And speaking of small fiddly bits

Still looking at options for Bluetooth Low Energy, for sundry subprojects.

There's a chip called the BL602 that comes packaged in cheap little easy-to-use modules.  I even turn out to have some eval boards on hand, and the software development kit (command-line based) is available on Github.

But...

Finding a module with a U.FL/IPEX* connector for an external antenna is somewhat of a challenge - many of the applications I have in mind will do fine with a PCB antenna, but for outdoors I really want a proper antenna for serious range.  (Or I could use something other than BLE for long range, but the cheap'n'popular radio chip I first contemplated has some weird characteristics that make sprawling outdoors networks overly complicated, and BLE-type chips show a fair amount of promise in that regard.)

And, the electrical (and RF) characteristics are only specified for WiFi operation, not for BLE.  When I'm trying to guesstimate range and how much battery will be needed, having these things characterized by the vendor would be Real Helpful™.

Maybe I go with a TI part; those are well characterized, but I'm not too sure about module-level availability.  Or perchance something from Nordic Semiconductor?

 

* Is IPEX a bird or a goat?  I always get those mixed up.  And what do they have to do with the University of Florida?

Comments

[Rob]

Could you set it up as bluetooth and see what the range & battery draw is?

[Eric Wilner]

Probably; I could test range using the eval boards (plus a long-range Bluetooth dongle currently on order, for the hub computer side). For current draw, I might have to make alterations to one of the boards, but they're cheap, so that's not a big deal.
But it'd be really nice if vendors published this sort of information.