Silicon Labs recently introduced a series of comprehensive reference designs that reduce time to market and simplify the development of ZigBee-based home automation, connected lighting and smart gateway products. The first in a series of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, the new reference designs include hardware, firmware, and software tools for developing high-quality connected home solutions based on Silicon Labs’s ZigBee “Golden Unit” Home Automation (HA 1.2) software stack and ZigBee SoC mesh networking technology.
Silicon Labs’ ZigBee connected lighting reference designs feature wireless lighting boards and a plug-in demo board. The Golden Unit ZigBee stack allows LED lights to reliably join, interoperate, and leave a mesh network. The connected lights can support white, color temperature tuning, and RGB color settings as well as dimming.
Silicon Labs’ ZigBee-based home automation reference designs include a capacitive-sense dimmable light switch and a small door/window contact sensor. The light switch provides color, color tuning, and dimming control capabilities. As opposed to conventional switches, the wireless, battery-powered switches have no moving parts and are easy to place anywhere in a home. The switch design includes Silicon Labs’s EFM8 capacitive sensing microcontroller to detect different user gestures (touch, hold, and swipe). The contact sensor reference design provides all the tools needed to create wireless, battery-powered sensors used to monitor door and window positions (open or closed).
Silicon Labs offers two ZigBee gateway options to complement the reference designs:
- A plug-and-play USB virtual gateway that works with any PC development platform and supports the Windows, OS X, and Linux environments as a virtual machine
- An out-of-the-box Wi-Fi/Ethernet gateway reference design based on an embedded Linux computer system
Both gateway options enable you to control and monitor ZigBee HA 1.2-compliant end nodes through Wi-Fi with any device with a web browser, such as a smartphone or tablet. With an intuitive, web-based user interface, you can easily create rules between ZigBee end devices including lights, dimmable light switches, and contact sensors.
Silicon Labs’ connected lighting, home automation, and smart gateway reference designs are currently available. The RD-0020-0601 and RD-0035-0601 connected lighting reference designs cost $49. The RD-0030-0201 contact sensor reference design is $39. The RD-0039-0201 capacitive-sense dimmable light switch reference design is $29. The USB virtual gateway is $49. The out-of-the-box Wi-Fi/Ethernet gateway reference design is $149.
Source: Silicon Labs
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