v5.0 support

Bluetooth 5 is now officially supported on BLUE and RED bean products, which increases data-rate, range and also broadcast capability. No hardware updates are required. Even lower power consumption due to Bluetooth v5.0 support will make the modules ideal for battery driven applications and co-existence with Wi-Fi ensures smooth operation even in very congested environments.

Github repository with latest drivers

BLUE and RED bean drivers are available on 8devices repository with out of the box support for Bluetooth v5.0 and other nice enhancements. 

Drivers were tested on the following platforms:

• ESPRESSObin board with 4.4.52-armada-17.06.2
• NXP BD-SL-i.MX6
• RaspberryPi

Wireless performance

Recent wireless radio tests show RED bean module is capable to reach 350 Mbps capacity when operating over SDIO3 interface.

Simultaneous dual-band 802.11 station and AP operation

The BEAN module family has a dual-band radio that not only supports 802.11ac Wave2 and BT v5.0 standards, but 802.11ac interface can operate as a single Station and a single AP simultaneously in 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. This makes radio modules very attractive for repeater and similar scenarios when both frequencies are required at the same time. Station and AP can operate using the same frequency band - 2.4GHz or 5GHz, or use different bands for backhaul and access.

BLACK bean is a new module that will complement the current lineup. Current module versions are USB (BLUE bean) and SDIO (RED bean) and the new one has PCIe M2. interface and comes with a connector for external antenna. Stay tuned as the official announcement is right around the corner!