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By Werner Almesberger, atusb/: use ""VDD" symbol from kicad-libs
1<HTML>
2<TITLE>
3Ben-WPAN Overview
4</TITLE>
5<BODY>
6
7<H1>Ben-WPAN Overview</H1>
8
9Ben-WPAN is a hardware and software effort within the
10<A href="http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Main_Page">Qi-Hardware</A> project.
11The objective is to enable the
12<A href="http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ben_NanoNote">Ben NanoNote</A>
13to communicate wirelessly using IEEE 802.15.4-based protocols.
14<BR>
15All elements of the project are licensed
16under open licenses, such as the GPLv2+, LGPLv2.1+, and CC-BY-SA 3.0.
17Furthermore, only Free tools were used for the electronic design,
18such as the
19GPL-licensed <A href="http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad/">Kicad</A>.
20<BR>
21This page is a brief summary. For background information and further
22details, please visit the
23<A href="http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ben_WPAN">wiki page</A>.
24<P>
25A first run of <B>atben</B> and <B>atusb</B> boards has been produced
26by <A href="http://www.tuxbrain.com/en">Tuxbrain S.L.</A> and is currently
27available for sale from <A href="http://pulster.eu/">Pulster</A>.
28<P>
29<TABLE>
30  <TR>
31    <TD><A href="800px-Atben_atusb_prod_03.jpg"><IMG
32      src="atben-pcba-small.jpg"></A>
33    <TD><A href="800px-Atben_atusb_prod_07.jpg"><IMG
34      src="atben-use-small.jpg"></A>
35    <TD><A href="800px-Atben_atusb_prod_05.jpg"><IMG
36      src="atusb-pcba-small.jpg"></A>
37    <TD><A href="zoom.html"><IMG
38      src="atusb-use-small.jpg"></A>
39  <TR bgcolor="#d0d0d0">
40     <TH colspan="2">atben (for the Ben NanoNote)
41     <TH colspan="2">atusb (Full-Speed USB)
42</TABLE>
43
44
45<H2>Hardware</H2>
46
47Both boards are based on the Atmel
48<A href="http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?part_id=4338">
49AT86RF231</A> transceiver. They operate in the license-free 2.4 GHz band
50using the
51<A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.15.4">IEEE 802.15.4</A>
52physical and link layer.
53<BR>
54Note that IEEE 802.15.4 is different from
55<A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11">IEEE 802.11</A> (WLAN)
56and <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth">IEEE 802.15.1</A>
57(Bluetooth).
58<P>
59Both boards transmit with a maximum power of 2 mW (+3 dBm) over a
60distance of up to about 10 m in a typical indoors environment.
61<BR>
62The standard data rate of IEEE 802.15.4 is 250 kbps. The transceiver
63supports non-standard rates of up to 2 Mbps, with a reduced range.
64
65
66<H2>Compatibility</H2>
67
68<B>atben</B> and <B>atusb</B> can communicate at the physical and link
69layer with any device that implements the
70<A href="http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/download/802.15.4-2006.pdf">IEEE
71802.15.4-2006 standard</A> for the 2.4 GHz band.
72<BR>
73This includes <B>atben</B> with <B>atusb</B>, <B>atben</B> with <B>atben</B>,
74etc. There are
75<A href="http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/linux-zigbee/wiki/HardwareSupport">many
76more</A> IEEE 802.15.4 devices, which should also interoperate with the
77Ben-WPAN boards.
78<P>
79<B>atben</B> plugs into the Ben's
80<A href="http://lists.en.qi-hardware.com/pipermail/discussion/2011-January/006908.html">8:10 card</A> slot.
81Note that it is <U>not</U> an SDIO card.
82<P>
83<B>atusb</B> is designed for USB 2.0 Full-Speed and has an USB A connector.
84The host needs suitable drivers for the board.
85
86
87<H2>Software</H2>
88
89The ultimate goal is to fully support IPv6 with
90<A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6LoWPAN">6LoWPAN</A>, in
91cooperation with the
92<A href="http://wpan.cakelab.org/">linux-wpan</A>
93project.
94<P>
95To make use of the boards while working on IPv6, we have developed a quick
96and dirty tunnelling mechanism for IPv4. A video demonstrating its use
97can be seen
98<A href="http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/wpan/tmp/wpan-ipv4.ogg">here</A>.
99<P>
100<B>atben</B> has no local "intelligence" and its SPI interface is
101bit-banged directly by the Ben.
102<BR><B>atusb</B> uses an
103Atmel
104<A href="http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?part_id=4602">
105ATmega32U2</A> microcontroller to interface between USB and SPI with
106a homebrewn protocol on top of USB.
