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[on:]

I've been working on a pin and software compatible Arduino variant for some time, the Zigduino. It is based around the ATmega128RFA1, which gives it a built-in 802.15.4 radio as well as a good deal more flash and RAM than a standard Arduino (128K and 16K, respectively). It is substantially more electrically rugged than a standard Arduino -- each pin can handle a +/-30V transient.

It is now on sale at http://www.logos-electro.com/zigduino. My sales announcement on my company blog is at http://www.logos-electro.com/blog/2011/6/28/zigduinos-for-sale.html.

[Reply #1 on:]

Nicely done!  The ATmega128RFA1 is a firecracker.  Nice to see it on a board.  I think I am going to go after one of your prizes.

[Reply #2 on:]

Have you tested the open air transmit range using the supplied antenna? I do not see any estimates in your product description or any of your documentation.

[Reply #3 on:]

Chagrin,

Achievable range is subject to a great variety of variables. Since I'm not equipped to do a range test to the applicable IEEE standards, I decided it was better to not make formal claims as to range rather than to make ones that I don't have full support for.

That said, you should see range equivalent to the base XBee module, which is about 300 ft outdoors, unobstructed. Your range may vary.

[Reply #4 on:]

Aww I've been waiting for another ATmega128RFA1 product on the market but you've taken away a lot of the extra I/O pins (no second USART makes me sad), and didn't give me enough cost savings to justify the missing pins (I take that back... I kind of like it more now). Hopefully you can break-out more pins in another revision

[Reply #5 on:]

Frank,

I think you are the third person today to ask for all of the pins to be broken out in the next major revision. I'm considering it.

[Reply #6 on:]

You might want install a light box on your website.
People will want to see the board image larger.

[Reply #7 on:]

I'll do that, now that I have images worth seeing bigger. 

[Reply #8 on:]

What's the throughput of the zigbee on that unit?

It must be obvious to some, but I don't know much about zigbee yet.

[Reply #9 on:]

rocketgeek

Although it's great that you've made all the pins 5V compatible, I have found myself almost exclusively using 3.3V components now-a-days. If the cost of making more pins 5V compatible is prohibitive, know that at least I myself would not care if you took away 5V compatibility.

It's 2011, 5V logic is dying

Other microcontrollers with built-in 2.4 GHz RF are not as beefy as the ATmega128RFA1, so taking away pins would be taking away one of the only things that makes the ATmega128RFA1 unique

[Reply #10 on:]

Dying != dead; most of the shields currently for sale listed on shieldlist.org are 5V. I'm looking into ways to pull the other two ports out for the next revision.

[Reply #11 on:]

it'll be great if you can come up with a open source MAC, is there any plans for that?

[Reply #12 on:]

Frank,

I'm talking to the uracoli guys about porting that over, and offering free hardware for porting uracoli and contiki. Dropping a line to the uracoli project might make it happen faster.

[Reply #13 on:]

That's good news.

There's a good chance that Atmel simply threw the silicon from the standalone transceivers into the MCU, eliminating the need for a SPI interface, meaning porting over existing code should be as easy as replacing some SPI functions. Hopefully this is the case.

[Reply #14 on:]

There's a high probability that they did exactly that. I'm told that's a very common approach for companies making their first SoC products. Inspection of the PAL/TAL/TFA modules in the Atmel MAC also tends to support that assumption.