Wireless that's "Fall off a log" easy?

Sure. There are complete modules, complete with certs.

Sure. All available. You supply the $$.

Easy. This is a neat one with versions up to 2Mb (RSN?):

We use stuff from RFM/Cirronet. Nice, but rather expensive.

Take a look at the BT modules from Lairdtech:

I've used them for several years now in one of my products. The BT modules are certified and supplied with an extra sticker with all the necessary information. Put that sticker on the outside of your product and it makes that product certified.

Meindert

I havent used this but take a look, UK based.

Cheers

[ ... ]

Nordic Semiconductor has a chip coming up any day now, but it's been like that for a while:

I mention it because their 2.4GHz RF chips seem OK, so this might be too, someday.

Mel.

...and you have to be careful that their competitors don't sue you if you use the modules outside of their originally licensed uses. :-)

I'm specifically looking for a module that comes with certification, not a chip that'll cost me less if I buy 10000 of them a year and spend $1M on certification. Projected quantities are in the single digits/year; building from scratch would be beyond foolish.

--

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Check

for "trc102 range test at 433.92mhz". It's an article discussing low power, ie no certification required, operation. If I remember correctly, the trc102 is no longer available, but the text is educational.

Hul

Tim Wescott wrote:

Well, there is that. ;-) OTOH, I'm quite sure there is a way around the issue for the sufficiently motivated.

It doesn't say pre-certified though. Whether or not something is pre-certed makes a huge difference in project cost and time schedule.

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I'll second that (the notion to look at RFM). My experience with them has been good so far, and they offer pre-certified solutions. Here's one that is still available:

I don't know this one personally as we used its higher powered brother because of range requirements but it's probably quite similar. Good documentation, works right out of the box.

Oh, and I put s.e.design back in the address field so the thread doesn't break.

[...]

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Have a look at

I haven't used those modules myself. I've used some of their AM stuff in the past (albeit for experimentation rather than in anger) but that is only good for 2400 baud. This is good for 115200, SPI interface and $7.35 per unit from Digi-key. No Bluetooth though.

--
Andrew Smallshaw
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You mean this one?

Couldn't find the words FCC or "pre-certified" in there, so be careful. Also, I found that any schemes that aren't frequency-agile are not all that reliable. Especially with rather vulnerable AM protocols.

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Just curious... What's the worry about certification? Certifying an intentional radiator costs a little, but not all that much more than certifying an unintentional radiator (containing a certified module). If our lab's interpretation of the (FCC) regs is correct, the intentional radiator covers a *lot* of the sins of the rest of the box. BTW, we don't do this, but it is an interesting kink in the regs.

The FCC has made the process fairly friendly lately but last time the cost was another $5k, AFAIR. Plus you must use a TCB certified lab which may mean a longer drive, and possibly higher fees for the regular EMC job. Some companies just ship the stuff, without one of their engineer witnessing the testing (I strongly discourage clients from doing that).

If you build thousands of units a year it certainly makes sense. Of course, you also have to factor in and amortize your own design work on the RF portions of the project that would otherwise already have been handled by the module vendor. That often gets overlooked.

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It costs us about $2K (maybe a little less) to have the scans run for unintentional radiation, assuming it passes the first shot. We had a nasty experience were it took many attempts and several weeks. $5K would have been a bargain. That disaster was at least half the fault of the testing lab, though, so we try to not go there anymore.

It is silly to just ship stuff off to the lab. If anything goes wrong (it always does) there is no one there to fix it. I'm the one who generally goes. I kinda like Atlanta. ;-)

I'm not talking about designing the RF section, rather only the certification part. specifically, whether to use the RF module's certification and then certify your box as an unintentional radiator or certifying the entire box as an intentional radiator.

but

Well, but that's in Jaw-jah, not Taxafornia :-)

That's why I urge clients to send an experienced engineer along _and_ do pre-compliance checks inhouse.

For small qty stuff (meaning not millions/year) it's almost always better to use the module's cert and slap that extra sticker from its mfg onto the client's box. Only one more sticker, next to all the other mandatory ones like "Do not put in mouth" and all that :-)

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but

Same companies. The unintentional scans (line and radiated) take about four hours, which translates to $1600 in the 10m chamber (*much* more reliable than a slightly less expensive 3m chamber).

In our case, these were useless. With our equipment I can't even get a decent sniff.

But the module's cert doesn't certify the whole box, unless there isn't anything else in the box.

at

our

but

But then all the high ones need to be worked of out in the range, mostly using a receiver. Which adds hours. That's why the winter rule is BYOJ (bring your own jacket) :-)

Mostly I just use a computer-controlled scanner. If there is a nasty emission somewhere it'll find it. Sure, I can't quantify it here in the lab but after a couple of decades on the beat you know what'll cause problems, just like an older cop can look a guy in the eyes and tell that "he dunnit".

goes.

For the intentional part it usually does, the mfg would tell you that (and supply the cert/sticker). Unless you do some unauthorized mods. The unintentional part needs to be tested just like it is with non-RF gear.

If the mfg waffles on the stickers and cert copies, run.

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as

and

at

our

radiator

this, but

I don't follow.

been

Scanner? Does it cover the entire range (30mHz to a few GHz)?

goes.

certification

as

Understood, but my point is that the intentional limits are considerably higher than the unintentional, outside some forbidden zones, so it's far easier to pass. Actually, they're so lax that you'd have to *try* to fail them. ;-)

That's not my point.