Good low-cost sub-gigahertz FSK transmitter and receiver

[robotix3]

Can anyone recommend a good low-cost sub-gigahertz FSK transmitter and receiver solution, every time I find one I like I find out that it is obsolete...

Preferably one that is well-documented with an easy-to-buy eval board.

At this point I only have experience with 2.4ghz setups like the nrf24l01+ but I need something cheaper for a toy design.

Thanks for any recommendations

[daveshah]

Have you looked at the modules made by HopeRF? They have quite a range of nice sub-gigahertz modules, and would be a good starting point as you could then move onto using just the IC if needed. Another option I've looked at but never used are the ON-semi transceivers; either the AX5043 or the AX8052 series which incorporate both the transceiver and a 8052 MCU.

[sorenkir]

You can find a lot of cheap nRF905 based boards.
Nordic Semiconductor's nRF905 is a single chip 433/868/915MHz GFSK Transceiver easy to drive with a MCU.
Michel.

[3apw]

You can look at

• DRA818V - VHF (136-174 MHz) http://www.dorji.com/docs/data/DRA818V.pdf
• DRA818U - UHF (400-470MHz) http://www.dorji.com/docs/data/DRA818U.pdf

Both versions have 0.5/1W RF TX power. 

[TheDane]

Texas Instruments makes a chip capable of sub-GHz FSK, and they also have an evaluation board:
http://www.ti.com/tool/CC1101EMK433

CC1101 - and I'm sure there's a lot more to choose from when you dig into their RF section 
Extremly LOW cost 433MHz modules can be found on aliexpress and ebay. They have a pin header, with SPI interface - great 

[Smokey]

Unless something changed, HopeRF are just Silicon Labs chips on circuit boards.  The messed up thing is that they try to remove all references to SiLabs and pass the chips off as their own.  100% copies of SiLabs data sheets with the company name photoshopped over.  A little dishonest if you ask me.  Other than that, they are good dev boards for SiLabs chips.

[Simbarashe Bryne Chipembe]

Steer clear of the AXSEM-ONSEMI parts AX8052xxx, Horrendous documentation and support. Just extremely impossible to get started with, rather go for Silabs EZR32HG devices or TI's CC1310.

It seems as if ONSEMI fired all the smart AXSEM guys , impossible for you to get technical assistance, there is no meaningful documentation, so you'll quickly find yourself in a quagmire.

[OwO]

I've had good experiences with AX5043, which I think is just AX8052 without the MCU. You really do need to read the reference manual carefully and write your own driver for it. Don't bother with the provided code. In the one instance where something was undocumented (BPSK mode) I emailed ONSEMI and got a satisfactory reply.

[JoeyG]

A bit new :   Microchip  SAMR30M18A  900MHz module   (mcu+Transmitter and receiver)   and
 50ohm ant connection.

https://www.microchip.com/DevelopmentTools/ProductDetails/ac164159

https://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/en/ATSAMR30M18