November 2009 Doc ID 14826 Rev 2 1/15
UM0562
User manual
SPMB250-A1EVAL demonstration kit
user manual and installation guide
Introduction
The SPMB250-A1 is a ready-to-use wireless acceleration sensor based on a 802.15.4-
compliant radio transceiver.
The integration of two SPMB250-A1 modules together with an 802.15.4 ZigBee®-based
dongle make the SPMB250-A1EVAL demonstration kit a complete tool for demonstrating
the features and functions of the SPMB250-A1 in remote motion monitoring applications.
The modules in the kit are pre-programmed with an application based on the EmberZNet™
3.0.0 ZigBee® protocol stack that allows the sending of data captured by the accelerometer
to the dongle when plugged into a PC USB slot. The kit also includes a graphical application
which provides an example of one of the possible uses of the acceleration data.
Figure 1. SPMB250-A1EVAL demonstration kit
Motion
tracking
Motion
recognition
Remote motion monitoring
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Contents UM0562
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Contents
1 SPMB250-A1EVAL description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 Demonstration kit contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 CD contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 Related documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4 PC system requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.5 Target applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 SPMB250-A1EVAL kit hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 SPMB250-A1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 ZigBee® dongle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3 Installation procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.1 Installing the FTDI driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2 Installing the Plane demo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4 Firmware description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.1 Dongle firmware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2 MotionBee™ firmware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.3 Forming a network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5 Plane demo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6 Revision history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
UM0562 SPMB250-A1EVAL description
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1 SPMB250-A1EVAL description
The SPMB250-A1EVAL (demonstration kit in the rest of the document) is a ready-to-use kit
designed as a platform for evaluating the capabilities of the SPMB250-A1 wireless sensor in
motion monitoring applications, where two sensor modules communicate with a remote
device over an 802.15.4 channel.
The kit includes two SPMB250-A1 modules and one ZigBee®-based dongle module.
This document describes:
●the modules contained in the demonstration kit
●the features of the software loaded in the demonstration kit modules
●the format of the packets at the serial output of the dongle when the software is used
The three different classes of demonstration kit users are:
●Demo users - The kit runs the demo using a simple tilt monitoring application. In this
case, the document provides guidelines on how to:
– network the modules together
– install the FTDI driver
– install and run the demo
●Developers of new PC applications - The software loaded in the sensors and dongle is
meant to be used without modifications and allows the development of PC applications
that can use up to 4 SPMB250-A1 modules together. In this case the document
provides guidelines on how to:
– network the modules together
– install the FTDI driver
●Developers of new application firmware - The new firmware must be loaded on the
modules by means of integrated SIF connectors. Instructions on application
development with the EmberZNet™ protocol stack and the use of Ember development
tools for the SN250 is beyond the scope of this document. The reader should refer to
the Ember documentation for details.
1.1 Demonstration kit contents
●2 SPMB250-A1 acceleration sensor modules
●1 ZigBee® -based dongle
●2 battery holders
●8 AA batteries
●1 CD
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1.2 CD contents
●SPMB250-A1 datasheet
●SPMB250-A1EVAL demonstration kit user manual and installation guide (this
document)
●Plane demo software files
●javacomm20-win32
●java3d-1_4_0-windows-i586-1
1.3 Related documents
●SPMB250-A1 datasheet
●SPZB250 datasheet
●Ember documentation library
●LIS3LV02DL datasheet and application note AN2381
1.4 PC system requirements
●Microsoft® Windows® XP
●Intel® Pentium® III or higher
●512 MB of RAM
●50 MB of available hard disk space
●An Internet connection to download the Java environment and FTDI driver (download
files and follow installation instructions on the relevant web sites)
To run the demonstration, the PC requires the installation of the Java SE Runtime
Environment (JRE). The demo successfully runs with JRE 6.5, which is available from the
Sun Microsystems web site.
