Orders kick off for Arduino’s Yún

The Atmel-powered Arduino Yún can now be snapped up for $69, or €52. The  Yún – designed in collaboration with Dog Hunter – is based on Atmel’s ATMega32u4 microcontroller (MCU) and also features the Atheros AR9331, an SoC running Linino, a customized version of OpenWRT. As previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the Yún is somewhat unique in the Arduino lineup, as it boasts a lightweight Linux distribution to complement the traditional microcontroller (MCU) interface.

The Yún also features WiFi and Ethernet connections, enabling the board to communicate with networks out of the box. In addition, the Yún’s Linux and Arduino processors link through the Bridge library, allowing Arduino sketches to send commands to the command line interface of Linux.

“The Arduino Yún has the same footprint as an Arduino Uno but combines an ATmega32U4 microcontroller (the same as the Leonardo) and a Linux system based on the Atheros AR9331 chipset,” Arduino’s Federico Vanzati explained. “Additionally, there are built-in Ethernet and WiFi capabilities. The combination of the classic Arduino programming experience and advanced internet capabilities afforded by a Linux system make the Yún a powerful tool for communicating with the internet of things (IoT).”

According to Vanzati, the Yún’s layout keeps the I/O pins the same as the Leonardo and is therefore compatible with the most shields designed for Arduino.

“With the Yún’s auto-discovery system, your computer can recognize boards connected to the same network. This enables you to upload sketches wirelessly to the Yún,” he continued. “You can still upload sketches to the Yún through the micro-USB connector just as you would with the Leonardo.”

On the connectivity side, the Yún is equipped with two separate network interfaces, a 10/100 Mbit/s Fast Ethernet port and a IEEE 802.11 b/g/n standard compliant 2.4GHz WiFi interface, supporting WEP, WPA and WPA2 encryption. As expected, the WiFi interface can also operate as an access point (AP). In AP mode any WiFi enabled device can connect directly to the network created on the Yún. While a Yún in this mode can’t connect to the internet, it could act as a hub for a group of WiFi enabled sensors.

Alongside the new board, Arduino has rolled out IDE 1.5.4  with a number of general bug fixes and new features, including:

• Board recognition – The IDE recognizes the type of board Makers and engineers are working with every time an Arduino is connected.
• Memory – When a sketch is uploaded, the IDE displays just how much memory is being used.
• Copy Error button: Users can more easily copy and paste errors to share in various forums.

The Arduino Yún can be ordered here. Additional information about the Yún’s hardware and key specs are available here, while a detailed explanation of the Yun’s bridge can be read here.

Atmel’s ATtiny85 powers this Tap Tempo Trinket

Last week, Adafruit launched the Trinket, a tiny microcontroller (MCU) board built around Atmel’s versatile ATtiny85. This week, Adafruit’s Phillip Burgess is showcasing the Tap Tempo Trinket, a DIY beats-per-minute calculator project powered by Atmel’s ATtiny 85 and the Trinket board.

“This beats-per-minute calculator is a quick and easy project,” Burgess explained in a recent Adafruit post. “You tap the button in time with music [and the] Trinket reports the corresponding beats-per-minute.”

Required components include:

• Adafruit Trinket (either the 5V or 3.3V variety)
• 7-segment LED Display Backpack (any color, 0.56″ size, not 1.2″)
• Momentary “normally open” pushbutton
• Breadboard, jumper wires, USB cable (A to mini B)

“If this is your first time using Trinket, work through the Introducing Trinket guide first; you need to customize some settings in the Arduino IDE first,” Burgess continued. “Once you have it up and running, you’ll then install the following libraries: TinyWireM (a Trinket-compatible alternative to the Arduino Wire library), Adafruit_LEDBackpack and Adafruit_GFX (required by Adafruit_LEDBackpack).”

According to Burgess, the simple DIY project is one where Trinket really shines, with the largest section of the code simply flashing “TAP BEAT” at startup.

“Button input is debounced, time between button taps is then calculated using the micros() timer, and BPM is figured by dividing 600,000,000 (10X the number of microseconds in 1 minute) by this time interval. The 10X figure is just so we can look extra geeky by then adding a decimal point,” he added.

Be sure to check out Adafruit’s detailed tutorial here for additional information on how to build your own Tap Tempo Trinket.

