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by joezydeco 4055 days ago
A lot of people prototyping in the IoT space are using the precertified modules.

There's not much more to it: the transmitter is already soldered to a small piece of PCB but has the antenna and necessary tuned discretes on there and ready to go. Doesn't add much to the cost: like BillinghamJ says it's the certification time and cost that's not really worth the trouble if you can just amortize it into the cost of the module.
1 comments
minthd 4055 days ago
The cost comes from adding another company to the process - the module maker.

But sure, at this stage it might not be worth it , maybe later.

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joezydeco 4055 days ago
Hardly a concern anymore. These are just line items on a bill of materials now:

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/450-0103C/450-0103C...

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minthd 4055 days ago
$7.8 is pretty expensive when you can get a bluetooth mcu(in volume, from dialog i think) for $1.
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joezydeco 4055 days ago
Like we said earlier, you can choose between a raw chip (like the Dialog) and handle the antenna design and all the various governmental certifications and testing yourself ($$$)..or you can buy a precertified module that drops in and you're ready to go.

It depends what you can afford and what each path will save you in the long run.

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