STM32 M0 board with BLE $25

Waveshare do some slightly bigger but which has the 32khz crystal, and is a quarter of the price.

http://www.waveshare.com/product/module … m?___SID=U

Those CC2540 based modules are very limited in what you can do.

The “HM10” has more features than the one you linked to, but all of them are a pain to use, as they are controlled via Serial.

The only way to write code for the CC254x modules is using the IAR 8051 compiler, which is $$$$$$ ( because TI only release their BLE lib binaries in IAR format)

Actually, I am looking at developing for the CC254x devices at the moment, but the compiler price is a big problem, and although I downloaded the 30 day demo of IAR, I have not activated it, because Im too busy on other projects to have time to make full use of the 30 days in which to determine if its cost effective to buy the compiler.

Note. Just to be factually correct, I heard that if you approach TI and sign an NDA it may be possible to get the source for the BLE libs so that they could be compiled using an open source 8051 compiler, but I don’t think this is a commercially viable option as there isnt GCC for 8051 and you would be reliant on an old unsupported compiler.

Those CC2540 based modules are very limited in what you can do.
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The CC254x its self is a very good chip, especially considering its using an 8051 as its core.

The key selling point for those type of modules is the price, as they are cheaper and more readily available than nRF51822 based modules.

Ray

Those CC2540 based modules are very limited in what you can do.
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But the video was painful to watch,because IMHO the module creator / vendor , spoke about the nRF51822 as if he’d invented the nordic’s chip himself.

Its just one of many nRF51822 modules. Its only distinctive feature is that the module footprint is a DIL IC.

I just doubt it was worth the effort, purely in terms of return on investment of the product its self.

I has however got his business a lot of publicity, so if you factor that cost, then it could be time well spent, even if the product doesn’t sell in huge volumes

Anyway. Patents are only valid in small countries, not big ones like China

I’m glad you spotted the humour that was intentional in my statement, as I realise in hindsight that it could be taken in the wrong way.

But I think there is a general consensus that the patent system no longer doing what it was intended do.

They just issue them and let the patent troll’s lawyers duke it out for who’s got the most money to waste in court. But then, much lawyer income goes to pay the country club dues and bar tabs. At over drinks, they collude on how to drag out the case since they know how much $ the litigants have.

Or is this too cynical?

They just issue them and let the patent troll’s lawyers duke it out for who’s got the most money to waste in court. But then, much lawyer income goes to pay the country club dues and bar tabs. At over drinks, they collude on how to drag out the case since they know how much $ the litigants have.

Or is this too cynical?

“… the allegedly convicted suspect … “

But, we digress.