Two-Wire LIN networking with Atmel (Part 2)

In the first part of this series we took a closer look at the basics of LIN networking, the key parameters for a two-wire LIN (Atmel) solution and the details of a LIN Bus power supply. In the second part of this series, we’ll discuss various aspects of slave node current consumption, specifically, system clock frequency, sleep mode power management and LIN scheduling power management.

According to Atmel engineering rep Darius Rydahl, the system clock frequency of the microcontroller (MCU) has the most significant effect on the slave node current consumption. The slave node current consumption is directly proportional to the clock frequency, an effect illustrated in Figure 4. Clearly, one should attempt to use the lowest clock frequency that enables the application to meet functional design requirements.

In terms of power management-sleep mode, the overall current consumption of the two-wire LIN slave node can be further reduced by duty-cycling between low and high current operating modes, e.g. power-down/normal mode for the microcontroller and silent/normal mode for the LIN transceiver in between LIN data frames (see figure 5).

“Atmel AVR microcontrollers provide various sleep modes, allowing the user to tailor power consumption to the application’s requirements. In the case of the two-wire LIN application, the power-down mode provides the greatest current reduction when used in conjunction with the silent mode of the LIN transceiver,” Rydahl explained.

“In this mode, all generated clocks are shut down, allowing operation of asynchronous modules only (external interrupts, USI and watchdog). To wake up the microcontroller from power-down, the LIN master must first generate a LIN wake-up request followed by a LIN frame header. This process is shown in figure 6.”

Upon wake-up, the microcontroller enters the normal mode and switches the EN pin (LIN transceiver enable) to HIGH at the start of each newly received LIN wake-up/frame packet.

During LIN data frames, the slave node microcontroller remains in normal mode and is able to provide an immediate data response upon receipt of the sync-break and message ID. At the end of the LIN data frame, the slave node returns to the power-down mode. It should be noted that operating the device in this manner will significantly reduce the average current consumption of the slave node.

On the subject of power management – LIN scheduling, the time between LIN frames, also known as the schedule table period, and the duration of the LIN frame define the power duty cycle of the slave node. This duty cycle affects the average current consumption of the two-wire LIN slave node. A typical LIN network operating at 19.2kbaud with a single frame, 8-bit message response has an average frame length of 2.95ms each. Figure 7 shows the effect of varying the schedule table period while connected to a slave node that is power duty cycling between power-down/silent and normal modes under these conditions.

Clearly, lengthening the schedule table period reduces the slave node’s average current consumption. However, this benefit is bounded by the power-down/silent mode current and offers minimal benefit for schedule periods greater than one second.

Interested in learning more Two-Wire LIN networking with Atmel? Part one of this series can be read here, while part three will be posted tomorrow.

Two-Wire LIN networking with Atmel (Part 1)

Current-gen vehicles are packed with hundreds of sensors used to monitor and display parameters such as temperature and pressure. In most instances, these sensors are remotely located within a vehicle far away from the host microcontroller (MCU) responsible for monitoring and processing the sensor data.

As such, these sensors typically do not directly connect to a network (such as CAN or LIN) due to the vehicle wiring overhead associated with connecting to the network. One such method for overcoming this wiring limitation is to convert the standard three-wire LIN network to a two-wire implementation where the LIN slave nodes harvest power directly from the LIN bus master communication wire, thereby eliminating the need for an individual battery supply wire to each slave node.

As Atmel engineering rep Darius Rydahl notes, a standard LIN bus consists of a master node and up to 15 slave nodes connected to a single network. The physical LIN network is a three-wire configuration consisting of power (vehicle battery), ground and the LIN bus communication line. A pull-up resistor, RLIN, typically 1kΩ, is required on the master’s LIN bus line. Under normal LIN bus operation, this pull-up resistor provides a voltage bias on the LIN bus line to the slave nodes on the LIN network. It does not power the LIN slave nodes, rather slave node power is derived from the battery input to the device, as shown in Figure 1.

“It is possible to use a non-standard LIN network architecture that simplifies to two wires. This approach relies on the harvesting of power by a connected slave node directly from the LIN bus line, thus eliminating the need for an independent slave node battery supply line (see figure 2),” Rydahl told Bits & Pieces. “With the battery supply line removed, all that is required to power the slave node is a blocking diode, VDS and buffer capacitor, CVS_S, large enough to sustain the slave node supply voltage during the transmission of LIN data packets, which periodically pulls the LIN signal to ground.”

