Moteino-USB

PRODUCT ID:100
$22.95
In Stock

Available Options

Description

Now available in the EU from Welectron (Germany)

Please note: due to component shortages and very long lead times, the MoteinoUSB might come with the atmega328PB, but with the standard Dualoptiboot bootloader. To all intents and purposes, it will behave the same as the atmega328P and the user should see no difference in behavior, low power, etc.

What it is:

This is the R6-USB revision of Moteino, it is designed for use with FSK transceivers (RFM69HCW, RFM69CW) and LoRa transceivers (RFM95, RFM96). See the transceivers guide.

Moteino-USB is designed to be used without the need of an additional FTDI adapterIt has a built in USB-Serial FTDI adapter chip, and only a regular micro-USB cable is required for power and programming.
Otherwise it has the same features as the non-USB Moteino. For more details click here to see the details of regular Moteinos.

IMPORTANT: Power should be provided through the USB, and the VIN pins can be used to provide 5V to other devices. You can however power the device through VIN from a battery pack but will use slightly more current than a regular Moteino. The headers are the same as the regular Moteino, see diagram below.

What you get:

A fully assembled and tested Moteino-USB. The testing is done by loading the Moteino with a sample sketch to ensure functionality of transceiver and FLASH chip (if FLASH option was ordered).

USB connector is now micro-USB in R6:

Pinout, click to enlarge:

Moteino PINOUT (R4-USB)

Transceivers (not all are pin compatible, see details above):

Compatible radios:

  • RFM69HCW (20dBm transmit power) transceivers, 130mA in TX, 16mA in RX. It's functionally (but not pin compatible) to RFM69HW. You will have to call the setHighPower() function after the initialize() function in the RFM69 library. See the examples that come with the library for how this is done.
  • RFM69CW (13dBm transmit power) transceivers, 45mA in TX, 16mA in RX. It's functionally (but not pin compatible) to RFM69W.
  • RFM95/96 LoRa transceivers - 20dBm TX power, these can be used with the RadioHead library.
  • IMPORTANT NOTE: any RFM69 transceiver can communicate to any other RFM69 (regardless of pinout and variant). The RFM69Hxx radios (H = high power, 20dBm) require the setHighPower() function call after initialize.

Other compatible and legacy radios:

RFM69W is a 13dBm output power transceiver, 45mA in TX, 16mA in RX.
RFM69CW is equivalent to RFM69W but has the layout/pinout of RFM12B.
RFM12B is an older popular transceiver adopted in many Arduino open source projects like the Jeenode, Nanode-RF etc. Which means if you order this transceiver Moteino will be compatible with those products.
Compatibility of RFM12B and RFM69 radios: While both types use FSK modulation, out of the box RFM12B cannot communicate to RFM69W/HW transceivers and vice versa, using the RFM69/RFM12B libraries. Please click here for a mod/solution to make RFM12B talk to RFM69. Jeelabs has posted a library that allows direct communication with their Jeelib library. For new projects RFM69 is recommended since it has more output power/range when needed and more features like a packet engine, hardware encryption and digital RSSI, none of which are available on the old RFM12B.

915Mhz vs 868Mhz vs 433Mhz:

  • 433Mhz theoretically has slightly better obstacle penetration (vs higher frequencies) but likely shorter range in open air. You might need an amateur radio license to operate these depending on how much you transmit and transmit signal power (13-20dBm), please verify in your own region.
  • 433Mhz have longer antennas (see drawing)
  • 868/915Mhz have shorter antennas, excellent performance when covering a typical residential property, highly recommended for new designs wherever possible, fewer restrictions than 433mhz
  • there are no 868Mhz specific units offered, but will ship 915Mhz units for 868Mhz orders. Here is why: There is only 1 passive component value difference between the two versions and open air testing reveals no significant signal strength difference using 915Mhz units with 868Mhz settings.
  • you are responsible to get and use the version that complies with your local/regional regulations in terms of ISM unlicensed frequency band and operation
  • The RF behavior of Moteino is entirely dependent on the firmware you load on it, use it responsibly and abide with your local radio frequency laws and restrictions.
  • Please be aware: not all frequencies are legal without a HAM license in all places. The library and example code may default to certain frequency/bitrate/output power settings, you are responsible to be compliant to your region's regulations.

FTDI Drivers / Installation:

When you plug in MoteinoUSB the first time, it will look for FTDI drivers you may not have installed.

This is a one time job and you can install them from here: http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm (or the direct drivers from here: http://www.ftdichip.com/FTDrivers.htm)

The drivers also come bundled with the Arduino IDE, look for them in your Arduino/drivers installation folder.

Once the drivers are installed you should not have to install them again, however distinct devices will generate distinct COM ports on your PC.

Some users are reporting that on Mac OSX they need to install the specific driver for the FTDI FT231XS chip on Moteino-USB otherwise they get an error when attempting programming it: "avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding". If you see no new serial port emulated when you plug it in, please head over to the link above to install the drivers and try again.

 

Transceiver Datasheets

http://www.hoperf.com/upload/rf/RFM69W-V1.3.pdf
http://www.hoperf.com/upload/rf/RFM69HW-V1.3.pdf
http://www.hoperf.com/upload/rf/rfm12b.pdf
http://www.hoperf.com/upload/rf/RFM95_96_97_98W.pdf