1.5 Target applications
Accelerometer sensors can be generally used to measure both dynamic and static
acceleration data. The SPMB250-A1 provides a small, portable solution with the capability
to accommodate various accelerometer applications requiring data transmission over a
wireless channel. The radio is 802.15.4 compliant and is integrated with a processor in a
single-chip solution for use with the EmberZNet™ ZigBee® protocol stacks. The
accelerometer is a three-axis digital output linear MEMS sensor.
Possible target application are:
●Medical devices
●Sport equipment
●Games
●Environmental monitoring
●Industrial control
●Security
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2 SPMB250-A1EVAL kit hardware
The demonstration kit is ready-to-use and is designed as a platform to evaluate the
capabilities of SPMB250-A1 wireless sensor in remote motion monitoring applications. The
kit is securely packaged in a padded box, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Demonstration kit box
2.1 SPMB250-A1
The SPMB250-A1 (referred to as MotionBee™ in the remainder of the document) belongs
to the STMicroelectronics MotionBee™ sensor family and is designed to enable the
development of applications for remote motion monitoring. This version of the MotionBee™
sensor integrates an SPZB250 ZigBee® wireless module together with an LIS3LV02DL 3-
axis MEMS accelerometer and represents a ready-to-use battery-powered wireless sensor.
The compact size of the MotionBee™ makes it ideal for use in many different remote motion
monitoring applications. When the EmberZNet™ protocol stack is loaded, MotionBee™ can
play the role of end-device or router in a ZigBee® network.
The main components integrated in the MotionBee™ modules are represented in Figure 3.
SPMB250-A1
SW CD
Batteries and holders
Dongle
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Figure 3. SPMB250-A1 MotionBee™ module
The accelerometer is a 3-axis digital-output linear MEMS sensor that includes a sensing
element and an IC interface capable of taking information from the sensing element and
providing the measured acceleration signals to external applications through an I2C/SPI
serial interface. The LIS3LV02DL has a user-selectable full scale of ±2 g, ±6 g and is
capable of measuring acceleration data over a bandwidth of 640 Hz for all axes. The device
bandwidth may be selected according to application requirements.
The SPZB250 is a ready-to-use ZigBee® module for OEM use. It integrates the SN250
ZigBee® system-on-chip (SoC) with an external oscillator, a balun filter and an antenna.
The SN250 SoC design integrates a full-featured 802.15.4 radio with a 16-bit processor. It is
designed to run the EmberZNet ZigBee® protocol stack from Ember Corp., and can be fully
reprogrammed to run custom applications.
The MotionBee™ modules also integrate a SIF connector, allowing interfacing with the
Ember development kit for firmware loading and debugging. Finally, the module integrates
two LEDs, 1 power connector, 1 power switch, a reset button and a commissioning button.
2.2 ZigBee® dongle
Based on the SPZB250, the ZigBee® dongle (“dongle” in the rest of the document) is a
module with a USB stick form-factor. It provides a cost-effective method of adding ZigBee®
wireless connectivity to any device which employs USB. The dongle can be programmed
using the SIF connector integrated in the board. When connected, the dongle is powered
through the USB and it can be used to transfer data to the connected operator for data
analysis, storage and computation. The dongle uses a USB controller from FTDI Ltd. to
communicate with the host computer.
The main components of the dongle are represented in Figure 4.
Accelerometer sensor
SPZB250
Reset Button SIF Connector
Commissioning
Button
Power Connector
Power Switch
Red Led
Green Led
Accelerometer sensor
SPZB250
Reset Button SIF Connector
Commissioning
Button
Power Connector
Power Switch
Red Led
Green Led
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Figure 4. ZigBee®-based dongle module
SPZB250
SIF Connector
USB connector
LEDs
green
yellowred
SPZB250
SIF Connector
USB connector
LEDs
green
yellowred
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3 Installation procedures
3.1 Installing the FTDI driver
The dongle integrates a USB controller from FTDI to communicate with the host computer.
To communicate with the dongle, the FTDI drivers must be installed on the host. FTDI
provides drivers for Windows, Linux, BSD, Macintosh, and Windows CE. Windows users
require the virtual COM port (VCP) drivers.
