Hardware Platforms - Getting Started with Bluetooth Low Energy - page 81

external antenna to your product without having to worry about impedance matching
on the transmission line (the metal trace that transmits energy to and from the radio).
As another advantage, some modules (e.g., the Bluegiga modules or Laird modules
discussed later in this section) come with high-level development scripting languages
that can significantly reduce development time and avoid some of the difficulties of
working with low-level programming enviroments such as Keil's uVision for Nordic's
nRF51822-EK ( “nRF51822-EK (Nordic Semiconductors)” on page 75 ) or IAR for Texas
Instruments' CC2541MINI-DK ( “CC2541DK-MINI (Texas Instruments)” on page 78 ).
They only require a text editor for code development.
Of course, the benefits of using modules come at a cost. The per-unit price of modules
is significantly higher than designing your own hardware using individual integrated
circuits (such as the nRF51822 or CC2541). Module makers spread out the design,
verification, and certification costs across multiple products and allow low-volume
products to hit a price point they wouldn't be able to on their own, but at some point
(probably upward of 10,000 units), designing and certifying your own hardware might
be more cost effective.
The rest of this section describes three BLE modules available at the time of this writing.
Laird's BL600 Module
Laird's BL600 module is based on Nordic Semiconductor's nRF51822 ( “nRF51822-EK
(Nordic Semiconductors)” on page 75 ). In addition to all of the raw functionality in‐
cluded in the nR51822, these modules add an event-driven smartBASIC programming
language that allows you to easily create basic applications without having to learn or
invest in expensive commercial IDEs and compilers, or having to program in low-level
languages like C or C++.
You're free to program the modules directly using standard C code and Nordic's SDK
and toolkit for the nRF51822, but the smartBASIC option might be useful for simple
use cases in which you just need to add a wireless link to your product with a minimum
of development effort and without having to learn a new stack and technology in depth.
This module has regulatory certifications for CE/ETSI (Europe), FCC, Industry Canada,
Japan, and the NCC (Taiwan), as well as Bluetooth SIG Qualification, and is also avail‐
able for purchase from many major component resellers online.
Bluegiga's BLE112/BLE113 Modules
Bluegiga's BLE112 and BLE113 modules are based on the CC2540/CC2541 from Texas
Instruments ( “CC2541DK-MINI (Texas Instruments)” on page 78 ). They include sup‐
port for BGScript, which allows you to program certain types of applications using
simple XML files. Bluegiga also provides a C API to work with these modules using an
external MCU, talking to the modules over UART.