[TriEmbed] wireless device

Wed Dec 30 09:50:41 CST 2015

Slight correction on my part, I was thinking of the "EMW3162" not the 
"EMW3165". That's what I get for trying to reply and google what I can't 
remember all from my phone.

The 3162 is very similar, except it runs a Cortex M3 @ 120MHz, and has 
only 1MB of external flash.

Interestingly, the 3162 is slightly more expensive ($10), vs $8 for the 
3165. The 3162 has a slightly more DIY friendly footprint though. The 
3162 also has a connector for an external antenna, which seemed to help 
a bit in my limited testing.

It is the 3162, not the 3165 that I have personally debugged with the 
Broadcom Wifi sdk....

I actually did a blog post earlier this year with a mini-review of the 
3162, so you'd think I would have remembered it more:

http://www.bytecruft.com/2015/04/prototyping-with-emw3162-iot-devices.html

One thing to note is the annoying 2.0mm pitch on the connectors, REALLY 
a pain to source headers for. I made an adapter board for it here: 
https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/opehJKc7  (The links in my blog 
entry are dead, I need to update them).

On 2015-12-30 08:26, Craig Cook wrote:
> I appreciate everyone's feedback.
> 
> My project is a proof-of-concept thing. For now I think I'll start
> with the esp8266 but may quickly look at other options if/when I have
> problems with it.
> 
> Longer term (if I get it working) I'll need to evaluate other wifi
> options.
> 
> I'll design my code to "easily" swap out wireless options.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Craig
> 
> -------------------------
>  FROM: Robert Gasiorowski <rgresume at gmail.com>
>  TO: Jon Wolfe <jonjwolfe at anibit.com>
> CC: "pete at soper.us" <pete at soper.us>; Craig Cook <cncook001 at yahoo.com>;
> "triembed at triembed.org" <triembed at triembed.org>
>  SENT: Wednesday, December 30, 2015 7:58 AM
>  SUBJECT: Re: [TriEmbed] wireless device
> 
> ESP8266 is good if you're on a very strict budget and designing a
> custom, quick & dirty, non-mission-critical or proof-of-concept
> solution, and on a private network (it supports WPA.) I would never
> use it in an actual product. It will be, however, soon made obsolete
> by the new dual-core BLE / WiFI part that Espressif has recently
> announced, the ESP32, towards which the community will certainly shift
> its focus and development efforts. I suspect this new device will be
> quite a game-changer in the maker / hobbyist space and might become
> the new connected "Arduino".
> 
> I also forgot to mention CC2650, not a WiFi device, but worth looking
> at. There's new, cool CC2650 BoosterPack coming soon.
> 
> ESP8266 PROS
> - Price (amazing, considering that ready-to-go modules are available
> for about 3 USD)
> - Size of modules and reference design BOMs (i.e. most components are
> integrated in the chip and the reference design only adds some flash
> memory and little else for the RF side)
> - Ease of use of the AT+ command set
> - Nice interactive mode with local echo (good for network
> troubleshooting)
> - Simple firmware update (through UART interface: no special hardware
> required)
> - Vibrant community (but mostly experimental)
> - Arduino IDE support (advantage from a communication point of view,
> as you don't have to explain it can use a Wiring derivative blah blah)
> 
> ESP8266 CONS
> 
> - Power hungry (because of radio interface/protocol and power
> management implementation)
> - No proper debugging in the toolchain for now (and probably never at
> this pace, as apparently only some experimental and limited success
> has been achieved. I think I have read somewhere that apparently
> Espressif may have not licensed for redistribution the entire IP
> package from their core vendor Tensilica. Very major absolute
> show-stopper for me so I haven't even looked at their tools)
> - Documentation (lack of and absurd versioning and paternity, with
> absolutely no criteria and multiple anonymous and undocumented
> releases floating around, at least for the AT+ firmware)
> - Firmware quality (unstable, sometimes self-resets, multiple
> connections required to run as an HTTP server)
> - Most open software development appears to be community-driven (with
> all the problems that this generates because it mixes up with the
> limited - closed - activity from the vendor)
> - Lack of secure connections due to RAM size and buggy / unfinished
> APIs
> 
> On Wed, Dec 30, 2015 at 12:17 AM, Jon Wolfe <jonjwolfe at anibit.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> I can personally testify that you can get the emw3165 working with
>> broadcoms sdk, gcc/gdb and eclipse, no IAR needed. Seeed sells a dev
>> tool for it for around $20 that has an embedded jtag.
>> 
>> -------- Original message --------
>> From: pete at soper.us
>> Date: 12/29/2015 11:11 PM (GMT-05:00)
>> To: Robert Gasiorowski <rgresume at gmail.com>, Jon Wolfe
>> <jonjwolfe at anibit.com>
>> Cc: Craig Cook <cncook001 at yahoo.com>, triembed at triembed.org
>> 
>> Subject: Re: [TriEmbed] wireless device
>> 
>> Yes, the more I read about the 8266 the more it seems like the
>> ultimate "get what you pay for" demo. I could well imagine a lot of
>> snickering going on at TI.
>> 
>> Here's a blog post exploring reliability issues:
>> 
>> http://flashgamer.com/hardware/comments/esp8266-and-stability [3]
>> 
>> The situation w the EMW3165 is more fuzzy, and it appears that
>> module's developers think everybody has the IAR Embedded Workbench
>> on their (Windows, natch) PC. (the IAR software costs thousands of
>> dollars!)
>> Pete
>> 
>> ----- Reply message -----
>> From: "Robert Gasiorowski via TriEmbed" <triembed at triembed.org>
>> To: "Jon Wolfe" <jonjwolfe at anibit.com>
>> Cc: "Craig Cook" <cncook001 at yahoo.com>, "triembed at triembed.org"
>> <triembed at triembed.org>
>> Subject: [TriEmbed] wireless device
>> Date: Tue, Dec 29, 2015 9:45 PM
>> 
>> Anything is better than ESP8266 :) (I can elaborate if you want)
>> 
>> If you are looking for something reliable and easy to work with, I
>> would suggest CC3100 (NWP) or CC3200 (NWP+ARM).
>> They are not cheap, but they are worth every penny.
>> 
>> Rob.
>> 
>> On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 7:41 PM, Jon Wolfe via TriEmbed
>> <triembed at triembed.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> EMW3165, it's actually been around for a while. ARM Cortex m4,
>>> 2+0.5 Mb flash, 128 k ram.
>>> There are a few more capable variations too, but you start to run
>>> into the price range where you should just get a pi. (Of course
>>> the pi zero makes that price point even lower)
>>> 
>>> -------- Original message --------
>>> From: Craig Cook via TriEmbed <triembed at triembed.org>
>>> Date: 12/29/2015 6:51 PM (GMT-05:00)
>>> To: triembed at triembed.org
>>> Subject: [TriEmbed] wireless device
>>> 
>>> At our last Triembed meeting someone mentioned there was a new
>>> wireless device coming our soon that was better than the esp8266.
>>> What was it?
>>> 
>>> Thanks
>>> 
>>> Craig
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Triangle, NC Embedded Computing mailing list
>>> TriEmbed at triembed.org
>>> http://mail.triembed.org/mailman/listinfo/triembed_triembed.org
>>> [1]
>>> TriEmbed web site: http://TriEmbed.org [2]
> 
> 
> 
> Links:
> ------
> [1] http://mail.triembed.org/mailman/listinfo/triembed_triembed.org
> [2] http://triembed.org/
> [3] http://flashgamer.com/hardware/comments/esp8266-and-stability