If the necessary drivers are not already installed on the PC, they can be downloaded from
the driver section of the FTDI Chip web site. After the file has completed downloading to a
folder on the PC, unzip the file.
Plug the dongle into an available USB slot on the PC. The operating system detects the new
hardware and prompts for the location where the driver files can be found. With the browser,
select the root of the driver directory that was unzipped previously and follow the on-screen
instructions.
After installing the driver, the dongle appears as a COM port in the Windows device
manager. Multiple dongles may be connected to the USB ports of the same computer
simultaneously. In this case each dongle will be assigned a different COM port identifier.
The example in Figure 5 shows one dongle connected to the PC and assigned COM27 as
its “USB Serial Port”.
Figure 5. Virtual COM port number
Virtual COM
associated
to the Dongle
Device Manager Window
Virtual COM
associated
to the Dongle
Device Manager Window
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3.2 Installing the Plane demo
In order to properly run the Plane demo, the following steps must be carefully followed:
1. Install the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) - the Plane demo has been developed
in Java and requires the JRE installation on the PC. The demo has been successfully
tested with JRE 6.5.
2. Install the Java3D package - Java 3D is an additional Java package that enables the
creation of three-dimensional graphics applications and Internet-based applets.
The Java3D install file is included in the demonstration kit CD.
To install the package, double-click on the file:
java3d-1_4_0-windows-i586-1, and follow the installation wizard.
3. Install the Javacomm package - Javacomm is an additional Java package that
provides access to a serial port. It has been developed by Sun Microsystems and can
be downloaded from the Sun web site. Javacomm is also included in the demonstration
kit CD.
To install the package:
a) unzip javacomm20-win32.zip
b) copy the file commapi/win32com.dll to
<your_jdkroot_folder>/<your_jre_folder>/bin
c) copy the file commapi/comm.jar to <your_jdkroot_folder>/<your_jre_folder>/lib/ext
d) copy the file commapi/javax.comm.properties to
<your_jdkroot_folder>/<your_jre_folder>/lib/
4. Install the Java binary files - Copy “Plane.zip” from the demonstration kit CD into one
of your personal folders (<your_folder> in the rest of the document) and unzip it. The
folder “Plane” will be created that contains the Java binary files needed to run the
demo.
5. Set the virtual COM port - The virtual COM port associated with the dongle (see the
previous paragraph to detect this number) must be edited in the following file:
<your_folder>/Plane/configfiles/configuration.xml
For example, if the virtual COM port is COM27, the content of “configuration” file must
become:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
<port>27</port>
<start>i</start>
<stop>f</stop>
<length>10</length>
</config>
where the number of the port is specified in line 3.
Note: The names of folders contained in the folder path MUST NOT contain blank spaces.
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4 Firmware description
The demonstration kit is released with a simple application already loaded in the
MotionBee™ and dongle modules.
This application integrates the functionalities of a ZigBee®-based protocol (EmberZNet™
3.0.0), which allows the networking of the modules in a star configuration, as represented in
Figure 6. Specifically:
●When acting as end device/router, each MotionBee™ collects data from the integrated
accelerometer, encapsulates this data within the payload and transmits the packet over
the wireless channel.
●When acting as network coordinator and sink device, the dongle receives the packets
from the MotionBee™ and transfers their payload to the serial port to make them
available on the PC through the COM port.
Figure 6. Demonstration kit network configuration
4.1 Dongle firmware
The dongle firmware integrates the EmberZNet™ 3.0.0 protocol stack with a simple
application that allows the transfer of the data payload to the UART port of the SN250 SoC
together with the NodeID of the sender. The main purpose of this is to allow PC access to
the accelerometer data through the COM port. The firmware is not compliant with
application profiles defined within the ZigBee® Alliance and has been written only for
demonstration purposes.
