE Selects operating mode of the LCD
P2.4 LCD_CS SPI Chip select signal for the LCD
Table 1 - USB MCU pin-out
As mentioned in the table, the joystick output is coded as an analogue voltage. This has been
done in order to save the number of pins required on the MCU to interface with the joystick.