“The UKCA marking came into effect on 1 January 2021. However, to allow businesses time to adjust to the new requirements, you will still be able to use the CE marking until 1 January 2023 in most cases” according to British Government’s announcement.
The UKCA (UK Conformity Assessed) marking has been an issue for brands since Brexit effected which regulate for goods, products been placed, used, sold in Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland). It covers most goods which previously required the CE marking.
Bluetooth module provides wireless communication by using radio wave to connect over distances are requited to meet compliance with local standard. As the worldwide key Nordic solution module manufacturer, Raytac will continue to fulfill every major local government’s guidance of regulation compliance such as FCC, IC, CE, MIC, ….and UKCA for sure.
Many Customers are interested about Raytac’s facility, reliability and capacity. Here, Raytac would like to invite customers having a quick tour and know more about Raytac’s factory.
Raytac’s factory is located in New Taipei City where is located in north of Taiwan. The factory scales 4600 M2 with 180 man power. A completed in house SMT equipment and inspection facility provide a reliable and speedy module production line with over 600,000 pcs monthly capacity.
nRF52833 is a powerful solution which supports multiprotocol such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, and Thread but also qualified for industrial operation at an extended temperature range of -40°C to 105°C.
Raytac’s MDBT50Q and MDBT50 module employed nRF52833 solution offering 2 kinds of form factor with either 48 or 18 GPIO option for selection. 3 antenna options helps developers to find the best balance between performance and budgetary for projects.
MDBT50Q and MDBT50 modules are BT5.2 qualified supports direction finding and Bluetooth long range feature. Both are built around 128K RAM, 512K Flash memory with I2C, SPI, I2S, UART, NFC, USB interface. A 1.7V to 5.5V supply voltage range enables powering the device from rechargeable batteries or over USB and +8dBm output power has significantly enhance the bluetooth long range coverage which is suitable for outdoor or smart home applications.
Nordic nRF52833 module by Raytac MDBT50Q & MDBT50
The modules are FCC/IC/CE/Telec/KC/SRRC/NCC/RCM pre-certified and in mass production for volume shipment. EVK demo board is also available for quick debug and evaluation. Developers who are interested in nRF52833 module MDBT50Q and MDBT50 are welcome get in touch with Raytac for immediate service support.
Developers love to use smaller module in order to fit in maximum kinds of implement and applications.
Nordic’s nRF52805 is a BT5.2 solution features an ARM Cortex M4 MCU with 24KB RAM and 192K Flash Memory, an idea solution to fulfill the applications which only need simple Bluetooth function but cost constrained budgetary.
Raytac has developed 2 module lines, MDBT42T & MDBT42TV, employed nRF52805 with different antenna options for customer election. All the modules have Bluetooth BT5.2 qualification granted, FCC/IC/CE/Telec/KC/SRRC/NCC pre-certified. A well RF designed module with completed coverage of certification offer an advantage to speed up time to market efficiency and minimal the BOM cost.
Raytac released MDBT50 series module which deployed Nordic latest nRF52 member, nRF52820 solution. nRF52820’s specification looks similar to nRF51822, but offer superior features than ever.
MDBT40 (nRF51822) VS. MDBT50 (nRF52820)
The nRF52820 features an Arm Cortex-M4 processor, 256 KB Flash and 32 KB RAM and offer I2C/SPI/UART but also full speed USB 2.0 interface which provide the maximum flexibility for commercial and industrial applications.
MDBT50 employed nRF52820 can be supplied with a voltage from 1.7 to 5.5 V, -40°C~105 industrial operation temperature. Features Upto +8 dBm output power and supports BT5.2 Direction Finding, high-throughput 2 Mbps, Long Range. Multiprotocol radio provides, Thread and Zigbee and Bluetooth mesh protocols.
MDBT50 series modules covers both nRF52833 and nRF52820 solutions and provide both chip and PCB antenna for customer’s selection. Developers are encouraged to visit Raytac website for more information.
After setup been done, here comes the next question: How to program the firmware in to the module. We are using some simple instruction in below for reader’s quick reference.
Hardware
You will need a Nordic nRF5X DK or a Segger J-link as programmer to load the firmware. To use Nordic nRF5X DK to debug the SoC as well, you will need to order corresponding nRF5X DK to match the SoC number. For example, order nRF52840 DK to debug nRF52840 SoC or order nRF52 DK to debug nRF52832/52810 SoC. But if you are only using it as programmer, any version of nRF5X DK will work as we only use the J-link on this board.
Software
Please download Nordic nRFGo Studio for programming. Remember to install nRF5X Command Line Tools if the board was not detected by nRFGo Studio. Once they are all connected, you can then start programming. Please make sure to “erase all” every time before programming.
For more tutorials and demo of sample code, please visit Nordic’s DevZone and Infocenter where have ample resources to utilize.
Programing
SoftDevice + Application
Erase all first. Then program Softdevice and follow by Application code.
Or you may combine code as stated in above. Erase all and follow by programing the combined code.
SoftDevice + Bootloader+ Application
Either Erase all first. Program the Softdevice and follow by Bootloader. and then use DFU to update the application code.
Or suggested having a combined code (SofDevice+Application+Bootloader) for program. Simply erase all and follow by programming the combined code.
*Remark
Bootloader is needed for DFU (OTA) Function.
SDK 11 (included) and before – a legacy DFU method, which is simple but less security
SDK 12 (Included) and after – a latest DFU method, which has higher security.
To easy customer’s IoT device mass production, Raytac provide code pre-program service into module before shipment. There are requirements listed in below for customers who need the service!
A single, combined hex file is required. Please combine softdevice and application or/and bootloader (depending on your firmware design) together before programming. This will shorten programming time and help to manage your code easier. If you are not familiar with merging firmware, please download the instruction from the link: https://mega.nz/#!Qg5UBJTQ!POWmmNNdapGqefHpB10YjpcuExLWwXnxDfBzcVrsTOw
Need a simple method to check programming status. The easiest way is to check the device name if device will broadcast device name after programming is done; or use I/O to trigger LED and its behavior. This does not aim to test any or full function of your device, only a simple method for the operator to know programming status.
nRF52840 MDBT50Q Module
Raytac Corporation
A BT4.1 & BT4.2 & BT5 module maker based on Nordic nRF51 & nRF52 solution