Freaklabs FL-AT86RF212-DEV User manual

FreakLabs
Rapid Prototyping Platform
900 MHz 802.15.4 Radio Board
FL-AT86RF212-DEV v1.1
User Guide v1.1A

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FL-AT86RF212-DEV v1.1
Document Revision History
Date Description
2010-04-01 Document creation

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FL-AT86RF212-DEV v1.1
Specications
e FreakLabs FL-AT86RF212-DEV 900MHz modular radio board is
designed to be an easy way to rapidly prototype wireless sensor/actuator
applications using the 900 MHz IEEE 802.15.4 protocol. It includes
a complete radio circuit based on the Atmel AT86RF212 as well as a
standard FreakLabs universal serial peripheral connector and either an
external RP-SMA antenna connector or an on-board SMD antenna.
It’s designed to work with MCU boards that support the standardized
FreakLabs Universal Serial Connector and has a peripheral-side, right
angle, male connector that ts into any of the FreakLabs MCU boards.
It is also supported by the Chibi open source wireless protocol stack for
quick and easy wireless communication and testing.
Peripherals
e transceiver is the only peripheral on this board and it consists of the Atmel AT86RF212 900
MHz 802.15.4 radio. e AT86RF212 has a lot of built-in hardware to handle many of the time
sensitive or repetitive tasks in the 802.15.4 specication such as automatic ACK generation, frame
ltering based on address, auto-CRC generation and checking, automatic retries, and auto trans-
mit after checking for a clear channel.
Some other nice features of the radio are that it supports the Chinese 780 MHz, European 868
MHz, and North American 916 MHz bands. ere are also dierent modulation schemes that
can be chosen based on requirements. e highest bitrates use O-QPSK modulation which can
handle up to 1 Mbps data rates in proprietary mode or 250 kbps in IEEE 802.15.4 compliant
mode. e modulation can also be changed to BPSK which yields approximately 5-10x improve-
ment in receiver sensitivity and thus greater range. However using BPSK, the data rate goes down
to 20-40 kbps.
e RF front end consists of a matching circuit to match the radio data signals to the 50 ohm
antenna connector and optional discrete components to choose between the on-board SMD an-
tenna and the external RP-SMA antenna connector. e components in the matching circuit are
chosen and tested to be as close as possible to 50 ohms so that there will be very little power loss
on the incoming and outgoing data signals.
Connectors
e universal serial connector (USC) interface is standard for all of the FreakLabs development
boards. e FL-AT86RF212-DEV board contains a peripheral-side universal serial connector.
Universal Serial Connector Pinouts
e FL-AT86RF212-DEV radio board supports the Universal Serial Connector (USC) v1.1. e
Quick SpecS
Radio: AT86RF212,
900 MHz, 802.15.4
radio
Connectors: 1 USC
Peripheral
Antenna: RP-SMA
external antenna,
SMD antenna
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FL-AT86RF212-DEV v1.1

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FL-AT86RF212-DEV v1.1 Page 3 FL-AT86RF212-DEV v1.1
connector supports an SPI bus, I2C bus, 2 interrupts, 2 analog inputs, 1 PWM output, 1 timer/
capture input, 6 GPIOs, 3.3V supply, and optional 5V supply. All pins except power pins can also
be used as GPIO if there is no need for the principal function. In the case of the radio board, only
the SPI bus, 1 interrupt, and a few GPIO pins are used.
e connector consists of a host side which is a 20-pin, female, right-angle header and a periph-
eral side which is a 20-pin, male, right-angle header. e host side connector will always be on
MCU boards and the peripheral connector will be found on peripheral boards that interface to
the MCU boards.
e reason right angle connectors were chosen was so that the complete system can be level. is
makes it easier to access individual signals and pins, as well as make modications to the circuit.
e following diagram shows the pinouts of the connectors:
e specic pinout of the universal serial peripheral connector of the FL-AT86RF212-DEV board
can be found below:
USC Peripheral Connector (JP1)
Pin Description Pin Description
1 VCC3 2 NC
3 NC 4 NC
SCLK
MOSI
MISO
SCL
SDA
IRQ0
IRQ1
GND
GND
ADC0
ADC1
PWM
0
GPIO/
PWM
1
CAPT
0
GPIO/
CAPT
1
SSEL GPIO
GPIO
VCC3
NC/
VCC5
1
2
3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Universal Serial Connector v1.1 – Host (MCU) side
Universal Serial Connector v1.1 – Peripheral side
135791113151719
2
468101214161820
SCLK
MOSI
MISO
SCL
SDA
IRQ0
IRQ1
GND
GND
ADC0
ADC1
PWM
0
GPIO/
PWM
1
CAPT
0
GPIO/
CAPT
1
SSEL GPIO
GPIO
VCC3
NC/
VCC5

