Today, AND Technology Research (AND TR) of Theydon Bois in
Based on Renesas’ M16C/6B single chip ZigBee silicon, the AND TR design kits are tuned to provide optimum RF performance in the most demanding situations and have been tested for interoperability at ZigBee Smart Energy interoperability events.
The kits include “TestZED” modules that can be used in product prototyping and are pre-programmed with the Renesas ZigBee Pro stack as well as the Smart Energy 1.1 profile (other profiles are available on request). The modules are controlled via HyperTerminal commands.
In the Advanced design kit, the specialist TestZED module is designed to interoperate with the bundled PC TestZED software and can function as either a ZigBee Co-ordinator or Router, depending on how it is initialised.
The TestZED PC software gives users greater visibility of network communications, and enables direct testing of the ZigBee Profile and their developed application through the reading/writing to the individual attributes of the profile's clusters.
As a result, scenarios can be quickly set up and tested. As is standard with all AND TR products, the ConnectZED Evaluation Kits come backed by direct technical email and telephone support.
When users start to develop their ZigBee based design they can rest assured that there is not just technical support at a simple call or email away, but complete embedded expertise and design services available too.
The Renesas M16C/6B single chip silicon integrates 16-bit CPU with an IEEE802.15.4 compliant 2.4GHz transceiver, up to 256kB of on-chip Flash coupled with 20kB RAM and 8kB of data flash, in addition to many useful peripherals such as a 4 channel DMA, multiple timers (including watchdog), 3 channels of serial I/O and an 8 channel 10bit ADC.
Andy Harding, Senior Manager of Smart Energy Segment Marketing at Renesas Electronics Europe, comments: “Whilst the European Union and individual governments target ambitious roll outs of Smart Metering across the EU, AND TR has the expertise to turn this goal into reality and is already actively supporting a number of our customers in technology trials,” says Renesas’ Andy Harding.
AND TR’s Steven Kear says: “Renesas are focused on supplying semiconductor based solutions specifically targeted for use in the Smart Grid and Building/Home Automation markets. Our relationship goes back many years and this gives customers the confidence they require to work with suppliers of components for major infrastructure projects like the Smart Grid,”
