Hi Felix,
Don't know how you are progressing with your Moteino Mega/RFM69HW problem, so thought this post might be of some interest. A few years back I cobbled together a 40 pin DIL Atmega 1284P pcb, it essentially is a Steve Marple's Calunium/Freetronics Kit Ten Arduino hybridised clone. After reading about the Moteino Mega on the blog, finally got around to testing a Moteino R4, which is transmitting Node ID, Vcc, battery voltage, light level, temperature, relative humidity, RFM69HW chip temperature and RFM69HW power level setting. The Moteino R4 is transmitting to a central receiver node which is comprised of a RFM69HW pcb I cobbled together, sitting on top of my 1284P board. As you can see from the screen capture, see fig(iii), the data is being trnsmitted and received correctly. Fig(i) and fig(ii) show the Tx and Rx pcbs.
Was wondering if you would consider selling me a couple of your Moteino Mega boards, so I could have a play with them and see if I can get them working similarly?
I made some progress, not as much as I wanted. Too little time and too much stuff on my hand right now.
Glad to hear you got them working, can you report what happens if you disconnect the antenna on the 1284p side (but keep them on the same desk)?
Hi Felix,
My original test conditions involved having the Moteino Tx transmitting through two floors of ferro-concrete. With a power level of 5dBm I achieve 100% data capture. Certainly couldn't say this for RFM12B wireless module. As you requested, have put the Moteino Tx on my desk, about one half a metre distant from the 1284P receiver, with the antenna removed and it still works just fine! You ignored my question about purchasing one of your Moteino Megas, so I guess that is a No?
cheers,
That's interesting. I have mixed results. I only have 3 prototypes right now (OSHPark) to work with and one is pretty abused and questionable. Once you solder the radio it's hard to get it off without damage to the PCB unless you have hot air. So unfortunately I can't let go of the better pair as long as I'm still trying to get through my testing with them, sorry didn't mean to ignore.
Hi Felix,
Sorry, totally understand, I wrongly just assumed you had a number of Moteino Megas, not just the three. As far as your comment concerning difficulties when trying to desolder wireless modules form the Moteino pcb, could I suggest adding 2mm female headers to the Moteino pcb and 2mm male headers to the wireless module. I have done this and it certainly saves a
lot of stuffing around and possible pcb damage. I posted a little item on this forum about this many months ago.
https://lowpowerlab.com/forum/index.php/topic,203.0.html
Good luck with your 1284P Moteino Megas and please keep us informed as to your progress as these little numbers with the 128K flash, 16K SRAM, extra IO, JTAG(some might want to use it), extra serial port would certainly be handy ... at least for my applications anyway.
cheers,
Hey I spent some time last night on those newer prototypes and it seems I got much better results.
The headers idea is great when you want to swap them. But in my case I have soldered wires so I could plug the radios in a breadboard. That gave me mixed results. I suspected some signal interference on the SPI from all the breadboard wires. So I soldered radios to 2 other units and they worked much better. So I think having the radio elevated via headers might not be as close as possible to the real case where the radio is soldered to the board, which is what I needed to make sure will work before I announce I have a new product.
So I'm planning to test some more and if all goes well in my next PCB order I will get some of these and get them assembled for the store. They will cost more than a regular Moteino, probably around $30 for the board+radio but I need to do my math.
Hi Felix,
Glad to hear you have had some more success with the Moteino Megas. I know it's early days and you have more testing to do before you release a "new product" but given the last sentence of your previous post, I was wondering if you are considering selling the Moteino Mega optioned similarly to the Moteino R4, ie. you can purchase the Moteino Mega, the serial flash chip and the wireless module separately or purchase any combination of the pre-mentioned elements?
cheers,
Yeah it would be the same as the regular Moteino. Some people need it without the flash or radio.
I'm looking forward to the 1284P Monteino being available.