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FL-AT86RF212-DEV v1.1
USC Peripheral Connector (JP1)
Pin Description Pin Description
5 NC 6 NC
7 RST_n 8 SLP/TR
9 NC 10 NC
11 GND 12 GND
13 INT 14 NC
15 NC 16 NC
17 MOSI 18 MISO
19 SS_n (SPI Select) 20 SCLK
Disclaimer
e FL-AT86RF212-DEV board is NOT FCC approved. It is designed to comply with FCC Part
15 rules. However this board is not in a nished product form and is only intended for experi-
mental and research/development purposes. If you wish to use this board in an actual product,
you will need to attain certication with the appropriate local regulatory body for the complete
system. Additionally, please use the wireless equipment in a responsible manner with regard for
others and your surroundings.
Schematics
Schematics can be found on the following page:

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FL-AT86RF212-DEV v1.1
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
D D C C B B A A
SS_n MOSI RST_n IRQ
SCLK MISO SLP_TR
XTAL1 XTAL2
PWR_LED
RST_n SLP_TR SS_n SCLK MISO MOSI IRQ TP_CLKM
RFP RFN
RF+ RF-
UNBAL SMD_ANTANT
SMA_ANT
VCC3
VCC3 AVCC3
VCC3 AVCC3
VCC3
VCC3
VCC3
AVCC3
Project Title:Size Rev
Date: Sheet of
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1 1Friday, April 02, 2010
RADIO
Project Title:Size Rev
Date: Sheet of
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B
1 1Friday, April 02, 2010
RADIO
Project Title:Size Rev
Date: Sheet of
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1 1Friday, April 02, 2010
RADIO
CONNECT AGND TO GND VIA FERRITE. CONNECT AVCC TO VCC VIA FERRITE. CAN ALSO BE REPLACED WITH 0 OHM RESISTOR IF NOT NEEDED
ANALOG AND DIGITAL GROUND WILL BE SEPARATED
GND VIAS IN BETWEEN PINS 2-6
2 separate transmission lines -70 mil width, 150 mil length, 63 ohms @900 MHz, FR-4, 59 mil thickness, 1 oz copper
ANT2 SMA ANT2 SMA
1
1
GND
2
GND
3
GND
4
GND
5
D1 GREEN D1 GREEN
C9 Do Not Install C9 Do Not Install
R2 10k R2 10k
R1 220 R1 220
JP1
H10X2 - RT
JP1
H10X2 - RT
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 13 15 17 19
12 14 16 18 20
C8 3.0 pF C8 3.0 pF
C12 12 pF C12 12 pF
C10 12 pF C10 12 pF
U1
AT86RF212
U1
AT86RF212
DIG3 1 DIG4 2
AVSS
3
RFP 4
RFN 5
AVSS
6
DVSS
7
RST
8
DIG1 9 DIG2 10
SLP_TR
11
DVSS
12 DVDD 13
DVDD 14
DEVDD 15
DVSS
16
CLKM
17
DVSS
18
SCLK
19
MISO
20
DVSS
21
MOSI
22
SEL
23
IRQ
24
XTAL2
25 XTAL1 26
AVSS
27 EVDD 28
AVDD 29 AVSS
30
AVSS
31
AVSS
32
TP6TP6 1
FB2 FB/0805 FB2 FB/0805
1 2
C13 22uF/6.3V C13 22uF/6.3V
C2 0.1 uF C2 0.1 uF
GND
Y1
NX3225SA, 15PPM
GND
Y1
NX3225SA, 15PPM
1 2 4
3
BLN1
RF BALUN-0900BL18B100
BLN1
RF BALUN-0900BL18B100
GND 1
UNBAL 2
GND 3
BAL1
4
NC
5
BAL2
6L1 12.0 nHL1 12.0 nH
1 2
C5 68 pFC5 68 pF
C6 3.0 pF C6 3.0 pF
C1 0.1 uF C1 0.1 uF
C4 DNI C4 DNI
C7 0.1 uF C7 0.1 uF
C11 0.1 uF C11 0.1 uF
FB1 FB/0805 FB1 FB/0805
1 2
C3 68 pFC3 68 pF
C15 1uF C15 1uF
ANT1
SMD_ANT_900MHZ
ANT1
SMD_ANT_900MHZ
FEED_IN
1GND 2
GND 3 GND 4 GND 5 GND 6