In this series, Bits & Pieces will outline the implementation of this two-wire approach and identify the inherent system-level tradeoffs that must be considered to fully realize a functional two-wire LIN network.

According to Rydahl, the key to successfully implementing a two-wire LIN network centers around the power requirements of the connected slave node. Simply put, the slave node must be supplied with sufficient power to maintain communication at the minimum system operating voltage: typically 9V. If this condition cannot be met, it is unlikely that the two-wire LIN implementation will be a viable solution. Key parameters that affect the slave node’s performance in a two-wire implementation include LIN bus power supply, slave node current consumption, slave node buffer capacitance and LIN Bus data protocol.

“In terms of the LIN Bus power supply, the two-wire LIN network is limited by the power supplied from the master to the slave node over the LIN bus line. Meaning, the supply to the LIN slave in this configuration will be dictated by the LIN bus master pull-up resistor, RLIN (see figure 2),” Rydahl continued. “The slave node has a fixed minimum input voltage operating requirement of 5.5V (reference: the Atmel ATA6624 LIN transceiver). In order to meet this minimum operating voltage requirement, the load current drawn by the slave node must not cause the voltage drop across the LIN master pull-up resistor to increase to the point at which the input voltage to the slave node drops below 5.5V.”

As Rydahl points out, this is the minimum operating voltage threshold for slave node voltage regulator operation. Indeed, figure 3 shows the maximum load current available to the slave node at the minimum supply voltage of 5.5V at different LIN master pull-up resistances.

“The 1kΩ master pull-up resistor specified in the LIN standard specification cannot be used in the two-wire configuration. The resistor is too large and, as a result, is unable to properly source the slave node load,” he said. “As such, the pull-up resistor must be reduced in size to the smallest value possible without exceeding the current limitation specification of the LIN driver. In the case of the typical Atmel LIN transceiver, the ATA6624, the recommended minimum pullup resistor value is 220Ω. Resistances lower than this could result in excessive current flow through the LIN transceiver when the LIN bus is asserted low.”

Interested in learning more about Two-Wire LIN networking with Atmel? Be sure to check out part two of this series here.

A flexible LIMBERboard for Makers

LIMBERboard – powered by Atmel’s versatile ATMega168  – is targeted at the rapidly growing DIY Maker Movement which is currently shaping the wearable future. Created by Infinite Corridor Technology (ICT), the flexible platform is a stretchable, programmable microcontroller (MCU) board with an open source design philosophy.

“LIMBERboard is the perfect tool for wearable projects like health monitors, activity monitors, impact detectors and more,” the ICT crew explained. “The Bluetooth featured in our first iteration also allows you to send data from the microprocessor to a smartphone, making LIMBERboard great for all mobile projects. Despite its many capabilities, we’ve developed LIMBERboard to weigh less than a nickel so it’s ideal for applications that need to be lightweight.”

The market-ready LIMBERboard will be equipped with a mini-USB port and is programmable using Arduino dev tools. Meanwhile, the very first LIMBERboard features an ATMega168 microprocessor, three-axis accelerometer, lithium ion battery, Bluetooth and boasts the ability to flex, fold and twist more than 120,000 times – all while maintaining full functionality.

Interested in learning more about the Atmel-powered LIMBERboard? Be sure to check out the project’s page on Dragon Innovation here. LIMBERboard is currently seeking crowd-sourced funds, with an initial goal set at $40,000.

Atmel lights up these LED sneakers

Known as “FLORA,” Adafruit’s wearable electronics platform is built around Atmel’s Atmega32u4 MCU. The microcontroller boasts built-in USB support, eliminating the need for pesky special cables and extra parts.

According to Adafruit’s Limor Fried, FLORA is extremely “beginner-friendly.” Indeed, the device is difficult to accidentally destroy by connecting a battery backwards, thanks to a polarized connector and protection diodes. Meanwhile, an onboard regulator ensures even connecting a 9V battery won’t result in damage or tears.

As previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, numerous Makers are using the versatile FLORA to design a wide range of creations, including the Adafruit team itself which recently debuted a pair of LED sneakers dubbed “Firewalker,” courtesy of Becky Stern and Phillip Burgess (aka Paint Your Dragon).

Key project specs include two Atmel-powered FLORA main boards, velostat, two meters NeoPixel 60-LED strip in black or white and yes, a pair of sneakers. You can read more about Adafruit’s latest project here on the official Firewalker page.

