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Applications:

• IoT end devices and gateways
• Health, sports and wellness devices
• Industrial, home and building automation
• Smart phone, tablet and PC accessories
• Beacons

 

Module specifications

The S100 Master – Blue Gecko BGM13P Module has been build around the BGM13P Blue Gecko Bluetooth Module from Silicon Labs. The fully certified module contains all components required for a system-level implementation of Bluetooth® Low Energy and proprietary wireless networks operating in the 2.4 GHz band.

The Module features an energy-friendly 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4 MCU capable of working at 38.4 MHz with 512 kB Flash program memory, another 64kB to store data, and 64 kB of RAM. The integrated radio transceiver allows transmission power up to 8 dBm and reception sensitivity of -94.8 dBm. Transmission range can reach up to 200 meters.

With the supporting Simplicity Studio suite of tools, developers can take advantage of graphical wireless application development, BGScript for Python-like scripting, and visual energy profiling and optimization.

A wide variety of interfaces are accesible, and a bunch of GPIOs, interruptions and PWM signals make their way to the Rhomb.io connectors.

The following figure identifies the main components onboard:

The next figure shows the Block Diagram for the S100 Master – Blue Gecko BGM13P Module:

 

Communication Protocols	Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth 5)
Frequency Range	2.4 GHz
Receiver Performance	-103.2 dBm sensitivity at 125 kbit/s GFSK
Peripheral interface	UART / USB / I2C / PI / I2S / GPIO
Internet Security	-Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) -True Random Number Generator (TRNG) -2 × Hardware Cryptographic Accelerators (CRYPTO)
Op. Voltage	1.8 V to 3.8 V (integrated DC-DC)
Op. current	RX: 9.9 mA — TX: 8.5 mA

User interfaces

The following table indicates the available serial interfaces of the Rhomb.io standard used in this Module. This table relates the interfaces of the Rhomb.io standard with the net names of the schematic and with the components to which they are connected.

Rhomb.io Interface	Schematic Signal	Component	Component Pin
UART-A	UART-A_TXD	BGM13P	PF0
		CP2102N	RXD
	UART-A_RXD	BGM13P	PF1
		CP2102N	TXD
	UART-A_RTS	BGM13P	PF3
		CP2102N	CTS#
	UART-A_CTS	BGM13P	PF2
		CP2102N	RTS#
UART-B	UART-B_TXD	BGM13P	PB11
	UART-B_RXD	BGM13P	PB13
I2C-A	I2C-A_SCL	BGM13P	PC11
		Crypto Memory	SCL
	I2C-A_SDA	BGM13P	PC10
		Crypto Memory	SDA
SPI-A	SPI-A_MISO	BGM13P	PC7
		Flash Memory	SO
	SPI-A_MOSI	BGM13P	PC6
		Flash Memory	SI
	SPI-A_CLK	BGM13P	PC8
		Flash Memory	SCK
	SPI-A_CS0	BGM13P	PC9
SAI-A	SAI-A_SDO	BGM13P	PF0
	SAI-A_SDI	BGM13P	PF1
	SAI-A_BCLK	BGM13P	PF2
	SAI-A_LRCLK	BGM13P	PF3
USB	USB_N	CP2102N	D-
	USB_P	CP2102N	D+
SWD	SWCLK	BGM13P	PF0
	SWDIO	BGM13P	PF1
	SWO	BGM13P	PF2

• UART-A: transmission and reception can be done by one Universal Synchronous/Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (USART) interface. This interface can be programmed to support full duplex asynchronous UART communication with hardware flow control, and is tied directly to the Rhomb.io standard UART-A bus.

• UART-B: the Low Energy Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (LEUART) interface includes all necessary hardware to make asynchronous serial communication possible with a minimum of software intervention and energy consumption. This interface is tied directly to the Rhomb.io standard UART-B bus.

• I2C-A: the I2C interface provides communication between the Master and a serial I2C bus. It is capable of acting as both a master and a slave and supports multi-master buses. Standard-mode, fast-mode and fast-mode plus speeds are supported, allowing transmission rates from 10 kbit/s up to 1 Mbit/s. This interface is tied directly to the Rhomb.io standard I2C-A bus.

• SPI-A: an SPI interface is accesible too, connected to the on-board flash memory, and to the Rhomb.io standard SPI-A, QSPI and SDIO buses.

• SAI-A: USART interface is also connected to the SAI-A bus so the user can configure it to stablish communication with devices supporting I2S interface.

• USB: an USB to UART bridge has been added to facilitate the connection to a computer.

• SWD: a SWD interface is used for firmware update and debug purposes. You can find this lines connected to the Rhomb.io standard SWD bus.

GPIOs and Control Signals

The following table summarizes the GPIOs and Control Signals used on the S100 Master – Blue Gecko BGM13P Module. This table relates the signals of the Rhomb.io standard with the net names of the schematic and with the components to which they are connected.

