SparkFun Electronics - Funnel IO with ATmega168

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Product Info

Funnel IO with ATmega168

sku: DEV-08957

Description: Funnel I/O (FIO) is an Arduino compatible board designed by Shigeru Kobayashi, based on the original design from LilyPad.

Funnel is a toolkit to sketch your idea physically, and consists of software libraries and hardware. By using Funnel, the user can interface to sensors and/or actuators with various programming languages such as ActionScript 3, Processing, and Ruby.

FIO is compatible with Funnel. It has connections for a Lithium Polymer battery and includes a charge circuit over USB. An XBee socket is available on the bottom of the board. The FIO has been designed to be wirelessly reprogrammable. Checkout our tutorial on wireless bootloading!

Features:

ATmega168V running at 8MHz
Arduino Bootloader
XBee socket
Lithium Polymer battery compatible
MAX1555 LiPo Charger
Reset button
On/Off Switch
Status/Charge/RSSI LEDs

Documents:

Pricing

	46 in stock backorder allowed

$24.95	price
$22.46	10-99 (10% off)
$19.96	100+ (20% off)

	quantity

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Comments

29 comments

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	by Sam916 +1.5 \| December 12, 2008 at 5:32 PM 0
What are the dimensions?

	by NYDave +1.8 \| December 13, 2008 at 10:42 AM 0
Dimensions are on the photos. You can tell the rough size from that.

	by cstcyr +3 \| December 13, 2008 at 9:26 PM 0
Posted http://generalio.blogspot.com/2008/12/funnel-io.html

	by Ben121 +14 \| December 14, 2008 at 8:25 PM 0
What is the system voltage? I'll presume a single LiPo means it's a 3.3 board?

	by RicoBravo +2.3 \| January 2, 2009 at 9:58 AM 0
Nathan, You should think about moving the TX and RX lines from the Xbee socket to pins 2&3 of the Atmega168, so a person can access the serial port and transmit commands at the same time. This is very useful when trouble shooting. Ladyada's softserial will allow pins 2&3 to act like TX and RX. Thanks -Jose

	by Fro +1.7 \| January 3, 2009 at 2:21 PM 0
Judging from the schematic, it looks like USB power feeds the battery leads and the board, meaning it should be able to charge the battery and power the board simultaneously. Is this true? Also, would this work with XBee Pro boards?

Widefido

+1.6

| January 10, 2009 at 3:41 PM

I just received my funnel board, and I have to say this thing *looks* great.

Two things I wish I had known before I had purchased:

1) You *have* to program this wirelessly. The USB port is just for power. (i.e., the data lines are not connected)

2) It is incredibly difficult to get this working with the ZNet 2.5 XBee module firmware due to the lack of I/O Line passing. The Series 1 firmware is essential for the wireless programming without having to manually press the reset button on the board.

These two items aren't killers, I just wish I had known about them before I shelled out $24 for it.

liz

+2.4

| January 10, 2009 at 8:32 PM

+0.54

WideFido-
Checkout this thread on the Arduino Forum
http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1212410783

Someone asks Shigeru Kobayashi:

"Did you consider including (or did you) a six-pin header (possibly unmounted) to allow the board to be programmed using an FTDI cable? That would lower the cost needed to start loading sketches onto the board."

Shigeru replies:

"Yes. Please look at the right side (actually top side in the picture). The first six pins are compatible with SparkFun's FTDI Basic Breakout modules, so also compatible with FTDI's."

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/images/products/08957-01-L.jpg

	by Widefido +1.6 \| January 10, 2009 at 10:41 PM 0
Thanks for the tip. I'll retract my statement that the board has to be programmed wirelessly. You do still, however, need extra hardware to program the board, i.e., either the FTDI cable, or the FTDI breakout board. I understand that most of the devs out there have these devices, but it should still be clear that you are unable to program this board over usb like the Duemilanove/Decimilla.

	by Nero +1.6 \| February 18, 2009 at 6:34 PM 0
So the FTDI Breakout works for programming this board. That's pretty cool. Does anyone know if the built in USB port works for establishing a serial connection to a computer? If NOT, can I use the FTDI breakout for a wired serial connection or is there something else I have to do?

	by aMeyer +14 \| February 25, 2009 at 9:18 PM +2.6
If you solder some right angle pins on the funnel, you can plug in the FTDI right on to it. I have a pic here http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3310/3310087519_ba060799e8.jpg?v=0 You can not use the usb onboard for anything except power, and charging of a battery.

	by twirlywirly55 +4.1 \| June 13, 2009 at 2:27 PM +0.44
Hi If you attach the FTDI to the board can it be used like any other arduino board eg. arduino 3.3 volt pro and are the digital and analog in/out have a maximum voltage of 3.3 and what do you set it as on the programme is it the lily pad or the others Thanks

	by fle33.com +3.1 \| November 24, 2009 at 4:57 PM 0
Thanks for taking the time to show that. I was looking for this information exactly!

