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SHTC3 BLE Beacon Development Kit
The SHTC3 Beacon is a simple reference design. It shows an example for mechanical integration into a consumer electronics device and a typical application for the digital humidity sensor SHTC3 with its broader supply voltage range directly powered by a battery.
The Beacon itself has been designed as a developer platform and does not provide a display. It is a very compact measurement node. The data can be read out with a RaspberryPi or alternatively a bluetooth SMART capable device like a smartphone can be used. The firmware code is available as hex-file and PCB and housing are free to use under a BSD license.
How to build your own Beacon
All the necessary files are located at the Sensirion GitHub repository.
Housing
The housing is provided as STEP-file and can be ordered at typical 3D print services at your convenience. For finishing the tag a screw M2 x 12mm, a M2 nut and a O-ring with 4mm x 1mm are needed.
PCB
The PCB layout is done in KiCad. All related data for the PCB is in the folder. There are already Gerber-files in ./gerber which can be used to directly place an order at the PCB at a manufacturer of your choice. The part list contains the necessary information about the electronics needed.
Programmer
For programming the board there are several options. In this tutorial the development kit from Nordic is used. It contains a JTAG programmer which can be used for Nordic chips.
Please find in the Picture below the layout of the connector P20 which can be used.
On the PCB one can use the manual solder points on the bottom layer next to the RF module. Alternatively, the connector of the type TC2030-IDC could be used which is located on the battery side on the top of the PCB. The 6-pin box header has a pin assignment as follows:
1: VTG
2: SWDO
3: RESET
4: SWDCLK
5: GND
6: SWO
Firmware
The upload of the firmware is tested with Windows 7 and Windows 10. Download the necessary tools from the Nordic website and install them:
- nRFgo Studio-Win64
- nRF5x-Command-Line-Tools-Win32 inkl. J-Link Tools
Connect the programmer to the PCB and launch the nRFgo studio. In the device manager on the left select ”nRF52” development boards. On the Tab “Program Softdevice” on the right the klick “Browse” and select the file “s132_nrf52_5.0.0_softdevice.hex” and “Program” the softdevice. Afterwards repeat the same for “nrf52832_xxaa.hex” on the Tab “Program Application”. Now the device is ready to use.
Coming soon: How to use a Raspbery Pi to get the data from the SHTC3 Beacon
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