Rhomb.io Signal	Schematic Signal	Component	Component Pin
IO0	IO0	BGM13P	PA1
IO1	IO1	BGM13P	PA2
IO2	IO2	BGM13P	PA3
IO3	IO3	BGM13P	PA4
IO4	IO4	BGM13P	PA5
IO5 / 1WIRE	IO5	BGM13P	PF4
IO6	–	–	–
IO7	–	–	–
AD0	LESENS_CH5	BGM13P	PD13
PWM0	WTIM0	BGM13P	PA0
#RESET_IN	#RESET_IN	BGM13P	RESETn
RESET_OUT	RESET_OUT	BGM13P	PF5
INT0	INT	BGM13P	PF6
#NMI	#NMI	BGM13P	PF7
SDIO_DATA3	(SDIO_CS)	BGM13P	PD14
QSPI_CS0	(SPI_MEM_CS)	BGM13P	PD15

• IO0 – IO5: each GPIO pin can be individually configured as either an output or input. More advanced configurations including open-drain, open-source, and glitch-filtering can be configured for each individual GPIO pin. The GPIO pins can be overridden by peripheral connections, like SPI communication. Each peripheral connection can be routed to several GPIO pins on the device. The input value of a GPIO pin can be routed through the Peripheral Reflex System to other peripherals.

• IO5 / 1WIRE: This signal can be used to read the ID Memory if SJ5 Solder Jumper is shorted.

• AD0: the Low Energy Sensor Interface LESENSE is a highly configurable sensor interface. By controlling the analog comparators, ADC, and DAC, LESENSE is capable of supporting a wide range of sensors and measurement schemes, and can for instance measure LC sensors, resistive sensors and capacitive sensors. LESENSE also includes a programmable finite state machine which enables simple processing of measurement results without CPU intervention.

• PWM0: the PWM mode of the TIMER supports generation of pulse-width modulation (PWM) outputs of arbitrary waveforms defined by the sequence of values written to the compare registers, with optional dead-time insertion available in timer unit WTIM0 only. This signal could be used to drive the on-board LED if SJ3 Solder Jumper is shorted.

• INT & #NMI: the GPIO subsystem supports asynchronous external pin interrupts.

• Chip Selects: one of the BGM13P GPIOs is used as chip select line for the on-board flash memory (and is tied to the Rhomb.io standard QSPI bus chip select too). Another GPIO is used as chip select for the Rhomb.io standard SDIO bus, if used in SPI Mode.

Nevertheless, the versatility of the Blue Gecko module lies in the multifunction of all of its pins. The above table is an adaptation of the module pinout to the Rhomb.io standard pinout. Be sure that most of the pins of the S100 Master – Blue Gecko BGM13P Module have way more functions than the ones shown in the schematics.

For more details, check the Module Schematics and the BGM13P manufacturer documentation.

Power

The S100 Master – Blue Gecko BGM13P Module can use the 1.8V, the 2.8V or the 3.3V rail. You can choose the voltage shorting the corresponding Solder Jumper. Make sure this rail is enabled on the motherboard you are going to plug this Module.

Below you can find the current consumption when using the transceiver, which is the case where the Module is expected to need more power (typical conditions are: VDD = 3.3 V. T = 25 °C):

 

Mechanical specifications

Board

Warranty

• Precaution against Electrostatic Discharge. When handling Rhomb.io products, ensure that the environment is protected against static electricity. Follow the next recommendations:

1. The users should wear anti-static clothing and use earth band when manipulating the device.
2. All objects that come in direct contact with devices should be made of materials that do not produce static electricity that would cause damage.
3. Equipment and work table must be earthed.
4. Ionizer is recommended to remove electron charge.

• Contamination. Be sure to use semiconductor products in the environment that may not be exposed to dust or dirt adhesion.

• Temperature/Humidity. Semiconductor devices are sensitive to environment temperature and humidity. High temperature or humidity may deteriorate semiconductor devices characteristics. Therefore avoid storage or usage in such conditions.

• Mechanical Shock. Care should be exercised not to apply excessive mechanical shock or force on the connectors and semiconductors devices.

• Chemical. Do not expose semiconductor device to chemical because reaction to chemical may cause deterioration of device characteristics.

• Light Protection. In case of non-EMC (Epoxy Molding Compound) package, do not expose semiconductor IC to strong light. It may cause devices malfunction. Some special products which utilize the light or have security function are excepted from this specification.

• Radioactive, Cosmic and X-ray. Semiconductor devices can be influenced by radioactive, cosmic ray or X-ray. Radioactive, cosmic and X-ray may cause soft error during device operation. Therefore semiconductor devices must be shielded under environment that may be exposed to radioactive, cosmic ray or X-ray.

• EMS (Electromagnetic Susceptibility). Note that semiconductor devices characteristics may be affected by strong electromagnetic waves or magnetic field during operation.

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