MSP430 Solar Energy Harvester Dev Tool
MSP430 Solar Energy Harvesting Development Tool
The eZ430-RF2500-SEH is a complete Solar Energy Harvesting development kit to help create a perpetually powered wireless sensor network based on the ultra-low-power MSP430 microcontroller. The Solar Energy Harvester module includes a high-efficiency solar (2.25x2.25in) panel optimized for operating indoors under low-intensity fluorescent lights, which provides enough power to run a wireless sensor application with no additional batteries. Inputs are also available for external energy harvesters such as thermal, piezoelectric, or another solar panel. The system also manages and stores additional energy in a pair of thin-film rechargeable EnerChips from Cymbet which are capable of delivering enough power for 400+ transmissions. The EnerChips act as an energy buffer that stores the energy while the application is sleeping and has light available to harvest. The batteries are environmentally friendly and can be recharged thousands of times. They also have a very low self discharge, which is vital for a no-power, energy harvesting system. The eZ430-RF2500 is used to run the energy harvesting application. It is a complete USB-based MSP430 wireless development tool and provides all the hardware and software necessary to use the MSP430F2274 microcontroller and CC2500 2.4-GHz wireless transceiver. It includes a USB debugging interface that allows for real-time, in-system debugging and programming for the MSP430, and it is also the interface to transfer data to a PC from your wireless system. The integrated tempera ...
MSP430 Solar Energy Harvesting Development Tool
The eZ430-RF2500-SEH is a complete Solar Energy Harvesting development kit to help create a perpetually powered wireless sensor network based on the ultra-low-power MSP430 microcontroller. The Solar Energy Harvester module includes a high-efficiency solar (2.25x2.25in) panel optimized for operating indoors under low-intensity fluorescent lights, which provides enough power to run a wireless sensor application with no additional batteries. Inputs are also available for external energy harvesters such as thermal, piezoelectric, or another solar panel. The system also manages and stores additional energy in a pair of thin-film rechargeable EnerChips from Cymbet which are capable of delivering enough power for 400+ transmissions. The EnerChips act as an energy buffer that stores the energy while the application is sleeping and has light available to harvest. The batteries are environmentally friendly and can be recharged thousands of times. They also have a very low self discharge, which is vital for a no-power, energy harvesting system. The eZ430-RF2500 is used to run the energy harvesting application. It is a complete USB-based MSP430 wireless development tool and provides all the hardware and software necessary to use the MSP430F2274 microcontroller and CC2500 2.4-GHz wireless transceiver. It includes a USB debugging interface that allows for real-time, in-system debugging and programming for the MSP430, and it is also the interface to transfer data to a PC from your wireless system. The integrated temperature and RF signal strength indicators can be used to monitor the environment, and many external sensors can be used to collect additional data. The eZ430-RF2500-SEH Sensor Monitor is a complete open source application that includes an example energy-aware project to test your hardware and may be used as a framework for your energy harvesting project. Firmware is provided for the MSP430 as well as a PC demo application to display the data samples from your wireless network.
- Efficient solar energy harvesting module for the eZ430-RF2500
- Ultra-low-power 16MHz MSP430 microcontroller
- Battery-less operation
- Works in low ambient light
- 400+ transmissions in dark
- Adaptable to any RF network or sensor input
- Inputs available for external harvesters (thermal, piezo, 2nd solar panel, etc.)
- USB debugging and programming interface with application backchannel to PC
- 18 available analogue and communications input/output pins
- Two green and red LEDs for visual feedback
- Interrupt push button for user feedback
- Supplied with Two eZ430-RF2500T wireless target boards, eZ430-RF USB debugging interface, AAA battery pack with expansion board (batteries included), MSP430 Development Tool CD containing documentation and development software.
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I received the eZ430-RF2500-SEH on a rainy Monday but after a while with the kit my day brightens up. The kit was complete with a USB dongle, 2 x 2.4GHz transceiver, solar module, CD with software to use and a very short quick start guide. The CD contained 2 different IDE the IAR and TI own Code composer studio I didn’t need to install any since I am already using IAR, besides that the CD also contains example software which is measuring the voltage generated from the solar cell and temperature.
After installing the software and running it I only need to plug in the 2.4GHz module in the solar cell and remove a jumper, the quick start guide said to remove “jumper j8” only problem that you can’t see a j8 jumper but there was only one jumper attached so I took a change and BINGO a small yellow bobble appear on the pc screen in the TI sensor software, this is very easy. The software is very simple you can view a graph showing how well the communication is and the temperature from the device the software is not at all interesting if you are looking for something on the solar cell.
This kit dos exactly what you would expect from it, it is very simple. The only downside was that a need to look for the documentation on the harvesting IC from Cymbet and also it would be very nice to have a power reading of some sort, I can see that the cell is producing 3.2V but not how much current.
This is a very easy to use kit and it gives you a presentation of solar harvesting and also on the SimpliciTI protocol from TI which is used by the 2.4GHz transceivers I can wait to attach my own CC1101 transceiver to it and see how long I will be able to drive it from the cell have found with this kit I had but I can’t keep you for days.
Nigel Evans
The eZ430-RF2500 Solar Energy Harvester is let down by a poor Quick Start guide, lacklustre demo software, and poor wireless range. But these weaknesses are more than made up for by awesome hardware that achieves the seemingly impossible task of providing solar energy to a packet radio transceiver in the dark!
* Overall rating: 5/5
* Out of the Box Experience: 3/5
* Instructions and documentation: 2/5
* Functionality: 5/5
* Software development tools installation: 4/5
* Software ease of use: 2/5
* Software documentation: 2/5
To see my detailed review, follow this link. If the link is broken, try Searching for the term SEH.
sir_grimwood
I have known of the MSP430 for many years but have not previously considered it seriously because of the learning curve. The features of this development kit have given me the impetus to try it out and I must say that I am very impressed. It will be higher my list of processors for consideration in future projects.
Download the full review here