Atmel AVR2131 User manual

APPLICATION NOTE

Atmel AVR2131: Lightweight Mesh Getting Started Guide

8-bit Atmel Microcontrollers

Features

•Atmel®Lightweight Mesh Software Development Kit (SDK)

•WSNDemo sample application

•Custom applications

Description

The purpose of this application note is to introduce users to the Lightweight Mesh

network protocol stack and typical application development process from Atmel. This

document describes how to start quickly with the Lightweight Mesh SDK, by setting

up the development environment and programming devices with sample applications.

To find more detailed information about the Lightweight Mesh architecture and

application development process, refer to [1].

42029A

−

AVR

−

09/2012

Atmel AVR2131: Lightweight Mesh Getting Started Guide [APPLICATION NOTE]

42029A−AVR−09/2012

Table of Contents

1.Introduction ..........................................................................................3

2.Development tools ...............................................................................3

3.WSNDemo sample application ............................................................4

4.Using precompiled binaries..................................................................4

4.1Overview ........................................................................................................... 4

4.2Programming the boards................................................................................... 4

4.3Running the application..................................................................................... 5

5.Using provided projects .......................................................................5

5.1Overview ........................................................................................................... 5

5.2Over-the-Air upgrade ........................................................................................ 6

6.Creating a new application

...................................................................6

6.1Starting from a template application.................................................................. 6

6.2Starting from scratch ......................................................................................... 6

7.References...........................................................................................7

8.Revision History

...................................................................................8

Atmel AVR2131: Lightweight Mesh Getting Started Guide [APPLICATION NOTE]

42029A−AVR−09/2012

1. Introduction

Atmel Lightweight Mesh is an easy to use proprietary low power wireless mesh network protocol. Lightweight Mesh was

designed to address the needs of a wide range of wireless connectivity applications. Some of these applications

include:

•Remote control

•Alarms and security

•Automatic Meter Reading (AMR)

•Home and commercial building automation

•Toys and educational equipment

Lightweight Mesh is designed to work with all Atmel IEEE®802.15.4 transceivers and SoCs. Currently the stack works

with AVR®-based MCUs, but given its extreme portability and low resource requirements, it can be run on almost any

Atmel MCU. Table 1-1 gives a summary of the currently supported hardware platforms.

Table 1-1. Supported hardware platforms.

Board or module MCU Radio Transceiver

ZigBit®(ATZB-24-B0, ATZB-24-A2) ATmega1281 AT86RF230B

STK®600-mega128rfa1 board (ATAVR128RFA1-EK1) ATmega128RFA1 ATmega128RFA1

XMEGA®-B1 Xplained and Rz600 radio modules

(ATXMEGAB1-XPLD and ATAVRRZ600)

ATxmega128B1 AT86RF212, AT86RF231

RCB128RFA1 ATmega128RFA1 ATmega128RFA1

RCB231 ATmega1281 AT86RF231

All demonstrations in this document will use the RCB128RFA1 board [3] and the WSNDemo sample application as an

example, but the same techniques can be applied to any other development kit, or a custom board and application.

2. Development tools

A development toolchain consists of:

•An integrated development environment (for example, Atmel AVR Studio®or IAR Embedded Workbench®),

where sample applications may be modified, compiled, and debugged,

•a corresponding compiler toolchain (AVR-GCC, IAR™), which provides everything necessary to compile

application source code into binary images, and

•a programming device (for example, JTAG), which may be used to program and debug the application on a

target platform

IAR Embedded Workbench for Atmel AVR [4] can be used to develop and debug applications for AVR-based platforms.

The IAR IDE support’s editing of application source code, compilation, linking object modules with libraries, and

application debugging.

Atmel AVR Studio 5.1 [5] or Atmel Studio 6 [6] can be used to develop and debug applications for AVR-based

platforms. Atmel Studio is equipped with the GCC toolchain and does not require external tools to compile Lightweight

Mesh applications.

Atmel AVR2131: Lightweight Mesh Getting Started Guide [APPLICATION NOTE]

42029A−AVR−09/2012

3. WSNDemo sample application

The WSNDemo application implements a typical wireless sensor network scenario, in which one central node collects

the data from a network of sensors and passes this data over a serial connection for further processing. In the case of

the WSNDemo this processing is performed by the WSNMonitor PC application. The BitCloud®Quick Start Guide [2]

provides a detailed description of the WSNDemo application scenario, and instructions on how to use WSNMonitor.

The majority of the information in [2] applies to the WSNDemo application running on top of Lightweight Mesh stack.

