I want to use the moteino with a sensor and have it communicate with another chip that can run a web server, log data and use the RFM69 chip. I have the UNO and was looking at shields but the GPIO are at 5v and it looks like the shields will make it expensive. My next thought is to use a raspberry pi which has most everything I need but I have not found any good sources for getting the RFM69 to interface with it.
Would it make sense to get another moteino and have that interface with the remote moteino? I don't want to add complexity or cost to the project. The more resources/examples the better off I will be learning all this stuff. I didn't see much for interfacing the RFM69 with the pi.
Raspberry Pi works very well. I find it best to use the serial port on the P1 header, but you could also plug a FTDI adapter into the USB port of the RasPi.
Wired up it looks like this, RasPi in the middle, Moteino on the left:
(http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2870/10048258734_24ca874ba1_o.jpg)
Pinout of the RasPi P1 header:
(http://elinux.org/images/archive/2/2a/20120617084758!GPIOs.png)
Pinout of the Moteino:
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3818/10585364014_df2e1604bc_o.png)
1. Connect a ground of the Moteino to a ground of the RasPi.
2. Connect the 5v Power of the RasPi to one of the PWR 3.3-9V of the Moteino.
3. Connect UART TXD of the RasPi to RX (in) of the Moteino (could also use RX on pin 0).
4. Connect UART RXD of the RasPi to TX (out) of the Moteino (could also use TX on pin 1).
The serial port should be /dev/ttyAMA0 on the RasPi. See here for more info (http://lowpowerlab.com/blog/2013/10/11/raspberrypi-home-automation-gateway-hardware-and-demo/).
You can get ethernet shields on ebay for about $10 nowadays, and they work fine. However, I'm not positive but I believe the UNO does not have enough RAM [only 2 KBytes] to do a decent job supporting the ethernet shield and also acting as a webserver. You can check on this in the Networking section of the Arduino forum.
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?PHPSESSID=1i38827rfoib82nb7tv83gne16&board=11.0
Well I had also this question for long time. I tried PI but not really my favorite for 24/7 (SD, no NAND, No case, but great for dev and test)
And now, I'm using moteino (and some custom RF Gateway) connected to the Serial port of small TPLink routers running OpenWRT on WR703N $20 on ebay or best mr3020 $30 (more GPIO/button/led on the enclosure and serial as pinout is easier to solder) on ebay
you've got so, a small and nice Ethernet (RJ45 and/or Wifi both are on the box) Moteino with enclosure and Linux for network. Can be powered by small USB cable.
Then I open the serial and get data from moteino with LUA since flash on the device is very limited, no python/perl but if you need more flash you can change SPI flash or buy modded device http://www.ebay.com/itm/SLBoat-The-TL-WR703N-Mod-64Mbyte-RAM-16Mbyte-Flash-And-TTLout-Inside-MicroUSB-/181078954797 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/SLBoat-The-TL-WR703N-Mod-64Mbyte-RAM-16Mbyte-Flash-And-TTLout-Inside-MicroUSB-/181078954797). I never needed to do this but just in case, it's doable.
Unbeattable price, no SD no write on NAND flash, you install it and ready for years, and your box have all router openwrt functions such as Wifi access point, wifi repeater, Firewall, ...
I forgot, of course I upload firmware on moteino directly from the linux box (using one GPIO of the TPLINK device connected to DTR or Reset line of Arduino), no need to open the case to flash new data and when I receive RF Data I lit the router LED for visualization.
I've made a RF Dual PCB (RFM12B + RFM69) + I2C OLED LCD that fit directly onto MR3020, currently under testing it before releasing it.
I'm very happy with this system, so I share.
To each their own, but the Pi at $35, compatible with all peripherals, with USB, WiFi Access Point and station, common web servers such as Apache, and higher-level languages like Python, simply cannot be beat.
C
I would back Colin, most people don't want to deal with yet another platform. I'm sure it's rock solid and such. It's cool if you can get that hardware for $15 cheaper, but in my case it's really not worth it. I've been running my Pi server for a very long time, not once having SD issues. The writing to the SD is very minimal. And also as rock solid as it can get.
Given the accessibility of Pi and compatibility with hardware and software packages on in the RPi's APT repositories .. for me the Pi is a noibrainer choice.
And ebay is not the most reliable place to find the same unchanged product over long periods of time.
For instance I bought the same product from the same seller from the same listing over a longer period of time and I received different minor variations of it. Sometimes it's no biggie but with hardware I think you need a little more control.
But each with their own as Colin said.
Great. Thanks to everyone for the responses. I was already leaning toward using Pi but I figured I would ask before I invest.
Well,
I'm not saying PI is bad, just saying I'm not relying on when 24/7 function, it's not power outage safe (except adding some Hardware has Felix does), you need to add enclosure, descent 10x SD card, power, Wifi dongle, which increase price. Also need to be tweaked for limiting write to SD (but solution exists for sure). But I've got 4 Pi at home for test and development and I'm pretty hapy with them.
Of course if you need descent web server or mySQL it's a pretty good choice. But really depends on user needs. To forward RF Frame to emoncms I think it's over sized.
Take a look at the picture attached, one Pi and one TPLink, the 2nd one is more WAF :)
There is 2 solutions, each can choose best appropriate for usage.
I use both depending on what I need.
It's been very reliable for me. WiFi < $5 and is 100% reliable.
You're right, it does need an enclosure.
Colin,
Hey, Wifi dongle < $5, you wake up my mind with memories of my first 2 Pi (REV 1, whoo long time ago ;)) and my first Wifi Dongle was REALTEK RTL8188CUS model that was not included in the kernel and needed to tweak and compile (some evening headaches) then bought some other but they changed to RT2870/RT3070, once again some evening research to find how to make them working, but yes now there's in the kernel so problem went away.
Until I found another one recently.
my Pi's answer to ping (Wifi whatever the module) at about 150ms. At the first time I thought about a congestion on my Wifi network but all other Wifi on my net answered at 3/4 ms so it was coming from my Pi's (and all). That was USB power management adding the line
wireless-power off
in /etc/network/interfaces solved the problem on all my Pi's (but tried severals other solutions before finding the right one)
I don't speak of one of SD connector I needed to change (ok was my fault but if the SD card was not going out of the enclosure, it will never happen) and 2 random branded SD write failure sometime which crashed the PI.
So that's my personal experience with Pi others may never had any problem. I continue to use them without any problem ;)
I use this chip, and I know the problems you mention prior to release of support in the distro. Now, however, it's bulletproof.