RFM23BP Breakout Board

Breakout boards for the HopeRF RFM23BP 433MHz modules with SMA connectors. Fabricated by the famous Magic Purple PCB Factory 😉




These modules come in different operating frequencies and are supposed to transmit with up to 1W. They communicate via SPI and need up to 600mA (max. output power). The power can be set in software. I made them for long range telemetry purposes, but will not operate them at full power, since a license is needed for output powers above 10mW, even in the free ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) band.




RFM23BP boards




The modules have a blank ground plane without solder mask on the bottom side. A special soldering technique was used here: I tinned this blank area and filled all those vias on the breakout board with solder. Then I applied flux to both the module and the board and finally soldered them together by holding the sandwich against my cooking plate. This will make perfect heat dissipation from the power transistor.




RFM23BP in use




Eagle board files:




RFM23BP

8 thoughts on “RFM23BP Breakout Board”

  1. The RFM23BP breakout board looks really nice and would like to have 2 for my project but don’t want to get involved into PCB fabrication. Do you have 2 breakout boards to send and will pay for that?

    1. I used the Radiohead library, but only for testing. Sorry I don’t remember the exact wiring since that project fell asleep for a while. But I figured out the wiring from the library files and Google 🙂

  2. Hi,

    Congratulations for this great work! I saw your design on eBay, is it sold by yourself?

    I am really interested to use these transceivers for transmission between arduinos, but I am not able to find any code and I am afraid to buy them to finally not be able to create one.

    Could you please be so kind to publish your code?

    Thank you anyway to share your work!

    1. Hi, thanks for the comment. Back when I was testing the boards I just used the examples from the Radiohead library, so I haven’t really written my own yet sorry.
      I think the adapter boards sold on ebay are different ones. They lack the SMA connector. Which ones do you mean?

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