TIMAC Getting Started

TIMAC is a software stack from Texas Instruments implementing the standard IEEE 802.15.4 Medium Access Control (MAC). It runs over Texas Instruments IEEE 802.15.4 PHY compliant devices such as SimpleLink^TM CC2630, CC2650, CC2538, CC2530, CC2533, CC2531.

TIMAC allows quickly building low power and low cost communication network products with limited power and relaxed throughput requirements. It is primarily designed to create star topology wireless networks.

TIMAC Features

TIMAC is based on IEEE 802.15.4 Specification and leverages key features of this standard which are listed below:

• Physical Layer Data (Raw) rate of 250kbps at 2.4GHz Frequency band
• 64 bit and 16 bit Dynamic Device Addressing
• CSMA-CA channel access
• Full hand-shake protocol for transfer reliability
• Link Quality Index (LQI)
• Star and Peer-to-Peer topology
• Beaconed and Non-Beaconed Network

Targeted Applications

TIMAC Targets Applications requiring features such as

• Easy to install – Star / Peer to Peer topologies
• Reliable data transfer – CSMA, Retries, Acknowledgements
• Secured – AES Encryption + MIC (MIC-32, MIC-64, MIC-128)
• Short range operation
• Extremely low cost – Small Stack size
• Reasonable battery life
• Simple protocol implementation

Starting with TIMAC

Download and install the TIMAC Stack:

TIMAC is available as a free download from www.ti.com/timac

Order and get the appropriate hardware platform:

Depending on the application requirements particular hardware platform can be selected. The details on the each device and its features can be obtained from the product page on the www.ti.com. This wiki provides hyperlinks to those pages.

TIMAC stack out of box is supported over following hardware platforms. Also below are the links to get the starter kits for each platform

• CC2650/30DK
• CC2538DK
• CC2530DK
• CC2531DK
• CC2533DK

Running the TIMAC Sample Applications

On CC2630/50 Platform: The document MAC User's Guide - CC26XX.pdf included with the TIMAC Installer at C:\ti\simplelink\timac_xxx\Documents provides detailed steps to run your first TIMAC Sample Application.

On CC253x Platform: The document MAC User's Guide - <platform>.pdf (where <platform> is CC2530 or CC2538 or CC2531DK) included with the TIMAC install at C:\Texas Instruments\TIMAC x.x.x\Documents provides detailed steps to run your first TIMAC Sample Application on the selected SimpleLink^TM MCU.

Application running on BBB running debian or x86 Host running Ubuntu interfacing with MAC-CoP: Install the application from C:\Texas Instruments\TIMAC 1.5.2.43299\Projects\mac\TI-MAC_LinuxSampleApp\installer on your linux machine, and follow the instructions in the document "TIMAC Linux Sample Application Users Guide.pdf" in the /doc folder of your TIMAC-1.5.2 install directory.