ricardobeat / nrf8001-breakout-board

Breakout Board for the nRF8001. A Bluetooth 4 Low Energy IC.

nRF8001-Breakout-Board

• Author: Nabil Tewolde ([email protected])
• Version: 0.9
• Website: http://www.nabiltewolde.com
• GitHub: https://github.com/nabilt/nRF8001-Breakout-Board

This hardware project is the reference schematic for the nRF8001 Bluetooth Low Energy chip redone in Eagle. It is currently untested. The goal of this project is to develop a low power, cheap, cross-platform wireless module for wireless projects. I plan to include open firmware and demos for iOS and Android. Checkout my blog post for more info.

Why nRF8001 and not another Bluetooth 4 chip?

• Publicly available datasheet
• Simple circuitry, few passives and no integrated uC
• Cheap, $4.98 CAD on Mouser
• Small, currently the board is 1’’ x 0.9’’

Interesting Bluetooth 4 facts:

• Runs for years on a coin cell battery
• Works over a wide range; 10 to 100 meters
• 1Mbps over the air data rate; 0.2 Mbps throughput
• Virtually all new devices made in 2012 will contain Bluetooth 4
• Apple only provides a free API for Bluetooth 4 accessories

Checkout http://www.bluetooth.com/Pages/Bluetooth-Smart-Devices.aspx for a list of Bluetooth 4 compatible devices.

Licensing

nRF8001-Breakout-Board by Nabil Tewolde is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.