I recently got a Atmel AT90USBKey to play around with. I’m going to use it to prototype a USB controller for the MRF49XA transceiver I made a while ago. That post is still in progress, but I had trouble getting started with DFU-Programmer on the mac, so I thought I’d make a post about those problems so it may help others having the same trouble. I know that I found next-to-nothing when I was googling for it. Read more…
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Transceiver breakout boards
I’m just finishing up my last class ever!!! (for credit, anyway.) It was a really fun, mostly because I decided to have fun with my last class, and make it a 4/5 (undergrad/graduate). This meant that it was much easier and less theory-heavy than those that I’m used to. Anyway, as a grad student, I was expected to do something extra, and I decided to make a RF transceiver module. I looked around for a little while, and I settled on the Microchip MRF49XA. In general, it’s a nice chip. It has about the same capability as the Micrel MICRF6xx modules that I’ve used in the past. The Micrel modules cost $20/ea. and the Microchip IC is around $3. I was able to make the whole breakout board for the MRF49XA for less than the Micrel module alone. One of these days, I should dig out my notes from the Micrel project and post them, but I digress. I noticed a distinct lack of programming information using the MRF49XA, so I’m posting not only my schematic and PCB, but the software library I wrote for the Atmel AVRmega. Read more…
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