December 13, 2013 at 09:44CoolRF's new heart: ATmega128RFA1 chip
Our New Year’s pre-order was very surprising with its performance. In four days, more than half the first print run of the premiere module was ordered. This is despite the fact that it uses rather rare components and ready-made working software is not yet available. Many customers directly wrote in the comments that they are very happy to financially support our project with such an acquisition. Thank you for that!
A new participant came to the project - Alexander Mikheev alexmgf . He is also from Yekaterinburg. Over several years of experiments, Alexander has accumulated a decent amount of experience both in the field of electronics development and in terms of writing firmware for his own development. Recently, it also began publishing on the hub, here is its first article .
Alexander’s wireless designs are based on the ATmega128RFA1 chip. After some thought, we decided to relocate our project to use this chip. This will allow us to fully use the experience of a new participant, as well as promises a number of other interesting advantages. Of course, there are also negative sides. Details - under the cut.
A brief introduction to the course for those who first saw our project
We are developing a complete Smart Home system. The “first swallow” of our system is a DIY dimmer. Here are its main features:
If you want to join the discussion of the system features, please read all our previous articles and comments on them. Most likely questions after such familiarization will become much less.
- Work on the 2.4 GHz radio channel (own protocol, without licensing restrictions, or ZigBee implementation based on Atmtel BitCloud)
- Encrypted Connection
- Installation without changing the standard wiring of an ordinary apartment
- Low power consumption
- The familiar appearance of the switches
- The ability to independently expand both hardware and software functionality
- Open source software as well as hardware
If you want to join the discussion of the system features, please read all our previous articles and comments on them. Most likely questions after such familiarization will become much less.
Want to keep abreast of all the events of the project? This is not at all difficult!
You just need to subscribe to update our company on Habré and in the VKontakte group .
With VKontakte questions usually do not arise. To subscribe to Habr updates, you need to go to the company page and click the "Subscribe" button in the block on the right.
With VKontakte questions usually do not arise. To subscribe to Habr updates, you need to go to the company page and click the "Subscribe" button in the block on the right.
Compatible radio module
Not so long ago, Alexander independently developed a radio module that is compatible with the findings of NRF24LE1. Such a module can be installed on our boards without any alterations to the latter. You can see the board drawing in the post title.
The first experimental series of such boards will be available next week. This series was ordered at a factory in Yekaterinburg and is very small. If there is interest, we will immediately order a more decent number of boards in China. There are chances to catch up before the new year, albeit already small. At the bottom of the article you will find a letter template for pre-order and pricing.
In addition to the processor board itself, two “adapters” have been developed. The first is on USB, the second is on a standard programmer:
An additional line of pins of the radio module will not be soldered for installation in standard dimmer boards. This is a reserve for the future.
Benefits of Using the ATmega128RFA1
Atmel microcontrollers know everything
If not all, then very many. And if you include Arduino fans here, you’ll get an obscene amount of people. In the future, the new chip should allow making a piece of hardware programmed directly from the Arduino IDE. We hope we get to this development. This can lead to a very large portion of followers in the project.
Experience of a new project participant
It will allow us to quickly develop both new project modules and software for these modules. Source codes and schemes will continue to be open to non-commercial use. For those who want to establish the production of such iron, we will prepare special conditions.
Affordable ZigBee Stack
For those who do not want to mess with homegrown software, a great opportunity appears. Atmel's BitCloud software stack is an implementation of the ZigBee protocol with all its goodies. Stack with closed source, but open and well-documented API level. Plus, with the possibility of free use even in commercial developments (if we are not right, poke us, please, in the right link where the opposite is written).
Negative sides
A radio module based on ATmega128RFA1 will turn out to be somewhat more expensive than its predecessor. If NRF24LE1, when ordering through us, would cost 400-450 rubles now, with the new module we can only approach this level after reaching some good volumes. Only the microcontroller itself costs around 200 rubles and you won’t be able to buy it “in every stall”. In China, there are no ready-made boards based on it; they can be purchased from us or from our representatives.
Moving to a new type of MK, we do not cross out the possibility of working with NRF24LE1. Support for NRF24LE1 will develop at the same leisurely pace as previously planned.
Pre-order radio modules based on ATmega128RFA1 and adapter boards
If there are a good number of pre-orders, we will try to get finished products for shipment to customers during January. These boards will be fully assembled and soldered, not in the form of a constructor.
Pricing
The radio module is 800 rubles when ordering one module, 700 rubles from five pieces, 600 rubles from ten pieces.
USB-adapter 300 rubles when ordering one adapter, 250 rubles from five pieces, 200 rubles from ten pieces.
The adapter to the programmer 200 rubles when ordering one adapter, 150 rubles from five pieces, 100 rubles from ten pieces.
How to pay?
There will be no cash on delivery, there will be a pre-paid shipping of the cost of the parcel + delivery. We plan to make the “Golden Crown” the central payment channel. They have a lot of branches throughout Russia and not only, plus fairly low tariffs. After the new year, a payment option via the Internet with a plastic card should be added (many people asked to do this - we listened). With a large number of people who want to pay differently, the options are discussed.
How to sign up?
We got a special mail for pre-orders: preorder (funny dog) coolrf.com. Send a letter there with the heading "Pre-order radio modules" of similar content:
Name: Pupkin Vasily Afanasevich Moscow city Order: 10 radio modules, 5 usb adapters, 1 programmer adapter Shipping: PONY-express Payment: online plastic card
You can put your options in the items "Delivery" and "Payment" if you are not completely satisfied with the ones we proposed. As soon as everything is ready for dispatch from us, we will contact all interested persons by e-mail for final approval of orders.
Partnership
We are starting to look for partners in the regions to implement our modules. The conditions are simple. The partner receives big discounts, financially participating already at the pre-order stage of our products. We invite everyone who wants to become our first regional partners to the special mail partner (funny dog) coolrf.com.