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I am fascinated by these all in one microcontrollers/zigbee radios from Jennic. They seem to have done a much better job opening up their platform tools than say Microchip for example. The SDK and API stacks are all freely available. You can get a module pretty cheap too, less that $15. Now comes the rub: I can't seem to find any modestly priced solution for getting started with development. To actually use the module you need some sort of carrier board that would have a USB/JTAG interface, a crystal, and a power source. All these things are accomplished with what Jennic calls a "carrier board" which they freely provide the schematic and gerber files for. Sadly, it seems there is no way to actually buy this board. The only way I can find to obtain it is by buying their $1300 evaluation kit. I'm sure it is really nice, but I don't really want all that stuff.

I could just take their gerbers and have the board made for a couple hundred bucks, but I feel like I must be missing some simple solution. Why would a company that seems to have gone out of their way to make development simple make this one part so hard? Is there a better/cheaper way to program these devices?

Matt
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  • Why would you need the full carrier board for it? A breakout should cost you less than $50. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Sep 09 '13 at 21:25
  • Usually, I'd prefer not to have to design and layout a board just to test out a new chip. It wouldn't just be breakout, I'd have to at least figure out how the JTAG chain works and put down a crystal and usb interface. Or are you suggesting there is a breakout board available for purchase? – Matt Sep 09 '13 at 21:32
  • The device looks like it can be programmed via SPI or UART, and you can use an oscillator instead of a crystal. A FTDI module can add USB. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Sep 09 '13 at 21:38
  • I surely could go that way, but it will still work out about the same as just having their board made (I believe). $33 a board is what I normally pay for a 2 layer board with min quantity 4. By the time you pay for shipping and the parts + shipping you'll be in around $200. FTDI module is around $5 by itself. Plus I wouldn't think that is typical use case...I mean I could do it, just wondering if there was an easier way. – Matt Sep 09 '13 at 21:51
  • If you are willing to wait 10 days or so you could get a set of 3 custom breakout boards from OSH park for $10-15 total. Or you could make one yourself with a laser printer and an iron in an hour or two... Or do both: the fabbed board for long term use, and the in house substitute so you have a temporary platform for software work in the meantime. – Chris Stratton Sep 09 '13 at 21:56

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Since this question was asked, the situation has changed a little: as Jennic is now fully absorbed by NXP, which also acquired Freescale, there are a couple more options to choose between.

Sticking with the JN516x family, you can now find some pluggable modules with header pins, such as:

As an alternative, there is the formerly Freescale Kinetis KW21Z with an ARM Cortex M0+ and an 802.15.4 transceiver with an official development kit (FRDM-KW41Z) made of two boards, for just above 100$. Honestly I couldn't find anything any cheaper than that in a quick search on the web.

clabacchio
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