Renesas Electronics RTK0EE001 Evaluation Board

These boards offer advanced features like programmable output power, applicable to SUN FSK and SUN OFDM transmission systems. It features an additional physical layer to support transmission at multiple data rates and ensures long-range and reliable communication. The evaluation board allows designers to evaluate transceivers for wide-ranging wireless networks and applications such as smart homes, smart grids, sensor networks, smart cities, and home energy management systems.

Flexible Output Power Programmability for Modulation Schemes

The RTK0EE001 evaluation board helps designers evaluate the RAA604S00 Wi-SUN radio transceiver. There are multiple physical layer protocols including the SUN OFDM and SUN FSK protocols. Thanks to versatile physical layers, the board can work at flexible data rates of up to 2.4 Mbps for SUN OFDM and 200kbps for SUN FSK protocols. More importantly, the user can configure the physical layer with a simple software command, making it seamlessly easy to set the desired operating mode. 

Moreover, each physical layer protocol comes with a dedicated and flexible power output. For the SUN OFDM protocol, the board supports up to +11dBm transmission output power while the SUN FSK protocol supports up to +15dBm output transmission power. 

The flexible operating modes allow the device to communicate over long ranges, making the board suitable for wireless applications like IoT, sensor networks, smart homes, monitoring systems, etc. 

User-Friendly Operating Environment for Developers

The RTK0EE001 evaluation board offers a user-friendly environment for developers to plug in and play the device for evaluation purposes instantly. It offers both wired and wireless evaluation schemes that reduce hardware complexity and accelerate the prototyping phase for designers. 

To initiate the evaluation board, the user must first install the Virtual COM Port USB Driver that enables connection of the board with a PC. Once the serial terminal is installed on the host PC, it can be used for wireless evaluation.

Typically, Windows operating systems automatically install the desired USB drivers once the device is connected to the PC, and it has an internet connection. If automatic installation doesn’t work, the drivers can be installed from the FTDI website. 

Upon starting the program, the system opens a ‘Command Menu Mode’ that features a set of commands. The list of commands can perform various functions. Some of the major transmission settings include:   

• Modulation Mode Selection

• Boot mode

• Channel Setting

• Output transmission power setting

• External gain setting

• Transmission option setting

• FSK Reception Packet FEC setting

• OFDM FCS length setting

Moreover, the user can configure the GPIO settings such as:

• GPIO output port voltage levels

• Terminal Settings

• Current Setting for the output terminals

• Read and Write modes

The interface is simplistic, as the user must enter the right command and press ‘Enter’ to configure the desired settings.