However since BitCloud is a ZigBee®PRO stack, there are a few differences in the protocol:

•Device types (Coordinator, Router and End Device) are simulated on the application level; there is no such

separation in Lightweight Mesh on the stack level

•The value of the extended address field is set equal to the value of the short address field

•For all frames, the LQI and RSSI fields are filled in by the coordinator with the values of LQI and RSSI from the

received frame. This means that nodes that are not connected to the coordinator directly will have the same

values as the last node on the route to the coordinator

•Sensor data values are generated randomly on all platforms

•Sending data to the nodes on the network is not implemented and not supported in this demo application

4. Using precompiled binaries

4.1 Overview

The SDK comes with a set of ready-to-use binary images of the WSNDemo application. It includes a set of images for

different roles, which are preconfigured with distinct network addresses so they can be used for creating a small sensor

network right away. Precompiled binaries have the following naming convention:

WSNDemo_ <Board> _<DeviceType>_<Address>.hex

Here <Board> is a shortened name of the board or the module for which this image is compiled, <DeviceType>

specifies a logical device type (“Coord”, “Router” or “EndDev”) and <Address> is a preconfigured network address of

the node.

4.2 Programming the boards

To program the precompiled binaries provided with the SDK using Atmel Studio, follow the steps below:

•Start Atmel Studio

•Open “AVR Programming” dialog (Tools -> AVR Programming)

•Select correct tool, device, interface and press “Apply”

•Connect programming tool to the board and power on the board

•Press “Read” button located near the “Device ID” field. Make sure that Device ID is correct

•On the “Fuses” tab set the fuse values and then press “Program” to write them to the device. Refer to Table 4-1

for correct fuse settings

•On the “Memories” tab, provide image file name in the “Flash” field and press “Program”

•Disconnect the programming tool and power cycle (or reset) the board. Device should be working now

Atmel AVR2131: Lightweight Mesh Getting Started Guide [APPLICATION NOTE]

42029A−AVR−09/2012

Table 4-1. Fuse settings for the precompiled binaries.

Board or module MCU Extended High Low

RCB128RFA1 ATmega128RFA1 0xFE 0x9D 0xC2

RCB231 ATmega1281 0xFE 0x9D 0xC2

ZigBit ATmega1281 0xFE 0x9D 0xC2

4.3 Running the application

After all boards are programmed connect coordinator board to the PC and run the WSNMonitor application. Observe

the coordinator and other node icons appearing on the screen. Refer to [2] for details on how to use the hardware and

PC software.

5. Using provided projects

5.1 Overview

Applications are located in the apps directory in the SDK. All sample applications in the Lightweight Mesh SDK come

with the project files for Atmel Studio, IAR Embedded Workbench and GNU make utility.

All Lightweight Mesh applications include a configuration file config.h. This file contains settings for the application and

the stack. WSNDemo application settings are listed in Table 5-1. For system settings mentioned in the configuration file

see [1].

Table 5-1. WSNDemo application settings.

Parameter Description

APP_ADDR Node network address. This parameter also determines emulated device type:

•0x0000 – Coordinator

•0x0001-0x7fff – Router

•0x8000-0xfffe – End Device

APP_CHANNEL Radio transceiver channel. Valid range for 2.4GHz radios is 11 – 26 (0x0b – 0x1a)

APP_PANID Network identifier

APP_SENDING_INTERVAL This parameter has a different meaning for different device types:

•Coordinator: interval between sending sensor values to the UART

•Router: Interval between reporting sensor values to the coordinator

•End Device: Sleep interval

APP_ENDPOINT Application main data communication endpoint

APP_OTA_ENDPOINT Over-the-Air upgrade service endpoint

APP_SECURITY_KEY Security encryption key

Note: For normal network operation all devices should have different network addresses. There is no automatic

address assignment mechanism, so it is the developer’s responsibility to ensure that addresses are

unique.

Refer to the respective development environment documentation for the information on how to compile and debug

projects.

Atmel AVR2131: Lightweight Mesh Getting Started Guide [APPLICATION NOTE]

42029A−AVR−09/2012

5.2 Over-the-Air upgrade

WSNDemo sample application includes a limited demo of the Over-the-Air (OTA) upgrade feature. Lightweight Mesh

SDK comes with a set of tools required to perform OTA upgrades. For further assistance with using this feature, please

contact technical support ([email protected]).

6. Creating a new application

6.1 Starting from a template application

The best way to start a new standalone application is to use the provided Template application as a base, and make

custom modifications. Using template project files will ensure that all necessary components are included in the build,

and that all required definitions are present. The template application can be found in the <SDK Root>/apps/Template

directory.

6.2 Starting from scratch

If Lightweight Mesh has to be integrated into a larger existing project, it is recommended to include all required files and

definitions into the existing project. Table 6-1, Table 6-2 and Table 6-3 present a lists of files, include paths and

definitions that are required for normal Lightweight Mesh operation.

Table 6-1. Required files.

