AXSEM releases a brand new all-in-one evaluation kits for the AX5042 and AX5051.

AXSEM, a Swiss fabless RF IC manufacturer, releases the new AX5051-DVK/AX5042-DVK evaluation kits. The AX5042-DVK/AX5051-DVK evaluation kits are complete and flexible ready-to-go solutions for an easy test and evaluation of the AX5042 (a powerful ultra-narrowband and very cost-effective RF transceiver IC) or AX5051 (a universal low-cost RF transceiver IC) ideally suited for a wide range of applications in the sub 1GHz ISM bands (433/868/915 MHz). Particularly the AX5042 provides extraordinary long range communication capability of over 10km. The AX5042 is the perfect choice for Automatic Meter Reading (AMR), home- and building automation as well as industrial applications. The AX5051 with its universal and low-cost characteristics perfectly suits all kinds of consumer and other cost-sensitive applications. Both IC meet the IEEE 802.15.4 PHY layer specification.

The AX5051-DVK/AX5042-DVK are easy to use platforms for evaluation and development of RF systems. A development kit comes with one parallel and two USB base boards together with four RF modules carrying the RF transceivers and to be plugged onto the base boards. While the parallel board is good for real performance tests using professional lab equipment like spectrum analyser and signal generators the USB boards are designed for application oriented tests like sending packet data easily and measuring packet error rate. The USB base board is a complete microcontroller board based on the well known 8051 with integrated USB interface and 16 Kbytes Flash memory.

Besides the hardware the AX5051-DVK/AX5042-DVK include a wide variety of software. You have PC software on one hand to control the base boards and to interface the RF transceiver over the USB port and the demo software hosted on the 8051 microcontroller. This helps to easily adjust all chip register settings straight forward but also supports your development of your own microcontroller software. On the other hand you get all necessary firmware and different sample software for microcontrollers.

For programming the on-board 8051 microcontroller of the USB base board the AX5051-DVK/AX5042-DVK includes a USB programmer. The open source and license free SDCC compiler makes the AX5051/AX5042-DVK a powerful, yet cost-effective development environment, which lets you start your development immediately.