Project:Nanode

New page for Ken's new project 'Nanode' (formerly 'Ethernet Arduino') For full background and earlier work please see Ethernet Arduino

Functioning Nanode!

About the Nanode - Some Background

The Nanode is a low cost entry device aimed at Internet Connectivity projects. It has been designed to be built easily for under £20 - so that it will appeal to those on a tight budget.

It is based on the Arduino environment so will be familiar to many. It will accept Arduino shields, if necessary with longer pins to improve clearance between the Magjack connector and the underside of the shield.

It consists of a small PCB which has the ATmega328 microcontroller, some glue logic, the ENC28J60 ethernet controller and a Magjack ethernet connector. The board only uses through-hole and DIL conventional components - so that it can be easily assembled by anyone who has basic solderng skills.

It makes an ideal project for a teaching workshop on web connectivity, and as such will appeal to Hackspaces for advanced Arduino workshops.

It can be used as a micro web-server, for home automation and control, web connected sensor networks and many other applications. By removing the ethernet controller and Magjack, it becomes a low cost Arduino "work-alike".

Another unique feature is that several Nanodes can be connected together on a multidrop serial bus and used for distributed control tasks, energy montoring or home automation. The wired network supplies communications and power and can be made from low cost 4 core telephone cable. Individual Nanodes can communicate via this network back to an ethernet connected "Master" unit. With RS485 driver ICs, the Nanode can be adapted as a DMX lighting controller, MIDI network or other serial control system.

Nanode is an Open Source Project.

Bare board waiting list

This is the waiting list for the first production run' of bare PCBs.

Ken I would like to do a special London Hackspace branded version with a custom LHS logo on the screenprint. If anyone with EagleCAD experience would like to assist with this artwork please get in touch. As soon as we have this artwork and a minor board update, we can order the next batch.

Please add the number of PCBs that you would like with your name to the list below:

• 4 - Spike
• 4 - Elliot
• 2 - Artag
• 4 - Bob/b3cft
• 2 - Catie
• 2 - V21 14:07, 30 March 2011 (UTC)
• 2 - asc
• 1 - User:matthewvenn
• 4 - Mark
• 2 - JamesHarrison
• 1 - tamberg
• 2 - Ben Lamb (lhs@zurgy.org)

Ken Now that we have reached 30 boards, we should consider collecting some money and getting a batch ordered from Spirit Electronics. I think that 2 square feet of board will just about fit 40 boards.

I would suggest £10 which pays for the board, and also bundles the ENC28J60, ATmega328, Magjack, reset switch and some of the connectors from Cool Components. In 10off these parts are about £8 per bundle.

The First Prototypes

Here are the two boards each connected to a network port. The orange and brown wires between the boards is so that they can share the 5V power from the FTDI cable.

Putter and Getter Nanodes

The upper board is the Publisher (Putter) and the lower board is the Subscriber (Getter). Every few seconds the Putter sends a new packet of data up to Pachube feed 8729, and at regular intervals the Getter subscribes to this feed to retrieve the data. In this case the data is a simple comma separated list of 6 arguments, which could be six readings from the ADCs on the Putter device, or a numerical command to which the Getter will respond.

Building a Nanode

The complete step by step build sequence can be found on my blog

Parts List

All parts are readily available. I recommend Cool Components in South London for several of the key items. Interested parties should try to pool component purchasing to access volume discounts.

   * 1 ATmega328 microcontroller (with Arduino bootloader) - CoolComponents £5.00 (£2.81 without bootloader)
   * 1 ENC28J60 ethernet controller - CoolComponents 1.99
   * 1 Magjack  - CoolComponents £1.99 

The remainder of the parts came from Farnell Components or other suppliers eg Rapid Electronics:

   * 1 74AHC125 quad buffer 174-9617
   * 1 16MHz crystal 161-1761
   * 1 25MHz crystal 161-1783
   * 4 22pF ceramic capacitors 114-1760
   * 8 100nF ceramic capacitors 121-6444
   * 2 10nF ceramic capacitors 121-6435
   * 3 10uF electrolytic capacitors 945-1056
   * 1 7805 5V regulator 156-4483
   * 1 78L33 3V3 regulator 146-7768
   * 1 2K resistor 934-1480
   * 4 51ohm 1% resistors 934-3342
   * 3 270 ohm resistors 933-9353
   * 3 10K resistors 933-9060
   * 1 tact switch 181-3689 
   * 2 8 way 0.1" SIL Sockets
   * 2 6 way 0.1" SIL Sockets
   * 1 6 way 0.1" right angle header
   * 1 2.1mm dc jack socket
   * 1 1N4001 diode
   * 1 3mm LED
   * 2 32 pin 0.1" header strips (for optional I/O connectors).   

You will also need:

   * 1 Nanode pcb - available shortly to Hackspace members
   * 1 FTDI USB-serial cable - becoming a standard bit of kit for talking to microcontrollers.
   * or similar USB to serial converter such as Sparkfun/Cool Components 
   * 1 CAT5 network cable to connect to router

Current Build Files

The prototype is Nanode2j and has a couple of minor layout bugs, these lave been corrected in 2l. The EagleCAD pcb files have been uploaded to Thingiverse as a starting point, but potential users should read the bug-list on the schematic page.

Questions & Answers & Feedback

If you have any queries - please put them here.