"Preface
Atrcb256rfr2-xpro is a development platform based on atmega256rfr2 wireless microcontroller launched by ATMEL. The development board includes a powerful 8-bit AVR RISC microcontroller Atmega 256rfr2 integrates a transceiver compatible with IEEE 802.15.4 standard, and the built-in wireless transceiver supports global access of 2.4GHz ISM band.
For Atmega series chips, almost all people who have studied single chip microcomputer will not be unfamiliar. The classic Arduino development board uses a variety of Atmega series chips, including atmega328 and ATmega2560. What are the changes and innovations of this atmega256rfr2 compared with those classic Atmega series microcontrollers before? Let's have a look.
Unpack
The outer packaging of atrcb256rfr2-xpro Development Board continues the characteristics of ATMEL's official development board. On the front is a robot, which is almost the symbol of ATMEL's xplained series development board.
On the back is some simple information, including the website of data download, etc.
Open the outer box and there is a layer of kraft carton inside. The packaging is very careful, which is a little different from the xplained Pro platform development board based on arm Cortex-M series.
The Kraft carton is the development board packed with anti-static bags. It is worth noting that there is a layer of foam inside, which can well protect the development board. This detail can also see the manufacturer's intentions.
Open the anti-static bag is the development board.
Back of development board.
Wireless development board recommendations:
ADI WSN accelerometer sensor development board It is applied to humidity, optics and temperature, and can easily add remote detection and monitoring capability to its products through scalable wireless network.
NXP a70cm cloud connectivity Kit A complete hardware and software platform for developers to evaluate lpc43s6x processor family and a70cm in cloud connection applications based on ieee802.11b/g/n wireless connection.
Microchip rn-131 wireless development kit It is a complete and independent embedded wireless 802.11 B / g WLAN module.
Hardware analysis
Generally speaking, the atrcb256rfr2-xpro development board is relatively simple, which is a minimum system designed around ATMEL atmega256rfr2 chip, including power supply, clock crystal oscillator, all GPIO ports and an on-board antenna. The specific on-board resources are as follows:
First, let's introduce this single chip microcomputer. The specific parameters of atmega256rfr2 are as follows:
CPU:8-bit AVR，Flash (kBytes)，256 kBytes、SRAM (kBytes):32、EEPROM (Bytes):8192
Maximum dominant frequency ( MHz):16 MHz
maximum I / O pin: 38
Total pins: 64
SPI:1、TWI (I2C):1、UART:1
8-channel 10 bit ADC, analog comparator: 1
Supply voltage (VCC): 1.8 to 3.6, timer: 6
2.4GHz frequency band, maximum data transmission speed ( Mb/s):2
Output strength ( dBm):3.5
Receiving strength (DBM): - 100
Received current (MA): 12.5
Maximum current transmission ( mA):14.5
Link Budget (dBm):103.5
Operating temperature range: - 40 to 125 ℃
As a new member of Atmega series, it can be seen that this chip not only has an industry-leading 8-bit AVR single chip microcomputer, but also integrates a first-class 2.4 GHz RF transceiver. At the same time, this single chip microcomputer focuses on low power consumption, and its working current is 50% less than that of existing products. In the low-power mode, this chip also has the functions of automatic transmission mode, 128 bit AES encryption engine, random number generator and so on, which can reduce the power consumption without reducing the function.
The onboard JTAG interface can be directly used for downloading and debugging the atrcb256rfr2-xpro development board. The 2 * 10PIN bus bar at the front end of the board. The pin definitions of this bus bar are as follows
The design process of atrcb256rfr2-xpro development board is absolutely excellent, whether it is PCB or on-board antenna routing.
If you do not want to use the antenna on the board, this development board also supports the use of external antenna. In addition, there are two buttons (one for reset), three LED lights, 20 IO ports and other resources on the board. The only deficiency may be that this development board has no on-board debugging and download circuit, which has caused some inconvenience to the development. Of course, as an expansion board of ATMEL's xplained Pro Series, it can also be developed with other xplained Pro Series mainboards, This will be explained in detail later.
Wireless development board recommendations:
ADI WSN accelerometer sensor development board It is applied to humidity, optics and temperature, and can easily add remote detection and monitoring capability to its products through scalable wireless network.
NXP a70cm cloud connectivity Kit A complete hardware and software platform for developers to evaluate lpc43s6x processor family and a70cm in cloud connection applications based on ieee802.11b/g/n wireless connection.
Microchip rn-131 wireless development kit It is a complete and independent embedded wireless 802.11 B / g WLAN module.