Come see Atmel @ the 2013 World Maker Faire!

The long-awaited 2013 World Maker Faire kicks off September 21st in the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI). We’ll be there at the Atmel booth in the Arduino pavilion. Will you? Don’t worry if you can’t make it to out to the Big Apple, because you can still follow all the goings on via Twitter – just look for the hashtags @makerfaire, @atmel and @arduino.

For those of you attending the Faire, Atmel’s booth will be taking center stage at the show with a number of uber-cool exhibits and demos including:

• Hexbug/hovercraft hacking: Watch Atmel employees hack traditional Hexbugs and hovercrafts using Arduino boards.
• MakerBot: We’ll be showcasing the wildly popular AVR-powered 3D printer and providing 3D samples over the weekend.
• Pensa: This company uses Arduino boards to make their flagship DIWire, a rapid prototyping machine that bends metal wire to produce 2D and 3D shapes.
• Infinity Aerospace: The ArduLab – powered by Atmel’s versatile ATMega 2560 microcontroller – is a highly capable experimentation platform ready for space right out of the box. Sensor mounting is straightforward, with unique functionality addressing the technical challenges of operating in space.

Additional exhibitors at the Atmel World Maker Faire booth include Fuzzbot (robots), Evil Mad Scientist and Colorado Micro Devices. We’re looking forward to seeing you at the Atmel booth, so don’t forget to follow us at @makerfaire, @atmel and @arduino!

Atmel is also slated to host a public media/industry analyst panel on Friday, September 20th, on the maker community and education. Members of the panel include Atmel’s Reza Kazerounian, Co-founder of Arduino Massimo Banzi, Atmel maker and Hexbug guru Bob Martin, university engineer professor Annmarie Thomas, EDN’s Executive Editor Suzanne Deffree, 12-year old CEO and maker Quin (Qtechknow), and MAKE Books Senior Editor Brian Jepson. The panel will be moderated by Windell H. Oskay of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.

Tune into our live Twitter feed of the panel starting at 11:30 am ET on September 20th under #Atmelmakes or visit our recently launched microsite for more details. Interested in attending? Please email pr@atmel.com. Also, be sure to join us when Bob Martin presents Prototyping is as Easy as Uno, Due, Tres.

The Ardruino Uno is an excellent lab tool for technicians and h/w engineers who have a specific design in mind. In this presentation, we will show how Atmel’s MCU apps lab uses the Uno to test harnesses for LED lighting stress testing, SBC reset response and power supply stress testing on a regular basis for the weather station prototype.

When: Sunday, September 22, 2013, 12:30PM – 1:00PM ET
Where: Make: Electronics Stage

World Maker Faire 2013: 70,000 attendees and 650+ Makers

The long-awaited World Maker Faire will be kicking off September 21st in the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI). According to Sherry Huss of Maker Media, the best of DIY invention, creativity and resourcefulness are expected to be showcased at the Faire.

“World Maker Faire at NYSCI has become an anticipated experience for New Yorkers and, really, folks from all over the world to see, learn, and do more in the world of making,” Huss explained.

“This year we expect to have more than 70,000 Faire goers over the course of the weekend engage with 650-plus makers who will be exhibiting their amazing projects. As usual, there will be makers representing all types of projects around engineering and technology, health and science, food and sustainability, fashion, crafting and so much more.”

World Maker Faire New York 2013 is slated to bring back some Faire favorites as well as showcase new makers and their DIY ingenuity. For example, attendees can meet more young Makers, get the latest on 3D printing (MakerBot, RepRap) and experience the best of Maker start-ups. Makers will also be offered hands-on experience with various boards, including various Atmel-powered Arduinos.

As we’ve previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the rapidly growing Maker Movement is a passionate one, and Atmel is quite passionate about being a part of it. Atmel, of course, makes the microcontroller (MCU) that powers the incredible open source Arduino board and is therefore at the very center of the whole Maker revolution. For many makers, Atmel-powered Arduino boards are the easiest and fastest way to go from platform to prototype. The best part? As with most of the Maker hardware, you don’t have to be an engineer to use it. Like Arduino’s Massimo Banzi says, “you don’t need anyone’s permission to make something great.”

Larry Magid, a technology journalist who writes for the San Jose Mercury News, recently expressed similar sentiments by noting that we are all Makers to a certain extent, even if some of us don’t know it yet.

