NEW PRODUCT: REFERENCE DESIGN FOR REMOTE CONTROL RACING TOYS
Available today, the Nordic nRFready R/C Racing is a complete remote controlled racing toy reference design that supports sophisticated game-play features that were previously impossible using older (but until now popular) 27/49MHz wireless solutions. The reference design includes two cars, two controllers, four waypoints, a USB dongle, the nRFready Racing Studio PC application, plus all required source code and hardware design files
Oslo, Norway - July 7, 2010 - Nordic Semiconductor ASA (OSE: NOD) today releases the nRFready R/C Racing - a complete reference design for advanced remote controlled racing toys such as cars, that enables toy manufacturers to bring previously impossible game-play features to mass-market toys by using Nordic's low cost 2.4GHz wireless solutions.
These features include racing with multiple friends, setting up free-form racing tracks using waypoints, feeling crashes through controller vibration, and the ability to collect, see and share racing data (see "Key game-play features of nRFready R/C Racing" below for more detail).
The nRFready R/C Racing reference design includes a pair of cars and controllers, four waypoints, a USB dongle, the nRFready Racing Studio PC application, as well as all required source code and hardware design files. The cars, controllers and waypoints are all based on Nordic's single chip nRF24LE1 2.4GHz RF System-on-Chip (SoC) solution (see "About the nRF24LE1" below). This provides both a flexible development platform with flash, and a smooth migration to Nordic's lower-cost OTP (one time programmable) variants for mass production.
The cars in the nRFready R/C Racing reference design feature continuous steering and throttle control, crash sensors, plus blinker lights and headlights that can be switched on and off from the controller. In addition, the controllers include LEDs for car battery status and force (vibration) feedback to indicate crashes. Cars can also detect when they are in close proximity to a waypoint and wirelessly send race statistics such as lap times, speed and number of crashes to the nRFready Racing Studio PC application through the supplied USB dongle.
"We see an increasing interest in our 2.4GHz technology from the toy industry," says Thomas Embla Bonnerud, Product Manager with Nordic Semiconductor. "This reference design enables innovative toy manufacturers to very easily take advantage of our 2.4GHz technology to take their remote controlled toys to the next level by adding features not possible with the 27/49MHz technologies typically employed today, and at a price point consumers around the world will find appealing."
Availability and pricing
The nRFready R/C Racing (product order code: nRF6909) is available to innovative toy manufacturers from today. Contact Nordic sales for pricing.
Key game-play features of nRFready R/C Racing
- Race against all of your friends, not just one friend
Each car and controller can easily be paired to one another, and with Nordic's Gazell 2.4GHz protocol more than two cars can race against each other without interference. All this, without the typical hassle of changing physical crystals in cars and controllers.
- Free-form racing track using waypoints
Multiple waypoints can be used to set-up a free-form racing track indoors or outdoors. Waypoint functionality can easily be expanded to include additional game features such as pit-stops, fuel stations or repair shops.
- Feel the crash
Two-way communications between each car and remote control enables racers to feel a car crash through force (vibration) feed-back in the controller.
- Collect and share racing data
Racing statistics such as lap time, number of crashes, and speed, are all wirelessly collected by the nRFready Racing Studio application enabling users to log and visualize racing data, and even share it over the Internet.
About the nRF24LE1TM
The nRF24LE1 is a ULP system-on-chip 2.4GHz transceiver that enables single-chip implementation of wireless applications. The nRF24LE1's radio is a fully featured nRF24L01+ 2.4GHz transceiver core including Nordic's proven Enhanced ShockBurstTM hardware link layer. It delivers true ULP operation with peak currents low enough to run on coin cell batteries.
The nRF24LE1 integrates an enhanced 8051 mixed signal MCU core featuring fewer clock cycles per instruction than legacy 8051 devices. Most instructions need just one or two clock cycles leading to an average performance improvement of 8X using the MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second) benchmark. This high performance combined with 16kbytes of on-chip flash and 1kbytes of SRAM ensures the processing platform is powerful enough to run both the RF protocol stack and application layer with ease.
A wide range of peripherals and power saving modes support the RF protocol stack. A ULP 32kHz crystal oscillator provides high accuracy timing for low report rate synchronous protocols and a 16MHz RC oscillator provides fast start-up times from idle. The 32kHz oscillator can provide timing accurate enough for higher report rate protocols without requiring an external crystal. A security co-processor enables AES encrypted wireless communication. The nRF24LE1 provides a range of nanoamp and microamp idle modes specifically designed for ULP RF protocol stacks. Further benefits include higher precision protocol timing, lower power consumption and improved co-existence performance.
