Crazyradio PA - long range 2.4Ghz USB radio dongle with antenna

DESCRIPTION

Crazyradio PA is a long range open USB radio dongle based on thefrom Nordic Semiconductor. It features a 20dBm power amplifier, LNA and comes pre-programmed with Crazyflie compatible firmware. The power amplifier boosts the range, giving a range of more than 1km (line of sight) together with the Crazyflie 2.0 and above 2km Crazyradio PA to Crazyradio PA (line of sight).

The Crazyradio PA is not only for usage together with the Crazyflie and Crazyflie 2.0. Since it’s an open project with firmware written from scratch and a Python API for usage it’s great building block for systems that require longer range than WiFi and doesn’t have the same requirements for bandwidth. The hardware comes shipped with the latest firmware as well as a bootloader that enables firmware upgrades via USB without any additional hardware needed.

The Crazyflie PA is compatible with the first generation of the Crazyflie, but will not give the same range increase as with the Crazyflie 2.0.



Features

Radio power amplifier giving 20dBm output power

1km range LOS with Crazyflie 2.0

2x5 2.54mm header for prototyping (not mounted)

Hardware support for PPM

Same mechanical footprint as the first generation Crazyradio

Open source firmware

Firmware upgrade via USB

Low latency



Specifications

Based on nRF24LU1+ chip from Nordic Semiconductor

8051 MCU at up to 16MHz with 32Kb flash and 2Kb SRAM

2.4GHz ISM band radio

USB device peripheral

125 radio channels

2Mbps, 1Mbps and 250Kps communication datarate

Sends and receives data packets of up to 32 bytes payload

Automatically handles addresses and packet ack

Hardware SPI and UART

Combatible with Enhanced ShockBurst protocol from Nordic Semiconductor



Radio Specification

20dBm output power (100mW)

Low Noise Amplifier (LNA)

RPSMA connector

Can be powered with up to 13V via expansion header

2x5 2.54mm expansion header with following signals (not mounted):

Hardware support for PPM input

Up to 13V input power

GND

PPM

SPI/UART

Standard USBA connector



Mechanical Specification

Weight: 6g

Size (WxHxD): 58x16x6.5mm (including connectors)

Resources

• Bitcraze

• Wiki

• Forum