Roving Networks WiFly RN-131GSX, RN-131G User Manual And Command Reference

RN-131G

rn-131-um.pdf 5/14/2009

WIF

LY

GSX

802.11 b/g wireless LAN Module

User Manual and Command Reference

Version 1.1

Copyright © 2009 Roving Networks, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The contents of this document can be changed by Roving networks without prior notice and do not
constitute any binding undertakings from Roving networks. Roving Networks is not responsible under
any circumstances for direct, indirect, unexpected or consequent damage that is caused by this
document.

RN-131G

rn-131-um.pdf 5/14/2009

Contents

1 RN-131G Overview .......................................................................................................................... 3

2 Hardware Interface............................................................................................................................ 4

2.1 Power ......................................................................................................................................... 4

2.2 Reset .......................................................................................................................................... 4

2.3 UART ........................................................................................................................................ 4

2.4 LED Indictors ............................................................................................................................. 5

3 Configuration .................................................................................................................................... 5

3.1 Entering Command Mode ........................................................................................................... 5

4 WiFly Command Reference .............................................................................................................. 6

4.1 Command Syntax ....................................................................................................................... 6

4.2 Command Organization .............................................................................................................. 6

5 SET Commands ................................................................................................................................ 7

5.1 COMM Parameters ..................................................................................................................... 7

5.2 DNS Parameters ......................................................................................................................... 8

5.3 FTP Parameters .......................................................................................................................... 8

5.4 IP Parameters ............................................................................................................................. 8

5.5 SYSTEM Parameters .................................................................................................................. 9

5.6 TIME Server Parameters .......................................................................................................... 10

5.7 UART Parameters .................................................................................................................... 10

5.8 WLAN Parameters ................................................................................................................... 10

6 GET Commands ............................................................................................................................. 11

7 STATUS Commands ...................................................................................................................... 11

8 ACTION Commands ...................................................................................................................... 12

8.1 FILE IO Commands ................................................................................................................. 13

8.2 System timers and other features .............................................................................................. 13

8.3 Wake on Sensor INPUTs .......................................................................................................... 14

8.4 Wake on UART ........................................................................................................................ 14

8.5 Uart Receiver, RTS/CTS Hardware Flow Control ..................................................................... 15

8.6 Setting PIO directions, Disabling LED drivers .......................................................................... 15

8.7 Alternate IO functions .............................................................................................................. 16

8.8 Setting Debug Print levels ........................................................................................................ 16

9 Joining Networks and Making Connections .................................................................................... 17

10 Firmware Upgrade over FTP ........................................................................................................... 19

11 Setting Adhoc Mode and Restoring Configuration Settings ............................................................. 20

12 Default Configuration Settings ........................................................................................................ 21

13 Know issues and Errata ................................................................................................................... 22

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RN-131G

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1 RN-131G Overview

The RN-131g “WiFly” radio module is a complete, stand alone, embedded wireless LAN access
device. The device has on board TCP/IP stack and applications. Requiring only 4 pins (POWER,
TX, RX, GND) to design in. Once initial configuration is set, the radio can automatically access
the WiFi network and send/receive serial data over UART.

• Qualified 2.4GHz IEEE 802.11b/g transceiver

• High throughput, up to 4Mbps sustained data rate with TCP/IP and WPA2

• Ultra-low power (4uA sleep, 35mA Rx, 110-180mA Tx)

• Small, compact surface mount module

• On board ceramic chip antenna and U.FL connector for external antenna

• 8 Mbit flash memory and 128 KB RAM

• UART and SPI (future) data/control interfaces

• 10 general purpose digital I/O

• 8 analog inputs

• Real-time clock for wakeup and time stamping

• Accepts 3.3V regulated or 2-3V battery

• Supports Adhoc connections

• On board ECOS -OS, TCP/IP stacks

• Wi-Fi Alliance certified for WPA2-PSK

• FCC / CE/ ICS certified and RoHS compliant

Features

• Host Data Rate Up to 2.7 Mbps for UART

• Memory 128 KB RAM,2MB ROM, 2 KB battery-backed memory, 8 Mbit Flash.