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FL-AT86RF212-DEV v1.1
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
D D C C B B A A
Project Title:Size Rev
Date: Sheet of
Page Title: v1.1
FL-AT86RF212-DEV
A
1 1Friday, January 15, 2010
MISC
Project Title:Size Rev
Date: Sheet of
Page Title: v1.1
FL-AT86RF212-DEV
A
1 1Friday, January 15, 2010
MISC
Project Title:Size Rev
Date: Sheet of
Page Title: v1.1
FL-AT86RF212-DEV
A
1 1Friday, January 15, 2010
MISC
TP1TP1
1
H2
MOUNT_HOLE/MOUNT_HOLE
H2
MOUNT_HOLE/MOUNT_HOLE
1
TP14TP14
1
H1
MOUNT_HOLE/MOUNT_HOLE
H1
MOUNT_HOLE/MOUNT_HOLE
1

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FL-AT86RF212-DEV v1.1
PCB Layout
PCB layout le order:
1. Assembly drawing
2. Top Layer
3. Bottom Layer
4. Silkscreen

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FL-AT86RF212-DEV v1.1
Bill of Materials
Quan-
tity Reference Manufacturer Part Number Description
1 ANT1 Antenna Factor ANT-XXX-SP 900 MHz SMD Antenna
(XXX=868 or 916)
1 ANT2 ChangHong SMA-02-113-
TGG
RP-SMA Connector
1 BLN1 Johanson Tech-
nology
0900BL18B100 900 MHz balun
4 C1, C2, C7,
C11
Various 0.1uF/50V, 0603
2 C3,C5 Murata ERB1885C2E-
680JDX5D
68 pF/250V, 0603, high freq
2 C4, C9 N/A Not Installed
2 C6,C8 Johanson Tech-
nology
251R14S3R0B-
V4T
3.0 pF/250V, 0603, high freq
2 C10,C12 Various 12 pF/50V, 0603
1 C13 Various 22uF/6.3V, 0805, MLCC
1 C15 Various 1uF/50V, 0603
1 D1 Various Green LED, 0805
2 FB1,FB2 Various Ferrite Bead, 0805
1 JP1 Various 10x2 Right angle header, male,
0.100”
1 L1 Taiyo Yuden HK1608-12NJ-
T
12 nH, 0603, high freq
1 R1 Various 220 ohms, 0805
1 R2 Various 10 kohms, 0603
1 U1 Atmel AT86RF212 900 MHz, 802.15.4 radio
1 Y1 NDK NX3225SA 16 MHz crystal, 15 ppm