for all Dev board addicts -TI Sub-1 GHz RF Spectrum Analyzer Tool for $25

[Spikee]

Erm ... it's dead ?

[alm]

"While supplies last the MSP-SA430-SUB1GHZ is available for the ultra-low price of $24.99 + free shipping!". Maybe they allocated a limited number of units to this promotion and ran out?

[Fraser]

Phew !    for once I didn't arrive too late for the party !

[chrisbrown]

Guess I missed it too. If anyone finds that their unit just ends up collecting dust, I'd be willing to buy it. I have a few ISM-band projects on the go but I can't afford much gear as a student.

[alm]

Look into using a cheap DVT-T dongle as SDR receiver. These dongles used to go for under $20 (wouldn't be surprise if the price skyrocketed since then, though) and would cover much more than just the ISM bands.

[chrisbrown]

Look into using a cheap DVT-T dongle as SDR receiver. These dongles used to go for under $20 (wouldn't be surprise if the price skyrocketed since then, though) and would cover much more than just the ISM bands.

Thanks, that looks like good information. I'll get into that stuff eventually. The problem is, for a radio newbie like me, there's $250 worth of learning curve time associated with that $20 dongle. If it takes me more than a few minutes to get an FFT on the screen, well, it's just not worth my time. There are higher-priority things on my to-learn list right now.

[alm]

If a couple of hours of your time is worth $250, then I would buy a real tool (eg. the RF explorer thing that Aurora has discussed multiple times on this forum). The time saved will quickly pay for the investment.

[BravoV]

Excluding everything else except pure hardware's BOM and the manufacturing cost, curious if the cost close to $25 ? 

[jonmarx]

Unless I missed it, TI's documentation doesn't appear to include any schematics for the SA430.  Does anyone have any details about what's inside the box?
 

[alm]

Excluding everything else except pure hardware's BOM and the manufacturing cost, curious if the cost close to $25 ? 

Unlikely in my opinion, although I don't have detailed knowledge about the components. Regular price is $250, and they're unlikely to have a 90% margin on development tools. Note that this is not a large volume consumer item, so both BOM and manufacturing won't be as heavily cost optimized as say a $20 TV dongle from a random Chinese source.

[Stonent]

Whoever gets one, please take it apart and publish your findings.

[calin]

DOH .. gone , I just tried to get it  and cupon code can't be used anymore. Why i did not see this earlied ... 

[Fsck]

hah, I just got mine.

[Fraser]

I've tried the DVB-T dongle SDR's to see how well they work. Not bad but quite a lot of setting up, not great dynamic range and pretty deaf without pre-amplification. A cheap way to access 50MHz-2GHz though. A tool for the lab ? ....not until the messy configuration stages are conquered. Porr setup results in really poor performance.

This little Ti tool looks pretty neat for what it was intended i.e. the ISM bands. I also own a couple of RF Explorers that can be connected to a PC. It will be interesting to compare them to the Ti unit. I still think the RF Explorer is a very nice design and good value for money. Hard to beat. With regard to the Ti units band coverage, I often use RF up and down converters so the SA behaves like an IF module. For $25 it looks good to have but I would buy the RF Explorer rather than this unit at the full price of $250.

With regard to what 'lives' inside the Ti SA. I suspect it will be very much like the RF Explorer minus the human interface elements. The block diagram shows what will basically be on the PCB. A microprocessor connected to an 'all-in-one' Transceiver module with RSSI output. Not a great deal is needed these days with high levels of integration. The software to drive the electronics is the real challenge for me. I am not a coder.

[oPossum]

Inside...

[EEVblog]

Mine was marked as shipped.

[Stonent]

I can't really read what's on those chips in the picture, but I am assuming one is an MSP430.

[oPossum]

CC430F5137

http://www.ti.com/product/cc430f5137

and TUSB3410 (USB to serial)

[BravoV]

Looks like just only at the hardware BOM + manufacturing cost, probably < $25 ? Since that two major big chips are TI's own ICs.

[Fsck]

Looks like just only at the hardware BOM + manufacturing cost, probably < $25 ? Since that two major big chips are TI's own ICs.

I agree. The shipping is a whole different story. next-dayed over a border!

[krivx]

There is a certain level of support that has to be provided when you get a dev board from somewhere like TI (as opposed to a semi-anonymous eBay seller), I would imagine some of the cost would cover that. If you look at forums or mailing lists for the RTLSDR sticks it's clear that there are a lot of EEs and hobbyists with no RF experience, that's probably a bigger hassle to support than a simple MCU board.

[hikariuk]

Looks like just only at the hardware BOM + manufacturing cost, probably < $25 ? Since that two major big chips are TI's own ICs.

I agree. The shipping is a whole different story. next-dayed over a border!

Not bad; the dispatch notice for mine says 7-10 days.  I'm not going to complain when shipping was free and it has to cross the pond

[alm]

Assuming they ship quickly. For some of their promotions (eg. original Launchpad) it got a bit ridiculous with people waiting a few months for their Launchpad to shipped, at which point the $$$ for priority courier shipping becomes kind of pointless.

I wonder if the free shipping they offer at every promotion is some sort of admission that regular shipping is way too expensive . I would be quite happy with $10 priority airmail shipping for most dev boards.

[ve7xen]

Everything I've ever got from TI - free samples, devboards, paid samples - has come next-day for free. I just figure they do enough volume that FedEx gives them a good deal and it doesn't cost much/any more than regular ground shipping.

[Fsck]

Everything I've ever got from TI - free samples, devboards, paid samples - has come next-day for free. I just figure they do enough volume that FedEx gives them a good deal and it doesn't cost much/any more than regular ground shipping.

I think it also depends on location.
If say you lived in Huangshan, China (best remote place I could think of), I'd guess fedex doesn't have a next-day service to there.