FemtoBeacon

I now have a working Unity3D project that showcases a FemtoBeacon coin rotating a mesh!

Github code: https://github.com/femtoduino/unity3d_femtobeacon

I've released a few more examples: RGB LED + Wireless Mesh for FemtoBeacon, and FemtoUSB RGB LED + Push buttons.

FemtoBeacon coin r2.0.7 supports USB Host mode. Both the coin and dongle now support switching between an on-board SMD Omnidirectional Antenna, and a uFL connected antenna. The coin and dongle both have an RGB LED.

I've added Blender 3D case models, with corresponding STL files for 3D printing (works well with Cura slicer)

I am finalizing sourcing of the parts necessary to have Small Batch Assembly make a batch of 100 coins and 100 dongles. It should be about two weeks or less before I send everything to the assembly line.

Board Package v1.7.7 released! It includes HID USB Keyboard/Mouse support, so you can wirelessly move and input stuff using a coin and dongle!

This release also includes a couple of bug fixes and support for the FemtoBeacon PRO.

See the github repo! https://github.com/femtoduino/ArduinoCore-atsamd21e18a

I've updated the setup instructions at https://femtoduino.com/examples/setup ...while releasing performance enhancements, a memory leak bug fix, and sleep/wake support for FemtoBeacon coins.

The wireless MESH Coin and MESH Dongle example sketches now transmit Self Node ID, PAN ID, Channel number, Incoming Node ID, Yaw, Pitch, Roll (all 180 degrees expressed in radians), and quaternion 1, 2, 3

When a coin loses signal to a dongle, it will sleep for 10 second intervals at a time, waking to check for connectivity intermittently. Data is streamed only when a connection is available to save on power.

I've released version 1.7.1 of my Arduino board package (See https://github.com/femtoio/ArduinoCore-atsamd21e18a )

It includes working example sketches for the FemtoBeacon coins and dongle. You can give each coin sensor a unique address, and stream it back to a FemtoBeacon dongle.

Install the board package, select "ATSAMR21E18A (Native USB)" and upload the corresponding sketch for coins and an RF dongle (remember to give each coin a unique address greater than 1, as 1 is the RF dongle's address)

The Arduino sketch upload over USB now works reliably. As it turns out, the bootloader size defined for thr SAM R21 needed to be 0x2000ul, not 0x1000ul. The funny thing is - it's a setting in the BOSSA utility I had originally contributed a while back!

I've patched my fork of BOSSA (arduino branch) and submitted a pull request to the official BOSSA repo.

In other news, I've switched the 32.768KHz clock reference to the internal OSCULP32K clock allowing for stable DFLL48 locked loop startup, 100% of the time.

Success! We have forked and ported library-atmel-lwm (LwMesh from Atmel) and modified it to work with the SAM R21E chip. Femto beacon now comes with a Ping example.

We are now authoring a variety of examples + Projects, including stuff for AES encrypted comms, IMU and LPS, Unity3d/UE4 integration, and much more!

Stay tuned!

I've gone ahead and ordered 3 PCBs for the new FemtoBeacon RF Dongle (r2.0.1) design. It's simply a USB to RF dongle and does not include the IMU components. Uses the same chip as the FemtoBeacon (Zigbee/Mesh), the Atmel SAM R21E. Arduino compatible, of course.

Good news! I now have a working Arduino Zero bootloader for the Atmel SAM R21E. Please note: the main XOSC crystal is 12MHz, but the board uses the internal DFLL48 clock to run at 48MHz.

I am in communication w/ some developers on the Arduino Developers mailing list as I work on Arduino support for the SAM R21 E. I've figured out clock setup (so, hooray, Arduino setup actually runs!) ...however, USB CDC enumeration currently fails.

I had (erroneously) assumed the XTAL crystal could be 48MHz. In actuality (after reading the datasheet once more), it supports 0.4 to 32MHz, but can use the external crystal based clock source for DFLL (Digital Frequency locked loop) and FDFLL (Fractional DFLL) to generate 48MHz and 96MHz signals, respectively.

I had a look at the R21 Xplained Pro reference schematic, and it appears Atmel uses a 12MHz external crystal. I've ordered a couple of 12MHz crystals. I will retry USB tests once the parts arrive.

- Alex