For the application layer the nRF24LE1 offers a rich set of interfaces and peripherals including an SPI, 2-wire, UART, 12-bit ADC, PWM and an analog comparator. As such, the nRF24LE1 is the ideal single chip solution for applications including mice, keyboards, remote controls, game controllers, sports/healthcare sensors, toys and active RFID tags.
About Nordic Semiconductor ASA
Nordic Semiconductor is a fabless semiconductor company specializing in ultra low power (ULP) short-range wireless communication. Nordic is a public company listed on the Norwegian stock exchange.
Nordic provides RF silicon solutions including:
- Highly integrated RF silicon
- Sophisticated and flexible development tools
- Application specific communication software
- Complete reference designs
The company's innovative range of wireless solutions includes:
- The nRF24LE1TM single-chip, ultra-low cost and power, fully integrated 2.4GHz transceiver with radio, microprocessor, flash memory and MultiCeiverTM technology supporting up to six simultaneous wireless devices (also available in a lower cost, one time programmable (OTP) variant, the nRF24LE1 OTP);
- The nRF24L01+TM ultra-low cost and power 2.4GHz transceiver with MultiCeiver technology supporting up to six simultaneous wireless devices;
- The nRF24LU1+TM single chip 2.4GHz transceiver with full-speed USB, microcontroller and flash memory enabling ultra-compact USB dongles for wireless peripherals (also available in a lower cost, one time programmable (OTP) variant, the nRF24LU1+ OTP);
- The nRF24AP2TM ultra low power 2.4GHz transceiver family for wireless communication with ANT Wireless' production-proven interoperable low-power network protocol, ANTTM, and ANT+TM managed network platform;
- The nRF24E1TM and nRF24E2TM low cost transceivers paired with an industry standard 8051 MCU core, and leading peripherals to create complete low cost SoCs for 2.4GHz operation;
- The nRF24Z1TM single-chip solution for CD quality wireless audio streaming at up to 16-bit, 48-kHz resolution;
- The nRF905TM single-chip multiband radio transceiver for the 433, 868 or 915MHz ISM bands;
- The nRF9E5TM low-cost, single-chip solution with fully integrated RF transceiver for the 433, 868 or 915MHz ISM bands.
Nordic Semiconductor's nRF24xxx range of 2.4GHz transceiver and transmitter devices are aimed at applications including PC peripherals (wireless keyboards/mice/multimedia controllers), game controllers, intelligent sports equipment and wireless audio (for example, MP3 and portable CD player wireless headphones and wireless PC speakers). The latest nRF24LE1 is targeted at ultra-low cost and power applications such as wireless desktops and intelligent (for example, wristwatch-based) sports equipment.
Nordic is a member of the ANT+ Alliance and has successfully collaborated with ANT Wireless of Cochrane, Canada, since 2005. ANT devices such as the nRF24AP2 family - using Nordic 2.4GHz transceivers and the proven ANT protocol - have been used in millions of wireless sensor nodes across the world. ANT is perfectly suited for any kind of low data rate sensor network topologies in personal area networks (PANs) and practical wireless sensor networks (WSNs). ANT+ (built on the ANT protocol) facilitates interoperability between ANT+ Alliance member devices and the collection, automatic transfer and tracking of sensor data. Applicable in sports, wellness, and medical health sensors, ANT+ defines device profiles that specify data formats, channel parameters and network key. The ANT+ Alliance is an open, special interest group of companies.
Nordic is an associate member of the Bluetooth SIG, and has contributed core expertise in ultra low power (ULP) RF design to Bluetooth® low energy wireless technology (formerly ultra low power Bluetooth). Bluetooth low energy is a short range RF communication technology featuring ultra low power consumption, a lightweight protocol stack and simple integration with Bluetooth chips. It is a hallmark feature of the latest Bluetooth Core Specification Version 4.0. The technology will support the next generation of RF communications by opening up many new opportunities for ULP wireless data links between suitably equipped mobile handsets or computers and small (typically coin cell) battery-powered devices such as sports, wellness, and medical health sensors.
Nordic's products are all manufactured in state of the art semiconductor process technologies through strong, long-term relationships with world-best manufacturing facilities. Sales are primarily made through a carefully selected worldwide distribution network. The company has offices in Trondheim and Oslo, Norway, the U.S. (West Coast), Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines. Nordic is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSX: NOD). All operations are managed according to the ISO 9001:2000-approved quality assurance system.
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