Scavenger's Second Look - A Nordic Tale of hidden treasure
RF == my(BFF);
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One of my favorite things to do when I'm not circuit deep in prototyping is search for and score cheap / free electronics to extract components from. Having conquered the intimidation that circuitry, digital logic, molten solder & high voltage held over me, I found this path of education to be easy, fun and addictive.
The Nordic nRF2401B (normally $25 @ Sparkufun) can be obtained from the Wireless Xbox Controller device. I obtained two of them as a pair from the Salvation Army for a dollar. I had seen them before during previous ventures through their electronics isle but didn't think twice about it.
On a subsequent trip I decided to try and make out what clues I could find about this device. It wasn't until it was spelled out to me by the letters on the silk screen, CLK1 and DATA, that I decided to take it consideration. Reading the branding printed on the clear plastic case that housed the pcb, it became apparent this was a wireless device. So I went ahead and threw it into my little orange basket of peoples old shit, that I had chosen for my alchemy.
Last night, I finally opened the sucker up and was very pleased to find that the side(daughter?) board , the one with the CLK1 & DATA pin labels, was the home of a lovely little Nordic nRF2401. Keeping the RF2401 company are various SMD components and a 16MHz Crystal. This Module is connected to the primary PCB via a 12 Pin Male header. The pins appear to be soldered onto the surface of the main PCB's bottom side. Here it joins up with another barrage of Surface Mounted components. A colophonic black hole hides the primary IC on this board, which is paired with it's own crystal (labeled 6.000M.T)
It seems that the perpendicularly positioned Nordic RF Module was purchased separate and the primary PCB was designed with mounting the module in mind. Unsoldering the Module is quick and easy and leaves you with a wonderful little breakout board populated with male headers!
I was very happy to find that the second Xbox Controller product was still in that little bin, where it had been for months, sitting in the Salvation Army. Now I have a pair of 2.4GHz Nordic Wireless Transcievers to interface to my MCU's. Sometimes its easy to overlook items that don't seem significant, important or recognizable as having value. So my advice for other scavengers is to take a second closer look and maybe you'll be suprised what true value is hidden within lead.
This was my first write-up so I appologize for all grammatical/SP errors, and any other general annoyances. I hope to feel more comfortable in a forum setting after this, having now 'tested the waters' & popped my post cherry. Perhaps I'll post my actual projects, designs, hacks, discoveries if this is well received. Thank you for your time.
