ATMEL A091563 User Manual

AT86RF231 Radio Board

W Manual

H

Features

Contains AT86RF231 radio transceiver.

•

Covers the 2.4GHz ISM band.

•

• On board ID chip for easy IEEE MAC address

1 Introduction

AT86RF231 Radio Board contains AT86RF231 radio transceiver.

It is highly acclaimed networking devices within low power personal area
networks.
connector that will enable the Radio board to be connected to ATMEL

microcontroller
transceivers in virtually any application segment.

Figure 1-1.

The AT86RF231 Radio Board sports an Atmel standardized 10-pin

– so as a customer you will be able

AT86RF231 Radio Board HW Overview

to evaluate Atmel radio

Microcontrollers

Application Note

2 Related Items

3 Overview

AVR32 Studio (Atmel’s free IDE)

http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/tools_card.asp?tool_id=4116

GNU Toolchain (Atmel’s free Compiler and Utilities)

http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/tools_card.asp?too

JTAGICE mkII (On-chip programming and debugging tool)

http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/tools_card.asp?tool_id=3353

AVR ONE! (On-chip programming and debugging tool)

http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/tools_card.asp?too

This section gives an overview of the Radio Board from a system perspective and
what the kit contains and its minimum requirements. A set of condensed instructions
are then given on how to get the evaluation application for the kit up and running in
the shortest time possible.

AT86RF231 radio board: miniature carrier board with the AT86RF231 radio

transceiver mounted, SMA antenna connector, one wire ID chip and Atmel
standard 10-pin connector.

Figure 3-1 shows how the two processor boards paired with the radio frequency
boards also available in the kit can form a wireless peer to peer data connection over
USB.

Figure 3-1 AT86RF231 Radio Board used in conjuntion with PC

l_id=4118

l_id=4279

Processor Board

AT86RF231 Radio Board

RF Link

2

AVR600

4 Hardware Description

This chapter describes the hardware about AT86RF231 Radio Board.

AVR600

AT86RF231 Radio Transceiver:

Second generation 2.4GHz ISM band radio transceiver with front

ends for antenna diversity and external power amplifier and encryption

accelerators.

Figure 4-1 Radio Board Overview

SMA con

GND

MISC signal

selector

Current sens

10 pin con

MISC signal

3

4.1 Connectors

There are two main connectors on the board; one is the female SMA antenna
connector and in the opposite direction of the board is a 10-pin dual row header. See
Table 4-1 for pinout of this header.

Table 4-1. Radio Board 10-pin header

Pin Name Name
1 Reset Misc 2

3 Interrupt Sleep Transmit 4

5 Chip Select MOSI 6

7 MISO SCK 8

9 GND VCC (1.8 – 3.6V) 10

There are also two single row headers on the board:

• J103 (Not mounted): Two pin header that can be soldered in to do current

measurement with an ampere meter. R105 must be unsoldered to enable this
feature.

• J104 (Not mounted): Three pin header that can be soldered in to access the

auxiliary (Miscellaneous) signals from the radio transceiver.

Pin

4.2 Crystal

4.3 RF Front End

A high accuracy 16MHz crystal is mounted and used by the radio transceiver for
carrier frequency generation.

Since the output from the radio transceiver itself is a balanced signal pair, a balun is
needed to transform into a 50Ohm single ended signal fed to the SMA connector.
Johanson Technology provides one balun for the AT86RF231.

• 2450FB15L0001:

2.45 GHz filter balun optimized for

AT86RF231.

4

AVR600

Figure 4-2 AT86RF231 Radio Board schematic

5

AVR600

5 Connecting Radio Board to a Custom Board

The AT86RF231 Radio Board is used
Table 4-1 shows the pinout of the
It is possible to add the Radio Board to any routing as long as the required signals are
available. This is possible due to the Radio Board being able to be mounted
on the squid cable included in this kit. With this squid cable it is possible to route all
10 signals down onto a custom hardware. The reminder of this chapter shows a few
examples on how to wire these signals.

5.1 Default Supported Kits

Besides from being used on the processor boards the Radio Board can be
attached to wide range of Atmel evaluation and starter kits. The following kits are
supported directly. If you do not find your preferred kit here, please take a look at
section 5.2.

Table 5-1. Plug and Play Kits

Kit Name Comment

STK600

- Any ATxmega device Any of the digital ports can be used.

- ATmega164/324/644/1284P

STK500

- ATmega164/324/644/1284P

XPLAIN Any of the digital ports can be used.

EVK1104 Connect to WLESS header.

EVK1105 Connect to WLESS header.

in conjunction with the processor board.
standardized 10-pin bus.