“All of us – even Leonardo da Vinci – were late comers as far as the Maker Movement is concerned,” he opined. “Our prehistoric ancestors millions of years ago, figured out how to turn stones into tools so that they could make things. Only they didn’t have fairs, books and websites to document the process.”

Will.i.am, the technophile founder of The Black Eyed Peas, also offered a ringing endorsement of the Maker Movement and related culture a few weeks ago on Facebook.

“Every young person is going to be inspired to be a maker from now on,” said Will.i.am. “It’s like how everyone used to want to be a musician, an actor, an athlete — but a maker is what people are going to want to be.”

If you can’t make it to World Maker Faire in NYC and visit Atmel in the Arduino pavilion, no sweat. You can follow all the goings on via Twitter. Just look for the hashtags @makerfaire, @atmel, @arduino.

Up close and personal with Atmel’s XMEGA-A3BU Xplained

Atmel’s ATxmega256A3BU is a low power, high performance 8/16-bit AVR microcontroller featuring 256KB self-programming flash program memory, 8KB boot code section, 16KB SRAM, 4096-byte EEPROM, four-channel DMA controller and an 8-channel event system.

It is also equipped with dual 12-bit ADC, two 12-bit DAC channels, four analog comparators, AES and DES crypto engines, 7 16-bit timer/counters, 6 USART, two SPI, two TWIs and an RTC battery backup system.

“The ATxmega256A3BU can be used to power a wide range of applications,” an Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces. “Specific examples include building, industrial, motor, board, and climate control, hand-held battery applications, factory automation, power tools, HVAC, networking, metering, large home appliances and optical/medical devices.”

To accelerate development with the ATxmega256A3BU microcontroller (MCU), Atmel offers the XMEGA-A3BU Xplained, a hardware-based platform that helps engineers evaluate the device and seamlessly integrate AVR XMEGA architecture into a wide range of designs.

In addition to the ATxmega256A3BU microcontroller (MCU), key XMEGA-A3BU Xplained features and capabilities include:

• Keep RTC running in the backup system while main power is absent
• Display data on the 128×32 pixels of the FSTN LCD display
• Read temperature sensor with the ADC
• Read light sensor with the ADC
• Use the Atmel QTouch library to detect touches on the touch button
• Read/write data to the 64Mbit Atmel DataFlash
• 3 push buttons to interact with the microcontroller
• 4 LEDs to show status information
• Program the kit via USB bootloader or an Atmel programmer
• Expand the board with Xplained top modules

The XMEGA-A3BU Xplained can be purchased from Atmel’s official store here.

Starting out with Atmel’s XMEGA-C3 (Xplained)

Atmel’s ATxmega384C3 – a high-performance, low-power 8/16-bit AVR XMEGA microcontroller – combines 384KB in-system programmable flash memory (8KB boot code section) with read-while-write capabilities, 4KB EEPROM, 32KB SRAM, two-channel DMA controller, four-channel event system, a programmable multi-level interrupt controller and 50 general purpose I/O lines.

“Additional key specs include a 16-bit real time counter, five flexible 16-bit timer/counters with compare, compare and PWM channels, USB full-speed device, three USARTs, two two-wire interfaces, two serial peripheral interfaces and one 16-channel/12-bit ADC programmable gain,” an Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces. “There are also two analog comparators with window mode, a programmable watchdog timer with separate internal oscillator, accurate internal oscillators with PLL and prescaler as well as programmable brown-out detection capabilities.”

To accelerate development with the ATxmega384C3 microcontroller (MCU), Atmel offers the XMEGA-C3 Xplained, a hardware-based platform that helps engineers evaluate the device and seamlessly integrate AVR XMEGA architecture into  a wide range of designs.

Aside from the ATxmega384C3 MCU, the XMEGA-C3 Xplained offers:

• OLED display with 128×32 pixels resolution
• Transfer data over the USB full/low speed device interface
• Read a light sensor with the ADC
• Read a temperature sensor with the ADC
• Measure external voltage input with ADC
• Two Atmel QTouch buttons
• Two user LEDs, one power LED and one status LED
• microSD card
• Program the kit via USB bootloader or an Atmel programmer
• Expand the board with Xplained top modules

The XMEGA-C3 Xplained can be ordered from Atmel’s official online store here.