	by jepler +3.4 \| March 22, 2009 at 8:34 PM 0
It would be nice if a future board rev provides easier access to the "USB VIN". In my application -- http://emergent.unpy.net/01233419381 -- I wanted to run FIO and blinkm from the same 5V regulated power supply. I ended up soldering a wire from pin 4 of U1 to the blinkm which works fine, but a spot for a standard pin header would have made this even easier.

	by Nate \| May 5, 2009 at 5:52 PM
Great suggestion. We've added a 0.1" spaced connector just behind the USB connector and battery connector on the latest rev, should hit the general population soon.

	by Bob Jacobsen +1.5 \| March 30, 2009 at 8:41 PM 0
Just got one of these, very, very nice. One question: Pin 15 of the XBee connector ("OTO5") seems to have been blocked off by something that looks like a pin. This prevents my XBee modules from plugging in. Is this intentional, e.g. for polarizing the XBee, or is this just an assembly feature? I can cut off the XBee pin to make the module fit. Is that likely to cause a problem? Thanks!

	by aMeyer +14 \| March 31, 2009 at 10:41 AM +1.2
It shouldn't be like that. I have 5 of them, and none of them required me to cut a pin, or anything like that.

	by Nate \| May 5, 2009 at 5:58 PM
My apologies! That sounds like a pin got soldered for too long. The XBee sockets like to pull solder into the wrong places if the person doing the soldering solders for too long. Sounds like you've got a very good fix but if you need a replacement, please let us know.

	by kelvinn +1.3 \| May 26, 2009 at 5:14 AM 0
This board looks very interesting, and could be perfect for one of my projects. I've seen in the specs that it takes the XBee-PRO modules - but does this include the 900Mhz modules? I'm assuming not, as it looks to only take 802.15.4 modules, but I thought I'd ask the professionals. Thanks!

	by Matthias Granberry +1 \| June 1, 2009 at 1:05 AM 0
I'd like to be able to charge it through an external 5v source, but it looks like the 5V usb pin goes to the charger's DC in and the USB charging pin is left unconnected. Isn't this going to draw more than USB is spec'd for? Is there any chance a future board rev is going to make a trace for a DC charging input?

	by cgrahn +2.1 \| July 2, 2009 at 3:19 PM 0
Anyone know if this product will be updated to the new ATmega328 chip? I love this little setup, but would love a little more space for more advanced programs. Thanks!

dimkasta

+1.6

| September 7, 2009 at 8:19 AM

I agree.

I would love to see some more space in it (328).
Also, I don t see the purpose of having a power only usb plug. Either remove it altogether and allow the usage of FTDI for both power/charging and communication (like with pro), or incorporate the FTDI on the board.

These could be excellent All-in-one boards for tighly packed projects.
I will surely consider one for my project if it comes out in 328.

Also I wanted you to please clarify something. Does it work with Xbee 2.5? Someone above said that it does not. Is this true?

	by hads +1.5 \| September 9, 2009 at 6:40 PM 0
Yes, the Series 2/2.5/ZB/Zigbee modules are pin and power compatible with the Series 1/802.15.4 modules and will work fine in the FIO.

	by hads +1.5 \| September 9, 2009 at 6:47 PM 0
Great board. It would be really useful to have the XBee sleep pin and perhaps CTS brought out, even just a new revision with a connector as you did for the VIN/battery would be fantastic. Cheers!

	by ShigeruKobayashi +4.7 \| December 1, 2009 at 5:46 PM 0
Hi, Thank you very much for your suggestion. Do you mean pin #9 and #12? Best, Shigeru

	by galaxip +1.3 \| November 6, 2009 at 9:31 AM 0
I am using Funnel I/O remixed, which is an awesome revision of this board. The remixed can be easily programmed using the breakout board for FT232RL USB to Serial found here on SparkFun. https://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=718 It looks to me that this version FIO can probably be programmed via that breakout also, using gnd, 3v3, rxi, txo, and rst pins.

	by ShigeruKobayashi +4.7 \| December 1, 2009 at 5:32 PM 0
Hi, Yes you can program a FIO board using a FTDI Basic Breakout (3.3V) like this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25323104@N00/3214686056/

	by davev +4.2 \| November 6, 2009 at 12:46 AM 0
This seems obvious now, but if you are having trouble programming the board in a wired configuration i.e: avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding make sure you take the Xbee out of the socket first!

60400

| January 5, 2010 at 6:10 PM

I was reading the setup instructions at http://funnel.cc/Hardware/FIO?userlang=en and at the end of the page it says we have to solder a jumper on the FIO board and another one on the XBee Xplorer USB board. Why is that?

Will it make the XBee Xplorer only work with the FIO if I do that? Would it work without soldering these jumpers, I mean... is it necessary?

There's not much explanation in the funnel website and I would like to know what is that for.

Thanks!