Does anyone have experience with the BL652 Module from Lairdtech?

RE: Does anyone have experience with the BL652 Module from Lairdtech?

Roger Clark — Sat, 21 Jan 2017 20:36:40 GMT

@endnote

RF design is IMHO a black art, which is best left to the professionals, hence I dont touch it.

However Nordic provide reference designs at PCB level, which somewhat mitigate this problem.

I use another option, which is to contract a Chinese company who specialise in BLE and RF, to customise an exiting, tried and tested design, to add the functionality I require for a specific product.

The product still then needs to be tested and certified, but as the RF end of the PCB is the same as other boards which have passed certification, there is normally not an issue with getting the customised board certified

RE: Does anyone have experience with the BL652 Module from Lairdtech?

endnode — Sat, 21 Jan 2017 10:53:25 GMT

Right, I've seen similar troubles on one project. So the consensus among "smart guys" is to have RF expertise or some external consultancy, work with custom PCB design including BLE part, tune specific antenna for each product version and certify it then one by one?;)

RE: Does anyone have experience with the BL652 Module from Lairdtech?

Roger Clark — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 02:06:52 GMT

@endnode

From my understanding of the process. Using a pre-certified module reduces your risk, because the module on its own is compliant.

Therefore when you send your whole product for testing, there should not be any issues with the 2.4Ghz band emissions, or direct emissions from the nRF52 processor.

I noticed however with the product that was linked to, is that it can have an external antenna

"Chip antenna or IPEX MHF4 Connector"

If you connect an external antenna, you would invalidate most of the RF compliance

So its not a magic bullet.

I have developed hardware using WiFi and other BLE modules, and they have passed testing and been certified without any issues. But a lot still depends on who whole system (schematic & PCB design), I recall one company who put a ground plane directly under the antenna of a module, which causes all sorts range and certification problems ;-)

RE: Does anyone have experience with the BL652 Module from Lairdtech?

endnode — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 00:57:47 GMT

Then we should probably discuss different certifications because it will differ. An even for FCC where you should certify whole product it can help thanks to having spurious emissions solved and being in can, or not? Would you have some write-up on your blog about your experience with 2.4GHz HW and certifications? Thanks Jan

RE: Does anyone have experience with the BL652 Module from Lairdtech?

SRA — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 21:30:37 GMT

I'm going to be at 10k or so per year... Still not even close to worth it. Plus, using a module allows me to alter my board design significantly. And apply the same module to other products I might only make 200 of.

RE: Does anyone have experience with the BL652 Module from Lairdtech?

Nguyen Hoan Hoang — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 19:22:31 GMT

Using pre-certified FCC module does not dispense you from the require certification. You can only reuse the intention emission test results. You are required to FCC/CE certify the product as a whole no matter the component inside is certified or not. The certification of the module is valid for you only if you use it as it without any addition circuitry. So pre-certify module is more or less for marketing purpose.

RE: Does anyone have experience with the BL652 Module from Lairdtech?

endnode — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 11:00:24 GMT

Yes, using module saves lot of time (mainly because you don't need to run FCC, BT SIG and similar certifications) unless you have all the expertise in-house (mainly RF designers and compliance team who is able to deal with external labs) and volume high enough to accommodate all the cost. I believe that threshold is much closer to 100,000 then 10,000 but definitely depends on the team and resources you have.

RE: Does anyone have experience with the BL652 Module from Lairdtech?

awneil — Wed, 18 Jan 2017 23:33:34 GMT

Because it saves you having to do the hardware design, layout, testing, and certification - particularly the RF parts.

I have heard it said that the break-even point for own-design vs module - assuming you already have the necessary skills, experience, and equipment - is on the order of 10,000 units. And that was from a vendor of both chips and modules - so they had no particular axe to grind.