SD format Zigbee card ...

Wolfgang Spraul wolfgang at sharism.cc
Fri Dec 4 22:35:19 EST 2009


Richard,

> From a Linux point of view the sample code might not be that useful
> ... and $1KUSD sounds expensive

I do think the sample code is essential.
The problem is that instead of doing a 'normal' SDIO implementation, they
chose to communicate with the chip over 'standard' SD read/write commands.
I mentioned it in my mail - did you read it?
They did that because SDIO is not supported well in some OSes like Symbian
or Windows CE and a lot of their other customers are using those OSes.
So they implemented this SD read/write layer instead of SDIO. I hope they
did their job well and at least all features of the chip are accessible.
I think the SD read/write protocol is probably very simple, but unless you
want to do reverse engineering, I think we absolutely need this sample
code because that's where the SD read/write protocol is documented.

In my naive thinking I would hope that is is fairly easy to write a Linux
driver for the SDZ-537 with the sample code (documenting the SD read/write
protocol) and TI's datasheet (documenting the chip features).

As for the price of the sample code, I have appealed to their kindness to lower
it a bit for the Linux crowd :-) Let's see whether my calls get heard...
With David and you interested in this, I have a feeling this will be in
motion soon.
Wolfgang

On Fri, Dec 04, 2009 at 08:56:29AM -0800, Richard Sharpe wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 1:00 AM, Wolfgang Spraul
> <wolfgang at qi-hardware.com> wrote:
> > Richard,
> > great to see you here and that you are interested in ZigBee!
> >
> >> Don't know, and that card is a MiniSD card. I have subsequently found
> >> some MicroSD Zigbee cards, but don't have pricing.
> >
> > Which cards have you found?
> 
> I think it was the SpecTec card, the SDZ 537 you mention.
> 
> > I have done some preparatory work on ZigBee, but it's currently on hold
> > because we are focusing on getting the actual device out :-)
> >
> > The manufacturer we worked with is Spectec in Taipei (www.spectec.com.tw).
> > On their website they have lots of microSD cards, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, NFC/RFID.
> > However, you have to be careful what's really available.
> > After 4 months of being unavailable, the Wi-Fi card SDW-823 is available again.
> > The ZigBee card (SDZ-537) will supposedly ship very soon.
> > One of their big retailers is Expansys (www.expansys.com), so if you want to
> > find out quickly what's really available, search for 'spectec' at
> > www.expansys.com.
> >
> > Regarding price - if we get the Wi-Fi card SDW-823 to work really well in the
> > NanoNotes, we will order a larger quantity and sell more or less at cost in
> > our store. We are still ramping up the whole NanoNote ecosystem...
> >
> > Back to ZigBee.
> > Spectec will come out with this ZigBee card SDZ-537 very soon.
> > Unfortunately they are not using standard SDIO, because many devices and OSes
> > don't support SDIO very well. That's what limited sales of the Wi-Fi card
> > SDW-823, for example (that one is using real SDIO).
> > For their new cards like the ZigBee card, they are using standard SD read/write
> > operations, not SDIO.
> > It's probably relatively easy to support but still one needs to know how they
> > wrap the data into read/write blocks.
> > So Spectec offers a 1000 USD ZigBee 'development kit' that contains 2 ZigBee
> > microSD cards plus sample code for the SD read/write operations.
> > They are using a TI CC2530 ZigBee chip, see datasheet at
> > http://www.ti.com/ww/en/analog/cc2530/index.shtml?DCMP=hpa_rf_cc2530&HQS=NotApplicable+PA+cc2530
> 
> Ahhh, OK. The chip datasheet will be interesting.
> 
> From a Linux point of view the sample code might not be that useful
> ... and $1KUSD sounds expensive, however, I just purchased a PCIe FPGA
> card to experiment with that was around $700 and have been thinking of
> buying some Qlogic FC cards that will cost around that on Ebay as
> well.
> 
> > What should we do? If you are interested in some ZigBee hacking, I can put
> > a package together for you. You would probably need at least one NanoNote,
> > and 2 ZigBee cards?
> > I guess I would have to buy the 1000 USD devkit.
> 
> I am interested. Let me look at the datasheet and see what it looks like.
> 
> > What do you think? Is anybody else interested in ZigBee? Can you or someone
> > else share some of the costs?
> > Is there another microSD ZigBee card with already proven Linux support?
> >
> > Hope this helps, let me know what you want to do,
> > Wolfgang
> >
> > On Thu, Dec 03, 2009 at 09:54:32AM -0800, Richard Sharpe wrote:
> >> On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 9:13 AM, Ron K. Jeffries <rjeffries at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > How much does the Spectec Zigbee sd card cost?
> >> >
> >> > For that matter, how about the wifi card
> >> > from same outfit that somebody is already hacking on.
> >>
> >> Don't know, and that card is a MiniSD card. I have subsequently found
> >> some MicroSD Zigbee cards, but don't have pricing.
> >>
> >> Could be more than the Nanonote itself.
> >>
> >> > ---
> >> > Ron K. Jeffries
> >> > http://blog.eronj.com
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 08:39, Richard Sharpe
> >> > <realrichardsharpe at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >> http://www.globalsources.com/gsol/I/Network-card/a/9000000099972.htm
> >> >>
> >> >> Now to see if I can get one and a Nanonote and code up a driver ...
> >> >>
> >> >> --
> >> >> Regards,
> >> >> Richard Sharpe
> >> >>
> >> >> _______________________________________________
> >> >> Qi Developer Mailing List
> >> >> Mail to list (members only): developer at lists.qi-hardware.com
> >> >> Subscribe or Unsubscribe: http://lists.qi-hardware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/developer
> >> >>
> >> >
> >> > _______________________________________________
> >> > Qi Developer Mailing List
> >> > Mail to list (members only): developer at lists.qi-hardware.com
> >> > Subscribe or Unsubscribe: http://lists.qi-hardware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/developer
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Regards,
> >> Richard Sharpe
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Qi Developer Mailing List
> >> Mail to list (members only): developer at lists.qi-hardware.com
> >> Subscribe or Unsubscribe: http://lists.qi-hardware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/developer
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Qi Developer Mailing List
> > Mail to list (members only): developer at lists.qi-hardware.com
> > Subscribe or Unsubscribe: http://lists.qi-hardware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/developer
> >
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Regards,
> Richard Sharpe
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Qi Developer Mailing List
> Mail to list (members only): developer at lists.qi-hardware.com
> Subscribe or Unsubscribe: http://lists.qi-hardware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/developer




More information about the discussion mailing list


interactive