107<BR>
108The firmware includes a boot loader allowing easy firmware updates in the
109field with the
110<A href="http://www.usb.org/developers/devclass_docs/DFU_1.1.pdf">DFU</A>
111protocol.
112<BR>
113This boot loader occupies a fixed 4 kB of the 32 kB of Flash memory in
114<B>atusb</B>. The "application" currently uses another 6 kB. Developers
115wishing to extend or replace the firmware thus have between 22 and
11628 kB available for experiments.
117<P>
118While not an immediate project goal, it may be possible to
119write firmware for <B>atusb</B> that turns it into a transparent
120gateway for legacy operating systems and protocols.
121
122
123<H2>Status and resources</H2>
124
125Here is an overview of the status of the various project elements:
126<P>
127<TABLE>
128  <TR bgcolor="#d0d0d0"><TH>Element<TH>Status<TH>Links
129  <TR><TH align="left">Schematics<TD bgcolor="#80ff80" align="center">Done
130    <TD><A href="http://projects.qi-hardware.com/schhist/atben/">atben</A>,
131      <A href="http://projects.qi-hardware.com/schhist/atusb/">atusb</A>
132  <TR><TH align="left">Layout<TD bgcolor="#80ff80" align="center">Done
133    <TD><A href="http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/wpan/tmp/atben-110324-overview.png">atben</A>,
134       <A href="http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/wpan/tmp/atusb-110330-overview.png">atusb</A>
135  <TR><TH align="left">Test software<TD bgcolor="#80ff80" align="center">Done
136    <TD><A href="http://projects.qi-hardware.com/index.php/p/ben-wpan/source/tree/master/prod">scripts</A>,
137    <A href="http://projects.qi-hardware.com/index.php/p/ben-wpan/source/tree/master/tools">tools</A>,
138    <A href="http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/wpan/prod/">description</A>
139  <TR><TH align="left">Production<TD bgcolor="#80ff80" align="center">Done
140    <TD><A href="http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ben_WPAN#Production_Notes">Production notes</A>, factory files:
141      <A href="http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/wpan/fab/atben-pcb-110330.tar.gz">PCB</A> and
142      <A href="http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/wpan/fab/atben-smt-110330.tar.gz">SMT</A>
143  <TR><TH align="left">Firmware<TD bgcolor="#80ff80" align="center">
144    Done
145    <TD><A href="http://projects.qi-hardware.com/index.php/p/ben-wpan/source/tree/master/atusb/fw">source</A>,
146        <A href="atusb-0.2.dfu">0.2 release</A>
147  <TR><TH align="left">Device driver<TD bgcolor="#80ff80" align="center">
148    Done
149    <TD><A
150href="https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/net/ieee802154/atusb.c">In Linux mainline since 4.2 </A>
151  <TR><TH align="left">MAC layer<TD bgcolor="#ffff00" align="center">
152    Finishing
153    <TD><A href="http://wpan.cakelab.org/">linux-wpan project
154  <TR><TH align="left">IPv4 hack<TD bgcolor="#80ff80" align="center">Done
155    <TD><A href="http://projects.qi-hardware.com/index.php/p/ben-wpan/source/tree/master/tools/dirtpan">dirtpan</A>
156  <TR><TH align="left">6LoWPAN stack<TD bgcolor="#ffff00" align="center">Finishing
157</TABLE>
158<P>
159
160
161<H2>Further reading</H2>
162
163We have a more detailed
164<A href="http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ben_WPAN">wiki page</A>.
165<BR>
166Discussions related to the project take place on the Qi-Hardware
167<A href="http://lists.en.qi-hardware.com/mailman/listinfo/discussion">mailing
168list</A> and on the
169<A href="http://webchat.freenode.net/?randomnick=1&channels=qi-hardware">#qi-hardware
170channel</A> on
171<A href="http://freenode.net/">freenode</A>.
172<BR>
173Tuxbrain has a
174<A href="http://www.tuxbrain.com/en/content/free-and-open-replacement-wireless-lan">description</A>
175with additional pictures.<!-- and a link to their
176<A href="https://www.tuxbrain.net/shop/index.php?cPath=347">shop</A>.-->
177<BR>
178Shop links at Pulster:
179<A href="http://pulster.eu/index.html?d__atben__NanoNote_wireless_card__atben_1183.htm">atben</A> and
180<A href="http://pulster.eu/index.html?d__atusb__NanoNote_wireless_card__atusb_1185.htm">atusb</A>.
181
182<P>
183<HR>
184Last update: 2015-05-21&nbsp;&nbsp;
185<A href="mailto:werner@almesberger.net"><I>Werner Almesberger</I></A>,
186<A href="mailto:stefan@datenfreihafen.org"><I>Stefan Schmidt</I></A>
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