A while back I got my CC2530-based XBee-clone boards back from BatchPCB. Then reality set in—I actually had to solder these things! After much trial and error, I think I finally have figured out the right technique using solder paste, flux, and hot air. Here are some results:

I finished placing all of the components on my CC2530-based XBee clone a few days ago. Tests using SmartRF Studio indicate that the chip is fine and working properly.

Not sure about how well the radio works yet, since it seems that my initial layout is going to lead to significant signal attenuation. Hopefully it won't be too bad. I'm new to all this RF stuff.

I'm now dubbing it the FauxBee. Note the lower case 'X', to avoid any trademark confusion.

It turns out I had the wrong landing pad for the crystal—my 32MHz crystals were a tad large. I went out to HSC Electronic Supply and picked up the closest thing I could find. The new crystal just barely touched all the pads, but it does work!

Most of the decoupling caps are on the other side of the board.

Now the hard part: porting Contiki to this thing.

One of the things I've been working on in my spare time is a breakout board for the CC2530/CC2531 low-power system-on-a-chip microcontroller with a built-in 802.15.4 radio. This is a great chip, but without an easy-to-use breakout board it is somewhat difficult to prototype with. So here is mine: