There are two important pinout changes in the upcoming JeeNode v3:

• On all four ports, pins 4 and 5 will be swapped (AIO and +3V)
• Pins 1 and 2 of the SPI/ISP header will become pins 7 and 8

So the final pinout for ports is:

The change isn’t being made on a whim – I’ve got several things plugging into ports here which will need to be changed to work with the new pinout. And it will affect everything plugged in for years to come. One of the reasons for the change is that it lets you plug in a 3-wire servo (pins 3..5). Another reason is that it is compatible with the BBB board already out there (also pins 3..5).

As before, a 4-pin connector on pins 2..5 is often all you need. The outer two pins are for more advanced uses.

As before also, pin 1 carries the input voltage to power the board, and can be anything from 3.5V to 13V. With an FTDI connector it will usually +5V. Batteries work great, anything from a 9V block, or 3x AAA/AA (both NiMH and alkaline), or even a LiPo battery.

Note also a small change in pin names: the 3.3V regulated power supply is now called “+3V” instead of the somewhat ambiguous “VCC”, and the interrupt line is called “IRQ” instead (was INT).

Every future JeeNode design will use this pinout on every port.

The new SPI/ISP header is (pin 1 at top left):

This is an “extended” ISP header. The main reason for this change is that pins 1..6 are now compatible with a standard 6-pin in-system programming connector, through which the ATmega’s fuses, flash, and EEPROM can be programmed. Note that the JeeNode is a 3.3V device, it should not be driven by an ISP programmer set to 5V voltage level.

The two extra pins are tied to digital I/O lines B0 and B1, and allow connecting more SPI devices to the JeeNode. Note that SPI is used internally by the RFM12B radio module, so these pins should not be re-configured for other purposes, although you could use SEL0 and SEL1 as general-purpose I/O lines if you want – a LED and a push-button switch perhaps.

I’ve made a few experimental add-ons using the SPI/ISP connector, such as this one. They will need to be adjusted for v3, but as with ports the same new pinout will be used for all future JeeNodes and derivatives from now on. Although some of them might not have such a connector at all.

That’s it – no more changes. Now I can “standardize” everything I want to connect to the JeeNode ports!