Moteino MEGA

PRODUCT ID:119
$24.95
In Stock

Available Options

Description

Now available in the EU from Welectron (Germany)

What it is:

MoteinoMEGA is designed for use with RFM69 HCW/CW and RFM95/RFM96 LoRa transceivers.

MoteinoMEGA is a wireless Arduino based on the Atmel ATMega1284P microcontroller:

  • Fully compatible with the Arduino IDE
  • 128KB sketch flash memory
  • 16KB RAM! (compare to just 2KB on the atmega328p)
  • 4KB EEPROM
  • Low power battery operation friendly just as the regular Moteino
  • 3.3V onboard regulator (MCP1703) provides up to 250mA, input up to 16V (3.6-12V recommended)
  • Very small size – 1.0 x 2.0 inch
  • Breadboard friendly header layout allows you to attach female/male header pins on the top or bottom and make shields for it or just use it on the breadboard for prototyping
  • FTDI programming header
  • DualOptiboot bootloader for fast programming and no delay startup.
    DualOptiboot is developed by LowPowerLab to allow wireless programming via the RFM transceiver and the optional FLASH chip
  • Install the ArduinoMEGA core in your Arduino/hardware folder. Restart your Arduino IDE and choose Arduino MEGA under Tools>Boards from Arduino programming environment.
  • Onboard LED on digital pin 15 (D15 / PD7) for debugging or visual indication
  • Gold ENIG finish (RoHs lead free)

To make a wireless link you will need at least 2 Moteinos (same transceiver/frequency). Alternatively this is compatible with other Arduinos that use the same transceiver/frequency.

If you build something interesting with Moteino please consider sharing and/or posting photos in the forum!

What you get:

  • No-transceiver: barebones MoteinoMEGA, you can solder your own transceiver if you'd like, or just use it as a standalone Arduino. Accepts RFM92-98 and RFM69HCW/CW radios.
  • Regular: with soldered transceiver of your choice, separate right-angle 1x6 0.1" male FTDI programming header, separate pre-cut wire antenna that matches frequency band of transceiver
  • Side headers option: add 2x20 0.1" male headers which you can solder above/below/sideways
  • SPI Flash option: includes a soldered SPI Flash chip, also available separately if you prefer to solder it yourself. This can be used for wireless programming or data logging. For more info see this link.
  • Suitable for LoRaWAN with the LMIC option: see this forum thread for details, sample code for reading the EUI64 chip is posted here. The EUI64 chip & 4.7k resistors are provided separately.

Transceivers: RFM69-W/CW/HW, RFM12B

Moteino Transceiver Guide

RFM69HCW is a 20dBm output power transceiver, 130mA in TX, 16mA in RX. You will need to use the setHighPower() function after the initialize() function in the RFM69 library. See the examples that come with the library.
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 & 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. Jeelabs has a library that allows direct communication between RFM69 and RFM12b 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
  • We do not carry 868Mhz specific units any more, 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 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: the ISM frequency bands are limited by region. 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.

Open air range:

  • RFM69W: 915Mhz and 868Mhz have about 300-400m range in open air (tested at 55Kbps)
  • Longer range is achievable by tweaking the library settings (lowering the bitrate and fine tuning the RX bandwidth)
  • Here is a thread that shows some RFM12B vs RFM69 testing at various bit rates
  • This forum thread reveals a 1.5mile range on RFM69 using a dipole antenna at 1.2kbps!
  • RFM12B reaches about 150m (tested at 38.2kbps)

All Moteinos come with a wire antenna cut to length to match the transceiver frequency.

Programming guide

Click here for a more detailed guide. For an introduction to Moteino click here.

You can upload a sketch to a MoteinoMEGA just like you would normally do for any Arduino, but you will need to first install the MoteinoMEGA Core in the Arduino/hardware folder.
In the Arduino programming environment you need to select "ArduinoMEGA" under Tools>Boards.

You will need a FTDI USB-serial adapter to connect to the FTDI header. Other compatible examples are: FTDI cableFTDI friendUSB BUB, etc.

For all Moteino related blog entries click here.
For example code and RFM69 library click here, and Github libary and examples are here.
For example code and RFM12B library click here, and Github libary and examples are here. 

Pinout

MoteinoMEGA pinout diagram

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