• Intelligent, built-in power management with programmable wakeup

• Can be powered from regulated 3.3-3.7V source or 2.0-3.0V batteries

• Real time clock for time stamping, auto-sleep and auto-wakeup modes

• Configuration over UART or wireless interfaces using simple ASCII commands

• Over the air firmware upgrade (FTP), and data file upload.

• Secure WiFi authentication WEP-128, WPA-PSK (TKIP), WPA2-PSK (AES).

• Built in networking applications DHCP, UDP, DNS, ARP, ICMP

• 802.11 power save and roaming functions

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2 Hardware Interface

See the RN-131 data sheet on the Roving Networks website for technical specifications and
layout information. (Document rn-131-ds.pdf

2.1 Power

There are two options for powering the RN-131G module directly.

1. DC SUPPLY: Apply 3.3 VDC power to VBATT (pin 20), AND V3.3IN (pin 21)
Tie 3.3VREG-IN (pin 18) to GROUND. 3.3V-REG-OUT (Pin 17) leave floating.

2. BATTERY: Apply battery = 1.8 to 3.3VDc to VBATT (pin 20). V3.3IN pin 21 = floating.
Tie pin 17 to pin 18. (this enables the on board battery boost 3.3V switcher).

2.2 Reset

Reset is active LOW and is optional/does not need to be connected. The reset pin is 3.3V
tolerant and has an internal pullup of 100K to the VBATT. There is also a built in voltage
brownout monitor.

2.3 UART

• Connect a common ground when using the external TX, RX inputs.

• For a 3 wire DB-9 interface (tx, rx, gnd only) Factory default is hardware flow control

disabled, CTS and RTS are not required.

• When using a 5.0Vdc Input, PIO’s and UART pins require a 10K ohm series resistor. PIO’s

are 0-3.3Vdc not 5 volt tolerant.

Warning: Do NOT exceed the voltage ratings on the 3.3V pins, damage to the module will
result.

Important Notes:

#1: The Sensor inputs SENS0-7 are extremely sensitive to over voltage. Under no
conditions should these pins be driven above 1.2VDC. Placing any voltage above
this will permanently damage the radio module and render it useless.

#2: Placing 5VDC or any voltage above 3.3Vdc into the VDD pins of the module will
permanently damage the radio module.

#3: Placing 3.3Vdc into the PIO’s while they are set as outputs will permanently
damage the radio modules. The failure mode is a short across GND and VCC. Use a
10KΩ resistor in series or a 10KΩ pull up resistor for input and output PIO’s
respectively.

)

RN-131G

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2.4 Status Indictors

PIO 4, 5 and 6 are active high and can be connected to external LEDs to provide status.

Condition PIO6=Red LED PIO5=Yellow LED PIO4=Green LED

ON solid Not Associated Connected over TCP

Fast blink Rx/Tx data transfer No IP address

Slow blink Associated, No Internet IP address OK

OFF Associated, Internet OK

3 Configuration

3.1 Entering Command Mode

Upon power up, the device will be in data mode. To enter command mode, exactly the three
characters $$$ must be sent. The device will respond with CMD.

While in command mode, the device will accept ASCII bytes as commands.
To exit command mode, send exit<cr>. The device will respond with “EXIT”.

Parameters, such as the SSID, channel, IP address, Serial Port settings, and all other settings can
be viewed and configured in command mode.

ASCII characters can be sent through a terminal emulator connected to the UART or via Telnet.
When using the UART communications settings should match the settings used when RN-131g
connects, for example: the default is 9600 baudrate, 8 bits, No Parity, 1 stop bit, and hardware
flow control disabled.

Run your favorite terminal emulator, Roving Networks provides a free one, Teraterm, at

http://www.rovingnetworks.com/support/teraterm.zip.

Type $$$ on your emulator. You should see “CMD” returned to you. This will verify that your
cable and comm. settings are correct. Most valid commands will return an “AOK”, response,
and invalid ones will return an ERR description.