Construction of development environment
As described above, the development board atrcb256rfr2-xpro has no on-board debugger and download circuit. Therefore, this development board is actually a daughter board with MCU. Although it can be developed separately, it is very troublesome. It needs external power supply and AVR simulator. The most convenient way is to use it with ATMEL's xplained Pro Series motherboard, There are many kinds of motherboards. The official recommends using sam4l - xpro to match it. In fact, there are several development boards of sam4l xpro series. The author here only one of them. The model is sam4l8 xplained. The physical object of the board is shown in the figure below
The pictures after the two are connected are as follows
In the demonstration experiment, this sam4l8 xplained is equivalent to an emulator and a downloader. Since this board is not the protagonist of this evaluation, I will only briefly introduce the simple hardware resources of sam4l8 xplained here.
ATSAM4LC8CA
Sam4l8 xplained onboard microcontroller is based on arm cortex-m4 core, with a maximum dominant frequency of 48 MHz, integrated 512KB flash and a maximum I / O port: 75, SPI: 1, twi (I2C): 4, UART: 4.
Atmel Serial bridge application 20pin connector
The definition of each pin of the connection port is the same as that of atrcb256rfr2-xpro. It is worth noting that this development board has at most four atmels Serial bridge application 20pin connector.
Downloaders and emulators
Atmel Almost all MCU motherboards contain this ebdg (embedded debugger) com port as the downloader and emulator. At the same time, it can also support the program download and Simulation of all expansion boards mounted on the MCU motherboard.
In this demonstration experiment, as long as these three hardware resources are used, nothing else will be introduced.
Let's analyze the software resources needed, ATMEL The company's development software package is called ATMEL studio 7. Briefly introduce this software. ATMEL studio is an integrated development platform (IDP) to develop and debug ATMEL Arm series and ATMEL AVR series single chip microcomputer (MCU) applications. ATMEL studio 7 supports all AVR and ATMEL intelligent microcontrollers. It provides a seamless and easy-to-use environment for writing, building and debugging application assembly code written in C / C + +. It also connects ATMEL debugger and development tools seamlessly.
Get the download package from the official website and install it. After installation, enter this interface
Then directly connect the sam4l8 xplainedmcu motherboard with the atrcb256rfr2-xpro through a 20pin connector, and then connect the sam4l8 xplainedmcu motherboard with the PC with a micro USB to USB cable. The two development boards will be automatically displayed on the left side of ATMEL studio 7. Double click the development board to view the details.
Then enter the extension module interface (click Tools extensions and updates at the top of the interface), find wireless on the left side of the interface and enter it, as shown in the following figure
Click to install the following three packages
1、wireless composer 7.0
2. Wireless performance
3、avr2054
After downloading wireless composer 7.0, it will appear directly in the expansion panel. After downloading the wireless performance and avr2054, you need to find a place to unzip them. The file names of the downloaded compressed packages are atmel-8390-wireless-avr2054-serial-bootloader respectively_ v3_ 2_ 0 and performance_ Analyzer_ v3.2_ hex_ package
Next, open tools device programming, select edbg in tools, then default to devices and interface, and click apply, as shown in the figure
Then click memories, click flash, and find the following path (that is, you downloaded performance before)_ Analyzer_ v3.2_ hex_ Package folder), find the file performance_ Analyzer_ v3.2_ hex_ package\Performance_ Analyzer_ v3.2_ hex_ package\Serial_ Bridge\SERIAL_ BRIDGE_ SAM4L_ XPLAINED_ PRO(Host)_ WITH_ 9600_ Baudrate.hex, as shown in the figure
Then click program to start firmware upgrade
So far, all development environments have been built. Then, the ATMEL Studio provides relevant routines for reference. Select atmega256rfr2 RCB on the left side of the home page of ATMEL studio 7 interface, and then select "new ASF example" below, as shown in the figure
Select a program, and then directly click the button at the top of the interface Just press the button or F5 to run.
summary
The atrcb256rfr2-xpro launched by ATMEL company provides a relatively simple solution for low-power wireless connection. It can realize wireless interconnection only by relying on a single chip microcomputer of atmega256 and an on-board antenna, which provides a lot of convenience in wearable applications and smart home. However, at present, there are too few development environments supported by this development board. For developers to develop this board, they still need to master ATMEL studio, a new tool. However, I believe that with ATMEL's efforts, there may be more development environments to support this development board in the future.
Wireless development board recommendations:
ADI WSN accelerometer sensor development board It is applied to humidity, optics and temperature, and can easily add remote detection and monitoring capability to its products through scalable wireless network.
NXP a70cm cloud connectivity Kit A complete hardware and software platform for developers to evaluate lpc43s6x processor family and a70cm in cloud connection applications based on ieee802.11b/g/n wireless connection.
Microchip rn-131 wireless development kit It is a complete and independent embedded wireless 802.11 B / g WLAN module.
Original statement: This article is original by Aiban. Reprint is declined“
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