Created by Scott Schmit, last modified by Robert Nelson on Sep 08, 2017
Description
The ATAVRRZ600 kit allows complete evaluation for the AT86RF230, AT86RF231, and AT86RF212 radio transceivers from Atmel. The kit allows the user to add RF functionality to their design within the regional 700/800/900 MHz and worldwide 2.4 GHz ISM bands using 802.15.4 RF transceivers. The kit comes complete with 2 USB dongles loaded with AT32UC3A3256S, a 32-bit AVR microcontroller designed for high data throughput, which allows the user to wirelessly communicate across 2 USB ports of a PC, out of box. The kit also contains a pair of radio boards for the RF230, RF231, and RF212 transceivers.
Example Application
Once the driver is installed, the user should be able to operate a Wireless UART application, out-of-box. The two smaller antennas included with the kit are intended for 2.4 GHz use (RF230 and RF231 transceivers). The 2 larger antennas are to be used for 900 MHz operation (RF212 transceiver).
- Connect the smaller antennas to either the RF230 or the RF231 transceiver board pairs.
- Connect the selected pair of transceiver boards to the USB adapter boards using the 10 pin headers (ensuring proper allignment of pin 1).
- Plug both board assemblies into an open USB port of the PC. If this is the first time being plugged in, the USB drivers will need to be installed. See RZ600 USB Drivers section below for installation procedure.
- Identify which COM port the devices are using through Device Manager. In this example, COM Ports 11 and 13 were used.
- Start a software terminal program. Tera Term was used for this example, but any terminal emulator with serial port connection can be used. (Download Tera Term free from CNET)
- Configure the serial port with the following settings: Baud: 57600, Data: 8 bit, Parity: None, Stop: 1 bit, Flow Control: None, as shown below.
- Open a second terminal program using the second device’s COM Port and the same serial port settings.
- Type “Terminal 1” in one of the terminal windows. The characters should appear in both windows. Switch to the second terminal window and type “Terminal 2”. The characters should appear in both windows as shown below.
RZ600 USB Drivers
USB Driver for Windows 2000, XP, Vista
Save the following setup file to the PC:
The file must have the .inf extension. When the dongle is inserted into a USB port, a setup wizard should appear which will prompt you to specify the setup file (driver).
USB Driver for Windows 7
Save the following setup file to the PC.
The file must have the .inf extension. When running the Windows 7 OS, the user will have to manually install the driver for the kit’s USB adapter boards (no setup wizard will appear).
- Insert one of the USB dongles to an open USB port of the PC
- Navigate to Start → Control Panel → Device Manager
Locate the Unknown device under “Other Devices” as shown below.
- Double-click “Unknown device” and select “Update Driver” as shown below.
- Select “Browse my computer for driver software” as shown below.
- Select the “Browse” button to identify the folder of the downloaded setup file as shown below. If the user saved the file to a high level folder, uncheck the “Include subfolders” box to speed up the search time.
- Once the driver is found, a Windows Security dialog may pop-up warning the user of the inability to verify the software publisher. Select “Install this driver sofware anyway” to continue installation as shown below.
- Upon successful installation, the device should show up under “Ports (COM & LPT)” as shown below.
Once the driver has been installed for one of the USB boards, the system creates a driver directory. Because of this, the system should automatically install the driver for the second device once it is plugged into a USB port.