Introducing the $19 BCM43362 based WICED Module from Particle (formerly Spark)!

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MichaelF_56
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The Spark Photon is the follow on design to the Spark Core (backwards compatible).  However, by leveraging the Broadcom BCM43362, it's now faster, better, and cheaper than its predecessor.

Note here that USI manufactures the BCM43362 based WICED module used on the Photon design: http://www.usish.com/english/products_wiced.php

A comparison chart is provided below that was obtained from the Spark blog here: http://blog.spark.io/2014/11/12/introducing-the-19-dollar-photon/

On the Spark website, they are now accepting pre-orders for the board and targeting June shipments (first run sold out quickly, over 15,000 sold): https://store.spark.io/#/?product=spark-photon

At just $19, the Photon represents an excellent low cost Wi-Fi development kit for creating connected projects and products.

comparison.png

  • Spark P0 Wi-Fi module
  • Broadcom BCM43362 Wi-Fi chip
  • STM32F205 120Mhz ARM Cortex M3
  • 1MB flash, 128KB RAM
  • 802.11b/g/n
  • Soft AP setup
  • FCC/CE/IC certified
11 Replies
Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi ,

Please let me know whether this will support WPA2 Enterprise wifi ?? The photon is using BCM43362 wifi chip and the BCM43362 should support the WPA2 enterprise wifi .

Thanks,

Satyen

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It does not. I believe that we have a module from Lantronix that will however support WPA2. I'll ask gangi to confirm.

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi,

Is this module on top of BCM43362 wifi chip or it is separate module? Also , is this going to fit into photon P0 ?

I have started for my company project  and when it comes to enterprise WPA2 security I got stuck. But for the Guest network inside my office it works fine.

I do not know how to add any WPA2 enterprise security supplement in PHOTON to make it work. Please let me know if you have any solution.

Thanks,

Satyen

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It's a module from our partner USI

Not sure on the Photon P0 fitment question as we have had limited exposure to this module.

Have you tried the Particle (formerly Spark) forums/docs here: Particle Support?

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi,

Please see  below link. A Particle discussion thread says that the Photon is capable of WPA2 Enterprise.

https://community.particle.io/t/spark-photon-wpa2-enterprise/8681

Can you confirm this a hardware or software limitation of the chip (BCM43362)? If software, is this something Particle or the Particle community can build?

Thanks,

Satyen

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Anonymous
Not applicable

It was already mentioned here in the past ( search WPA2 Enterprise ), that the chip ( BCM43362 ) could be used for the WPA2 Enterprise. However, the existing SDK does not provide that functionality.

It was mentioned that a product that is based on this chip does support WPA2 Enterprise, but you can't really tell if it completely complies with the spec or not.

Either way, it's more software to be implemented, which might be a plus for some applications and minus for some others.

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Anonymous
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Hi All,

  I'm curious why the SDK doesn't support WPA2 Enterprise, is there something we can do to help make this happen for our users?

Thanks,
David

Since you are from one of our partners and asking this question, I will pass this note around internally and see if there is anyone on the Apps/Developer team that can reach out to your company and explain what is neededto enable WPA2 Enterprise within the SDK.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Thanks!  Sorry if I'm asking a silly question, I'm not on the firmware team, but I get asked this question frequently enough from our customers that I thought I'd reach out and see if I could help. 

Thanks,
David

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Someone would have to create Platform files and provide a patch to the SDK so folks can use the Photon with the WICED SDK.  This would be a great value and we would help you to promote it.

Anonymous
Not applicable

@leew: "

Does the BCM43362 based WICED Module from Particle support the WICED SDK?

Does this one can run WICED SDK example?

I see they have their IDE Tool and never said WICED can support it."

-Good question!  Our firmware has a hardware abstraction layer that tries to help lay out best practices across various platforms. It's certainly possible to use the WICED SDK directly, and we're considering relaxing some of those HAL abstractions to make that more accessible for power users.