I’m getting to grips with the DWM1001 through the MDEK1000 kit and am almost comfortable with it. But if it is going to be superseded by the 3000, should I change now for a new design?
(Apologies if this is a duplicate, but the original seems lost).
I’ll start this with a warning that this is not an official answer in any way.
However I don’t think there are any plans to discontinue the DW1000 chip itself any time soon. The modules containing it will be a different matter, depending on volume I could see some of them getting dropped rather than being re-designed if one of the other components becomes hard to source. From what I’ve seen the DWM1001C is the most widely used in any sort of volume and so least likely to be discontinued.
So in terms of supply issues I don’t think there is a real need to switch. The short and medium term risk is small in comparison to all the other supply issues going on right now.
The DW1000 supports several channels in the 4 GHz band and the 6.5 GHz band. The 4 GHz band is starting to get jammed by 4G phone systems in some parts of the world. The 6.5 GHz band overlaps with the latest WiFi standards.
Also neither of these bands are usable in Japan (well 4 GHz is if your data rate is over 50 Mb/s which the DW1000 can’t do).
While the DW3000 only supports two channels as far as I know channel 9 is free from jamming sources and can be used in most countries. The down side is that the higher frequency will mean shorter ranges.
Currently the DWM1001C running PANS is pre-certified and so allows you to sell products without the cost of expensive regulatory radio testing. As soon as you go away from that in terms of hardware or firmware you need to perform that testing. For low volume products that can make a big difference.
The DW3000 also supports extra security features and iPhone compatibility but that may or may not be relevant to your application.
The DW1000 documentation is better if you’re really digging into the guts of the drivers to get every little bit of performance. Last I looked the DW3000 manual was a mess (bits that told you to reverse engineer the driver to see how to use the chip. The drivers then modified registers not listed in the manual. It may have improved since I last looked.)
So should you change? There are good arguments for both options. For me the potential jamming issues at the lower frequencies and global approvals are the main reason we’re looking at switching. Supply issues are a secondary concern.
Thanks - this is really helpful. The certification on the DWM1001c swung it for me at the moment, I’ll deal with jamming and Japan later!