Research of N32WB031
Research for the N32WB031 IC
Creating a project which requires Bluetooth and has to be low cost removes all the popular choices like nRF* from Nordic Semiconductor or from SMT.
Because of that you might stumble upon this IC, which is cheaper.
Product page: N32WB031 product page
The documentation looks above average. It’s even available in English and there are a lot of docs which go over Hardware design and the API function guide.
Docs
Specs
Some quick specs just for reference:
| name | value |
|---|---|
| full name | N32WB031KEQ6-2 |
| Package | QFN-32 |
| cost per one piece (lcsc 10pcs) | 14.36 Kč |
| Radio receive current | 3.8 mA@3.3 V |
| Radio transmit current | 4.2 mA @0 dBm/3.3 V |
| Sleep mode | 1.4 μA@3 V |
Quite impressive specs
Dev board
The only dev board I could find for this IC is the N32WB031-STB Development Board.
I found it for the lowest price of 750.00 Kč + 100.00 Kč, which is a “little bit” overpriced, considering that all the parts are each just a few cents…
By some luck I also found a repo containing the board source files:
N32WB03x-DK – Hardware Evaluation Board
But the schematic/PCB is in an older Eagle format which can’t be read by KiCad or any other tool I tried.
The only way to open it seems to be using the paid version of Eagle.
In some of the product images, there is a shot of the front/back PCB copper layers (including the antenna).
So with a bit of effort it should be possible to recreate this dev board.
Software needed
As every “smart” company does, they made their own proprietary, barely functional IDE… N32WB03x SDK User Guide
Conclusion
This looks way better than 99% of the alternatives, but due to the lack of popularity (I couldn’t find any projects using it) I will have to use a different one.
I might try this IC in the future because it’s fairly promising, but knowing myself it would take me a lot of time to make this work.