Recently came across Flutter, an arduino-compatible wireless device with a (claimed) 1 km range and AES 256 encryption for $20 (Flutter Basic) or $30 (Flutter Pro) . It was funded on Kickstarter back in September. The target release date is March, but from the December update it appears they are already behind schedule (as most Kickstarters go). I think Summer is a better bet.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/flutterwireless/flutter-20-wireless-arduino-with-half-mile-1km-ran
http://www.flutterwireless.com/
Anyway, interesting hardware specs: Atmel SAM3S processor and TI CC1200 radio module. The CC1200 supports FSK, GFSK, MSK, OOK modulations. The specs show 2-FSK and 4-FSK, would a Moteino be able to talk to this?
http://www.ti.com/product/cc1200
They also mention supporting mesh networking. As it's an open hardware/software project based on Arduino, I will be interested to see what they come up with as I may be able to use it for Moteino, if I need mesh.
Kickstarter eh .. glad I never went there for funds. BTW I think I've seen this one before as well, still behing huh... bummer.
AES256 can be achieved by adding a firmware layer to the hardware AES128.
Claims are nice for advertising. Reality is different. I would be very cautious making such claims. Even with Moteino, 1Km is achievable, but it's hard and you gotta know a little about RF and what you are doing, it's not like plug and play and .. BAM you get 1km no matter what.
Can Moteino speak to Flutter? I don't know. RFM12B can, so if the settings can be tuned to be similar, then the protocol can be sync-ed on the two and achieve communication.
But is it really worth the trouble? Probably not.
There will be a million solutions out there. Some good some bad. Some easy to use some a pain. Some cleverly advertised with shiny videos and backed with millions, perhaps behind by months/years before delivery. It really boils down to how easy and quickly you can get going (like from unwrapping to actual RF communication, assuming you're not an Arduino newbie).
Felix, I hear you, that's why I noted the range was claimed to be 1 km.
I mentioned Flutter because if it can talk to Moteino there may be some cases where the two could work together. Certainly I'm happy with Moteino as I can buy them now and they do what I need.
I'm with you, I don't understand why they used a separate chip for encryption.
Quote from: KanyonKris on January 20, 2014, 12:33:31 PM
I'm with you, I don't understand why they used a separate chip for encryption.
If you are refering to the ATSHA204 chip, it has nothing to do with data encryption. It is a crypto chip for authentication with hashing NOT AES. AES-128 is part of CC1200 chip.
I backed the Flutter project before I stumbled across Moteino and change my project to use Moteino in the core network around the house. There are some nice feature in Flutter like solar charging and mesh network that I will play with for devices further away from the house.
Ha .. just found this picture about the 1km range. I don't believe that big circle for 1 second.
(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3676/12071409856_123bcec75e_o.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/15304611@N03/12071409856/)