To exit command mode, type “exit“<cr>.

NOTE: You can enter command mode locally over the serial port at any time when not
connected, and also when connected if the appropriate settings are enabled.

Over the air, Remote configuration

Once the module has associated and if TCP SERVER is enabled (the default) the device will be
listening for connections on port 2000.

Using Windows XP or Linux or any other TCP command line client or program, you can access
remote configuration.

Example: (windows command line) telnet 10.10.10.149 2000
Response “*HELLO*”

You can now enter command mode and configure the module.

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4 WiFly Command Reference

4.1 Command Syntax

Commands begin with a keyword, and have optional additional parameters, generally space
delimited. Commands and options are case sensitive. Hex input data can be upper or lower
case. String text data, such as SSID is also case sensitive.

The first command is fully decoded and must be complete. Other command parameters can be
shorted by using only the first character.

For example,

set uart baudrate 115200 is valid,

set uart b 115200 is also valid,

set u b 115200 is also valid, however,

s uart baudrate 115200 is NOT valid.

Numbers can be entered as either decimal, (like 115200 above) or HEX. To enter HEX, use

0x<value>. For example, the HEX value FF would be entered as 0xFF.

4.2 Command Organization

Commands fall into 5 general categories:

• SET COMMANDS -Take effect immediately, permanently (save command issued).

• GET COMMANDS -Retrieve the permanently stored information for display to user.

• STATUS COMMANDS -See what is going on with the interface, IP status, etc.

• ACTION COMMANDS- Perform action such as scan, connect, disconnect, etc.

• FILE IO COMMANDS - Upgrade, load and save configuration, delete files, etc.

NOTE: You must save the configuration or the module will load the previous settings upon reboot
or power up.

When the system boots, all configuration data is loaded into RAM variables from the file called
“config”. The set commands actually only modify the RAM copy of variables in the system.
This allows temporary change of parameters “on the fly” to test features, minimizes power usage
and saves on flash re-write cycles.

Once all configuration is complete, the user must save the settings using the save command to
store the configuration data, otherwise it will not take effect upon reboot or reset. Multiple
configurations can be stored by using the save <filename> command, and these
configurations can be loaded using the load <filename> command. These files can be upload
to remote FTP site, such that once a desired configuration is created, it can quickly be copied into
additional devices (cloning).

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5 SET Commands

These commands begin with “set”. There are 6 major categories.

• COMM - communication and data transfer, timers, matching characters

• DNS - DNS host and domain

• FTP - FTP host address and login information

•

IP - IP settings

•

SYS - system settings such as sleep and wake timers

•

TIME - timer server settings

•

UART - serial port settings such as baudrate and parity

•

WLAN - wireless interface settings, such as ssid, chan, and security options

5.1 COMM Parameters

set comm close <string> sets the ASCI string that is sent to the local UART when the TCP

port is closed. If no string is desired, use the command with no
<string> parameter. Max string length is 32 characters.

set comm open <string> sets the string that is sent to the local UART when the TCP port is

opened. If no string is desired, use the command with no
<string> parameter. Max string length is 32 characters.

set comm remote <string> sets the string that is sent to the remote TCP client when the TCP

port is opened. If no string is desired, use the command with no
<string> parameter. Max string length is 32 characters.

set comm idle <secs> sets the Idle Timer Value. This is the number of seconds with no

transmit or receive data before the connection is closed
automatically. Default is 0, never disconnect on idle.

set comm match <value> sets matching character initiate forwarding data across the TCP/IP

connection. The value is entered as the decimal value of the of
the ASCII character. Default is 0, disabled. For more information
see section 8.5

set comm size <value> sets the Flush Size value. This is the number of bytes to receive

on the UART before forwarding, 0 or 1 forwards immediately. .
Default is 16 bytes. Maximum value = 1024 bytes

set comm time <num> sets the Flush Timer. This is the number of 10 millisecond

intervals after a byte is received before the data is sent over
TCP/IP, 1 is the minimum value. Default is 2 (20 milliseconds)

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