Figure 7. Packet format at the COM port
AM00537v1
Vector available through the COM
xL
xH
yL
yH
zL
zH
idL
idHie
105d102d
Vector available through the COM
xL
xH
yL
yH
zL
zH
idL
idHie
Vector available through the COM
xL
xH
yL
yH
zL
zH
idL
idHie
105d102d
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Figure 7 shows the format of the packet as available at the COM port.
●The “i” and “e” bytes are fixed at 105d and 102d respectively and function as a packet
delimiter.
●NodeID corresponds to the network address of the MotionBee™ modules assigned
during the network joining procedure. In an application running on the PC, this field
makes it possible to distinguish the sender of each packet.
●X, Y, Z are the acceleration values as detected by the sensors in each MotionBee™.
4.2 MotionBee™ firmware
The firmware loaded on the MotionBee™ modules includes the EmberZNet™ 3.0.0 protocol
stack together with a simple application that samples the accelerometer with a fixed
frequency of 33 Hz. The accelerometer data are composed within the packet payload and
then sent to the radio for transmission. On each axis the scale of measured values is set to
± 2 g.
This application has been written only for demonstration purposes and it uses the
accelerometer sensor in a specific configuration. Custom firmware can be developed and
loaded on the modules through the SIF connector, in order to fully exploit all of the sensor
configuration capabilities (please refer to the LIS3LV02DL datasheet and application note
AN2381).
4.3 Forming a network
The procedure to network the dongle and the MotionBee™ is described below. The network
uses channel 26 and PANID 0x01FF fixed values.
1. Connect the dongle to one of the USB slots on the PC. The dongle is powered through
the USB port. Both green and red LEDS turn on. After creating the network, the dongle
starts sending advertisement packets.
2. To connect a MotionBee™ within the network:
a) Turn on the power switch.
b) Push the commissioning button. The green LED turns on.
c) The MotionBee™ initiates the joining procedure and when the association step is
completed, the red LED turns on.
d) The MotionBee™ starts sending packets (every 33 ms) and the green LED blinks
at each transmission.
e) The dongle collects packets sent by the MotionBee™, making them available
through the COM port with the format described above. The red LED blinks each
time it receives a packet.
Up to 4 MotionBee™ modules can be connected to the same dongle without significant loss
of performance.
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5 Plane demo
The demonstration kit includes a demonstration program which provides an example of a
possible use of the data on the PC to which the dongle is connected. The program
demonstrates the tilt measurement capabilities of accelerometers using a simulated aircraft,
referred to as “Plane” throughout this document.
By creating a connection with the COM port, several kinds of applications running on the
host computer can be used or developed to store, visualize or elaborate sensor data that are
available in the format described in Section 4.1: Dongle firmware. The sender of each
packet can be recognized thanks to the NodeID field that is assigned to each MotionBee™
during the process of joining the network.
The demonstration kit is equipped with a simple graphical application (Plane) that uses
acceleration data to measure the tilt of an object. In order to properly run the demo, the
installation procedures described in the Section 3 must be complete.
To run the demo:
1. Plug the dongle into an empty USB slot on your PC.
2. Double click on the “Run Plane” batch file in <your_folder>/Plane. The windows shown
in Figure 8 appear on the screen.
3. Switch on a MotionBee™ module and then press the commissioning button. After a few
seconds the MotionBee™ starts to send packets to the dongle. The aircraft object on
the screen starts to move by continuously tracking the tilt impressed on the
MotionBee™. The packets read by the application through the COM port are visualized
in the terminal window (See Figure 9).
Figure 8. Plane graphic and terminal windows
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The goal of the application is to show how accelerometers can be used to measure the tilt of
an object, where the tilt is a static measurement and where gravity is the acceleration being
measured. The force of gravity is used as an input to determine the orientation of an object,
calculating its degree of tilt. The x, y, z acceleration values are elaborated on the PC
application to evaluate the rotation angles of a graphical object (Plane). The behavior of the
demo is intuitive, as the graphical object on the PC monitor moves according to the
movements impressed on the MotionBee™ module.
Figure 9. Plane demo while running
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