About nRF24L01+

Introduction to nRF24L01+

The nRF24L01+ is a single chip 2.4GHz transceiver with an embedded baseband protocol engine(Enhanced ShockBurst™), suitable for ultra low power wireless applications. The nRF24L01+ is designed for operation in the world wide ISM frequency band at 2.400～2.4835GHz.

To design a radio system with the nRF24L01+, you simply need an MCU (microcontroller) and a few external passive components.

You can operate and configure the nRF24L01+ through a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI). The register map, which is accessible through the SPI, contains all configuration registers in the nRF24L01+ and is accessible in all operation modes of the chip.

The embedded baseband protocol engine (Enhanced ShockBurst™) is based on packet communication and supports various modes from manual operation to advanced autonomous protocol operation. Internal FIFOs ensure a smooth data flow between the radio front end and the system’s MCU. Enhanced Shock-Burst™ reduces system cost by handling all the high speed link layer operations.

The radio front end uses GFSK modulation. It has user configurable parameters like frequency channel, output power and air data rate. nRF24L01+ supports an air data rate of 250 kbps, 1 Mbps and 2Mbps. The high air data rate combined with two power saving modes make the nRF24L01+ very suitable for ultra low power designs.

nRF24L01+ is drop-in compatible with nRF24L01 and on-air compatible with nRF2401A, nRF2402, nRF24E1 and nRF24E2. Intermodulation and wideband blocking values in nRF24L01+ are much improved in comparison to the nRF24L01 and the addition of internal filtering to nRF24L01+ has improved the margins for meeting RF regulatory standards.

Internal voltage regulators ensure a high Power Supply Rejection Ratio (PSRR) and a wide power supply range.

Features of nRF24L01+

Radio

• Worldwide 2.4GHz ISM band operation
• 126 RF channels
• Common RX and TX interface
• GFSK modulation
• 250kbps, 1 and 2Mbps air data rate
• 1MHz non-overlapping channel spacing at 1Mbps
• 2MHz non-overlapping channel spacing at 2Mbps

Transmitter

• Programmable output power: 0, -6, -12 or -18dBm
• 11.3mA at 0dBm output power

Receiver

• Fast AGC for improved dynamic range
• Integrated channel filters
• 13.5mA at 2Mbps
• -82dBm sensitivity at 2Mbps
• -85dBm sensitivity at 1Mbps
• -94dBm sensitivity at 250kbps

RF Synthesizer

• Fully integrated synthesizer
• No external loop filer, VCO varactor diode or resonator
• Accepts low cost ±60ppm 16MHz crystal

Enhanced ShockBurst™

• 1 to 32 bytes dynamic payload length
• Automatic packet handling
• Auto packet transaction handling
• 6 data pipe MultiCeiver™ for 1:6 star networks

Power Management

• Integrated voltage regulator
• 1.9 to 3.6V supply range
• Idle modes with fast start-up times for advanced power management
• 26µA Standby-I mode, 900nA power down mode
• Max 1.5ms start-up from power down mode
• Max 130us start-up from standby-I mode

Host Interface

• 4-pin hardware SPI
• Max 10Mbps
• 3 separate 32 bytes TX and RX FIFOs
• 5V tolerant inputs
• Compact 20-pin 4x4mm QFN package

Block diagram of nRF24L01+

Ｄifferences between nRF24L01+ and nRF24L01

1. nRF24L01+ is an upgraded version of nRF24L01.

2. Advantages of nRF24L01+ over nRF24L01 chips:
(1) It supports three transmission rates of 250Kbps, 1Mbps and 2Mbps. If the amount of data is small, the rate of 250Kbps can be selected, and the transmission distance is longer.
(2) Support more power configurations, which can effectively save power consumption according to different applications.
(3) Nordic's updated 2.4G chip is more stable and reliable.

nRF24L01+ module recommended

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