One of these days, I’d like to push the RFM12B radios a bit further, to see how they behave in high-traffic and high-noise situations. What I need really, is a convenient way to re-flash and monitor multiple JeeNodes. Here’s what I’ve come up with:
It’s an Arduino Duemilanove with a proto shield, containing 5 FTDI sockets for connecting slave boards. I’d like this new “MuxShield” to perform two tasks:
- A serial line multiplexer which can send out commands to any connected board, as well as receive and report incoming data from all connected boards, at the same time.
- A boot flash repeater which can reprogram the flash memory of each board, using the standard FTDI serial protocol.
The multiplexer makes it possible to collect data while running a multi-board send-receive test, while the repeater simplifies the development cycle when frequently altering the software. With the combination of both, I won’t need to constantly unplug boards or adjust IDE settings.
The idea for the repeater is to use a larger ATmega328 on the Duemilanove, and to reserve half its flash memory for the data which needs to be programmed into the slave boards (which for now will remain ATmega168’s).
A few more hardware details: 4 of the 5 FTDI connectors are jumpered to supply either +5V or +3.3V from an on-board regulator. And there’s a small slide switch (visible in the picture above) which determines whether the incoming flash program is intended for the Arduino or for the slave boards. I’ll add two status LEDs later, to make it easier to see what’s going on.
This setup is not limited to JeeNodes or to testing wireless radios, it works with other FTDI-based Arduino’ish systems such as the RBBB by Modern Devices or the DC Boarduino by Adafruit – there are no doubt several more.
Anyway, on the software side it’s going to be a challenge to make all of this work. And I’ll need to customize the Arduino bootstrap code.