Platform Files

Common for all platforms <SDK Root>\nwk\src\nwk.c

<SDK Root>\nwk\src\nwkDataReq.c

<SDK Root>\nwk\src\nwkSecurity.c

<SDK Root>\nwk\src\nwkFrame.c

<SDK Root>\nwk\src\nwkRoute.c

<SDK Root>\nwk\src\nwkRx.c

<SDK Root>\nwk\src\nwkTx.c

<SDK Root>\sys\src\sys.c

<SDK Root>\sys\src\sysTimer.c

<SDK Root>\sys\src\sysEncrypt.c (only if security is enabled)

ZigBit <SDK Root>\hal\atmega1281\src\hal.c

<SDK Root>\hal\atmega1281\src\halPhy.c

<SDK Root>\hal\atmega1281\src\halTimer.c

<SDK Root>\phy\at86rf230\src\phy.c

STK600-mega128rfa1,

RCB128RFA1

<SDK Root>\hal\atmega128rfa1\src\hal.c

<SDK Root>\hal\atmega128rfa1\src\halTimer.c

<SDK Root>\phy\atmega128rfa1\src\phy.c

RCB231 <SDK Root>\hal\atmega1281\src\hal.c

<SDK Root>\hal\atmega1281\src\halPhy.c

<SDK Root>\hal\atmega1281\src\halTimer.c

<SDK Root>\phy\at86rf231\src\phy.c

Atmel AVR2131: Lightweight Mesh Getting Started Guide [APPLICATION NOTE]

42029A−AVR−09/2012

Table 6-2. Required include paths.

Platform Include Paths

Common for all platforms <SDK Root>\nwk\inc

<SDK Root>\sys\inc

<Application Root> (required to locate config.h file)

ZigBit <SDK Root>\hal\atmega1281\inc

<SDK Root>\phy\at86rf230\inc

STK600-mega128rfa1,

RCB128RFA1

<SDK Root>\hal\atmega128rfa1\inc

<SDK Root>\phy\atmega128rfa1\inc

RCB231 <SDK Root>\hal\atmega1281\inc

<SDK Root>\phy\at86rf231\inc

Table 6-3. Required definitions.

Platform Definitions

Common for all platforms F_CPU=<MCU Operating Frequency>

Note that if MCU frequency is different from the supported by default then you may need to

change frequency depended code in the <SDK Root>\hal directory.

ZigBit PHY_AT86RF230

HAL_ATMEGA1281

PLATFORM_ZIGBIT

STK600-mega128rfa1,

RCB128RFA1

PHY_ATMEGA128RFA1

HAL_ATMEGA128RFA1

PLATFORM_RCB128RFA1

RCB231 PHY_AT86RF231

HAL_ATMEGA1281

PLATFORM_RCB231

The execution environment should ensure that:

•SYS_Init() function is called before any other Lightweight Mesh API call

•SYS_TaskHandler() function is called as often as possible

Note that the HAL_Init() function (called from SYS_Init() function) will perform low level hardware initialization. If such

initialization already is performed by the existing project environment, then it should be removed from the HAL_Init()

function.

7. References

[1] Atmel AVR2130: Lightweight Mesh Developer guide

[2] Atmel AVR2052: Atmel BitCloud Quick Start Guide

[3] Atmel AVR2044: RCB128RFA1 – Hardware User Manual

[4] IAR Embedded Workbench for Atmel AVR

[5] Studio Archive (AVR Studio installer downloads)

[6] Atmel Studio 6

Atmel AVR2131: Lightweight Mesh Getting Started Guide [APPLICATION NOTE]

42029A−AVR−09/2012

8. Revision History

Doc. Rev. Date Comments

42029A 09/2012 Initial document release

Atmel Corporation

1600 Technology Drive

San Jose, CA 95110

USA

Tel: (+1)(408) 441-0311

Fax: (+1)(408) 487-2600

www.atmel.com

Atmel Asia Limited

Unit 01-5 & 16, 19F

BEA Tower, Millennium City 5

418 Kwun Tong Road

Kwun Tong, Kowloon

HONG KONG

Tel: (+852) 2245-6100

Fax: (+852) 2722-1369

tmel Munich GmbH

Business Campus

Parkring 4

D-85748 Garching b. Munich

GERMANY

Tel: (+49) 89-31970-0

Fax: (+49) 89-3194621

Atmel Japan G.K.

16F Shin-Osaki Kangyo Bldg.

1-6-4 Osaki, Shinagawa-ku

Tokyo 141-0032

JAPAN

Tel: (+81)(3) 6417-0300

Fax: (+81)(3) 6417-0370

Atmel®, Atmel logo and combinations thereof, AVR®, AVR Studio®, BitCloud®, Enabling Unlimited Possibilities®, STK®, XMEGA®, ZigBit®, and others are

registered trademarks or trademarks of Atmel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other terms and product names may be trademarks of others.

Disclaimer: The information in this document is provided in connection with Atmel products. No license, express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise, to any intellectual property right is granted by this

document or in connection with the sale of Atmel products. EXCEPT AS SET FORTH IN THE ATMEL TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SALES LOCATED ON THE ATMEL WEBSITE, ATMEL ASSUMES

NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER AND DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY WARRANTY RELATING TO ITS PRODUCTS INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED

WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL ATMEL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,

CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE, SPECIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS AND PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, OR LOSS OF

INFORMATION) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS DOCUMENT, EVEN IF ATMEL HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. Atmel makes no

representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this document and reserves the right to make changes to specifications and products descriptions at any time

without notice. Atmel does not make any commitment to update the information contained herein. Unless specifically provided otherwise, Atmel products are not suitable for, and shall not be used in,

automotive applications. Atmel products are not intended, authorized, or warranted for use as components in applications intended to support or sustain life.

Table of contents