A Brief Introduction for Si4463 module

1. Chip introduction

Si4463 wireless module is a high performance and low power ISM wireless receiver from Silicon Lsbs. The frequency range covered by this chip is 119MHz-1150MHz, which is part of the EZRadioPRO series. This chip has a wide frequency range, can support the frequency band that Si4463 / 61/60does not support, output power up to 27dBm, high receiving sensitivity, low power consumption. In addition, with the help of WDS (Wireless DevelopmentSuite), developers can quickly configure the parameters of the chip, greatly simplifying the development process.

2. Functions

1) Pins

The pins of the chip are mainly software and hardware.

2) Implementation

Familiar with wireless networks. Clarify the actual business requirements in the project and determine the actual network structure. Commonly used are one-to-one, star network, mesh and so on.

Learn about wireless development requirements. For example, if the project requires low power consumption, then a low power chip should be selected and the system solution should be optimized. For data acquisition projects, the wireless chip should be in a dormantstate in most states, and the transmission time should be shortened as low as possible. If security is involved, data encryption should be considered toensure the security of the data during transmission.

For the 4463 chip, the basic operation flowis power-on initialization, configuration of relevant wireless parameters, and entering the corresponding state according to the role of the module itself. At this time, the program should be in a state machine in a loop, and the chipmakes corresponding action according to the state it is in.

3) According to the data sheet of the chip,the user is required to perform an initialization after powering on the chip.

Reference reset procedure

void sdn_reset (void)

{

     RADIO_RST (HIGH);

  delay_1ms (2);

  RADIO_RST (LOW);

  delay_1ms (10);

}

4) SPI operation

This chip uses SPI interface to communicate with the main control chip, usually four-wire SPI. The user can choose software SPI or hardware SPI.

Before any SPI communication, the CTS command should be used to query the chip status. When the chip is busy, it should not be read or written. The diagram is as follows:

5) Chip States

All states of this new chip are as follows:

Among them, in the shut down state, the chip is in the off state, and the power consumption is the lowest.

Standby / Sleep, SPI Active, Ready,TX Tune, and RX tune can be used to optimize power consumption and RX / TX response time for specific applications. Users can switch state through START RX and START TX. Controlling SDN can make the chip enter shut down state.

6) Data processing

The chip has two built-in 64Bytes FIFOs forstoring data during communication. The operation of FIFO is more than juststoring data. When the amount of data written to the FIFO is greater than acertain value, the chip will notify the user in the form of an interrupt, and when the amount of data in the chip is lower than a certain value, there will also be an interrupt prompt. These features help users deal with it in a timelymanner.

7) Sleep function

The sleep function helps save power. Si4463 provides LDC function. The user can set two periods. One is the time window forreceiving. During this period, the chip keeps awake to prepare for receiving data. Another period of time is the sleep time, during which the chip is in the sleep state, and the power consumption is greatly reduced. The user can adjustthe ratio of the two periods to achieve the desired power consumption.

8) WDS software

With the help of WDS software, users canquickly configure the wireless communication parameters of the chip. The parameters that can be modified with this software are Frequency power, RF parameters, packet,Interrupt, GPIO FRRs, these items basically cover all the parameters of the chip. After the configuration is complete, the user can choose to generate aheader file for easy use in the program.

The software interface is as follows:

For parts not covered in this article,please refer to the reference manual of the chip.

After the above introduction to Si4463, thereader should have a general understanding of the chip. Hope this article will be helpful to everyone.