5.2 Squid Cable

6

AVR600

There are two squid cables (10pin male header to single wires) included in the kit.
The intended use of this special cable assembly is to plug the radio frequency board
onto it, and connect the ten single wires to any hardware platform that does not have
the standard auxiliary connector available.

Table 5-2. Squid Cable Pinout

PIN

PIN

Pin 1 (Brown): Reset

Pin 3 (Orange): Interrupt

Pin 5 (Green): Chip Select

Pin 7 (Purple): Master In Slave Out

Pin 9 (White): Ground

Pin 2 (Red): Miscellaneous

Pin 4 (Yellow): Sleep Transmit

Pin 6 (Blue): Master Out Slave In

Pin 8 (Grey): SPI Clock

Pin 10 (Black): Vcc

AVR600

5.3 Example AVR32: EVK1100

Intentionally left blank.

5.4 Example ARM7: AT91SAM7X-EK

Intentionally left blank.

6 Firmware

Table 6-1. Firmware Layout

Path File Comment

/Applications Parent folder for kit applications

/Applications/TAL_Examples/Wireless_UART Parent folder for wireless UART application

/Applications/TAL_Examples/Wireless_UART/Src Source Folder

/PAL Processor Abstraction Layer

/PAL/AVR32 Parent folder for AVR32 processor specific code

/PAL/AVR32/Generic/Inc Generic include files shared by all AVR32 devices.

/PAL/AVR32/Generic/Src Generic source code shared by all AVR32 devices.

/PAL/AVR32/UC3A3256 Parent folder for all AT32UC3A3256 specific code

/PAL/AVR32/UC3A3256/Boards/RZ600 Board specific code for the RZ600 kit

/PAL/AVR32/UC3A3256/Inc Include files for the processor code

/PAL/AVR32/UC3A3256/Src Source files for the processor specific code

/TAL Transceiver Abstraction Layer

/TAL/AT86RF231/Inc Include files specific to the AT86RF231 radio transceiver

/TAL/AT86RF231/Src Source files specific to the AT86RF231 radio transceiver.

/Resources Common resources used by all layers

/Resources/Buffer_Management/Inc

/Resources/Buffer_Management/Src

/Resources/Queue_Management/Inc

/Resources/Queue_Management/Src

7

7 Appendix

7.1 FCC Statements

7.1.1 Equipment usage

This equipment is for use by developers for evaluation purposes only and must not be
incorporated into any other device or system.

7.1.2 Compliance Statement (Part 15.19)

These devices comply with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the
following two conditions:

1. These devices may not cause harmful interference, and

2. These devices must accept any interference received, including interference that
may cause undesired operation.

7.1.3 Warning (Part 15.21)

Changes or modifications not expressly approved by Atmel Norway could void the
user’s authority to operate the equipment.

7.1.4 Compliance Statement (Part 15.105(b))

This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B
digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to
provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation.
This equipment generates uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not
installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful
interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that
interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause
harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by
turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the
interference by one or more of the following measures:

• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.

• Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.

• Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the

receiver is connected.

• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.

7.1.5 FCC ID

A09-1563 :

•

AIBA091563

8

AVR600

AVR600

EVALUATION BOARD/KIT IMPORTANT NOTICE

This evaluation board/kit is intended for use for FURTHER ENGINEERING,
DEVELOPMENT, DEMONSTRATION, OR EVALUATION PURPOSES ONLY. It is

not a finished product and may not (yet) comply with some or any technical or legal
requirements that are applicable to finished products, including, without limitation,
directives regarding electromagnetic compatibility, recycling (WEEE), FCC, CE or UL
(except as may be otherwise noted on the board/kit). Atmel supplied this board/kit
“AS IS,” without any warranties, with all faults, at the buyer’s and further users’ sole
risk. The user assumes all responsibility and liability for proper and safe handling of
the goods. Further, the user indemnifies Atmel from all claims arising from the
handling or use of the goods. Due to the open construction of the product, it is the
user’s responsibility to take any and all appropriate precautions with regard to
electrostatic discharge and any other technical or legal concerns.

EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT OF THE INDEMNITY SET FORTH ABOVE, NEITHER
USER NOR ATMEL SHALL BE LIABLE TO EACH OTHER FOR ANY INDIRECT,
SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES.

No license is granted under any patent right or other intellectual property right of
Atmel covering or relating to any machine, process, or combination in which such
Atmel products or services might be or are used.

Mailing Address: Atmel Corporation, 2325 Orchard Parkway, San Jose, CA 95131

9

Disclaimer

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