The rapidradio is the simplest wireless connectivity for your Raspberry Pi. Just plug it in and use the rapidradio command-line tool.

open source initiative

Full rapidradio source code is available at GitHub. It's free to use and modify (MIT License).

beautiful design

You could just solder manually 8 wires to the tiny RFM75 radio, that's true. But Raspberry Pi looks so pretty with the rapidradio and we all love working with beautiful designed devices, don’t we?

what is the rapidradio?

Isn’t it just beauty?

No, it’s not.

It is beauty and it works!  

How cool is that? 

rapidradio means the simplest wireless connectivity for your Raspberry Pi. It’s a half-duplex 2.4GHz transceiver based on the RFM75 module (made by HopeRF). It’s a perfect solution for any kind of home automation, robotics, DIY projects, Arduino-to-RaspberryPi projects etc. You will be surprised how much you can reach using rapidradio. So much opportunities and so much fun, because it will work for you both ways – for your projects and for your taste. Enjoy!

short specs:

Dimensions (L x W x H): 27mm x 21mm x 12mm

Voltage: 1.9V – 3.6V, I/Os are 5V-tolerant

Interface: SPI up to 8MHz

RF features: RF power programmable: -35 .. +5dBm; 2.4000-2.4835 GHz ISM band (83 channels), 4-byte addresses

Speed: max. 2Mbit, but practical usable up/down stream is lower when all CRC, ACK, auto-repeat, etc. options are enabled.

Open area range: ~70m; improved indoor range by rapidradio wire antenna in comparison to the RFM73’s pcb antenna

RaspberryPi setup

How to set up rapidradio? don’t worry, it’s a child’s play. Just plug it in to your Raspberry Pi as shown on the pictures below – meaning into the inner pin column, starting from the 6th pin from bottom (true for all current Raspberry Pi versions). Do not forget to switch-off and unplug Raspberry Pi first (just in case).

Then get the rapidradio tool. You can download compiled binary here (Raspbian Wheezy). or you can build it from source on your own. Now you are ready for a transmission! Start listening using address 0x12345678 and channel 50:

sudo ./rapidradio -l -a=0x12345678 -c=50 > received_file.txt

Then on second Raspberry Pi use this command to send a 'sample_file.txt' to the listening rapidradio you’ve just set (address 0x12345678 and channel 50):

sudo ./rapidradio -a=0x12345678 -c=50 < sample_file.txt

You’ve just sent a file. A child’s play, wouldn’t you agree?

rapidradio with Arduino

Yes, you can use the rapidradio with your Arduino board too! Detailed description and sketch source files can be found on this page.

what’s the use?

There are so many possible applications the rapidradio is usefull for:

• Internet of Things (IoT) - it's a low power device and it's much easier to use than Bluetooth LE chips
• home automation systems – make your sensor network independent of WiFi connection that is, well.. not always to rely on
• robotics – rapidradio is the cutest way to simplify communication with your robots
• voice streaming – let the voice fly like a butterfly and make a wireless intercom
• telemetry – get rid of expensive UART-to-RF bridges

…and much more. the only limits for the buttefly is the sky because… it’s cute, it’s rapid and it works.

The Rapidradio USB :It will let you talk to your rapidradio-powered RaspberryPi or any other rapidradio-powered devices from a PC or Mac. Just plug it into an USB port and use the open source command line tool or the rapidradio USB library.