RF Microcontroller Selection

avrpicRFwireless

I have recently found that we need a security system in our home but am unwilling to pay a company $80/month to monitor and let them run wire all over the house. So I got to thinking that why can I not make my own simple mesh network and run it all off a head unit? (Possibly an old WRT54G router even)

My problem is finding an actual RF product for my needs. Battery life is #1 with size being a close #2 as these will be on windows and doors and can not be bulky.

I saw Synapse's SM200 which is a great size and has a fantastically easy python scripting language to work with but it seems that nobody stocks these things.

I looked down a scale of integration and see that the Synapse modules are based on a ATMEGA128RFA1 These chips bare however are quite pricey and I would still need a PCB and chip antenna.

Another Chip is Microchips rfPIC12F675F. These are much more affordable but are nearly impossible to find a stock of and even worse their is no official C compiler for this core (Not 100% sure, was just the word on some forums)

Ideally I would love to use the Synapse module as I doubt I could make my own board for cheaper but does anybody know where I can get these from? IF that's not going to work then are their any other RF solutions that meet my criteria? Possibly a separate RF IC that I can tie my favorite micro to?

Thanks for helping me out!

Best Answer

You could take a look at NXP's JN5148. Comes as a surface mount module containing micro, loads of I/O and RF, stacks for various flavours of RF comms including ZigBee and uses Eclipse as the development environment (supported under Windows). I've used it at work and eventually intend doing a load of automation stuff at home (i.e. when there's this mystical thing known as "spare time").

There are dev notes showing how to power them from a coin cell for low power intermittent use, and Farnell stock them.