💬 Sensebender Gateway

[tbowmo]

@sundberg84

We are aiming for a similar setup as for the Sensebender Micro, that is Itead is handling the production and shipping, for us. So yes, they will be SMD assembled, where you have to solder in the connectors that you need.

[sundberg84]

@tbowmo - thanks and again great work!

[korttoma]

Can't wait to get my hands on one of these. Building a new network based on the RF69 and need a working Ethernet gateway.

[alexsh1]

@tbowmo please let us know when you are ready - I think this GW will be a hit. It is super small compare to mine. Though, mine is based on Mega 2560 + Ethernet shield

[tbowmo]

We are still waiting for price negotiations with itead.

So currently I don't have an eta of the device

[korttoma]

@tbowmo

Did you already try the W5100/RFM69 combo on the production samples?

[tbowmo]

@korttoma

A good question, I think that I have tried both at the same time.. At least I know, that the W5100 and rfm69 is working separately, and they are using separate hardware SPI ports, so they should also work combined.

[gonzalonal]

HI @tbowmo
I am developing a similar GW board with a different SAMD chip.
Just one silly question. Could you point me in the right direction regarding which files are the ones that need to be modified so as to tell the compiler that W5100 will be connected at SERCOM1 and RFM69 at SERCOM2 for example.
Thanks, regards.

[tbowmo]

Spi ports are controlled in variant.cpp / variant.h files in the mysensors GW board files.

[gonzalonal]

Sorry @tbowmo. I can't find those files in mysensors library. Are those files included or will be included with the release of your GW?

thanks

[tbowmo]

As said they are located in the board variant files. They are in their own repository.

Look here https://github.com/mysensors/ArduinoBoards

And here https://github.com/mysensors/ArduinoHwSAMD

The first is just an installation repository, it contains zipped files from the last one.

[Butti]

Any news on availability and pricing from itead?

[tbowmo]

Unfortunately not. I have asked itead studio for a price several times, but it seems that they only have one person who can do the calculations, and he is overloaded with tasks. I hope that we can have something very soon though.

[gloob]

This gateway will only run with ethernet and USB? Is there a plan to integrate an ESP for WLAN connection?

[tbowmo]

@gloob

ESP can be programmed via arduino studio directly, and so you don't need an extra application processor to run mysensors. That is why I dropped support for ESP early on in the project (I had it in there in the first drafts of the schematics)

[korttoma]

@tbowmo is there something we others can do to make itead studio handle your request faster? Mail them or something?

[tbowmo]

@korttoma

I don't think so, @hek has already pushed the person responsible for the calculations a couple of times via skype.. I do not know what is happening out there (one of the disadvantages of having manufacturers so far away, you can't just stop by to see what they are up to)

[alexsh1]

@tbowmo @hek Would you guys maybe willing to try any other company? There are multiple PCB manufacturers in Hong Kong. My personal experience with Itead is mixed. Their support is extremely poor - It looks like one person responsible for supporting multiple products. They are cheap, but struggling with fast expansion launching their own IOT products (Sonoff).

[tbowmo]

@alexsh1

we have looked at a couple of other manufacturers in China / Hong Kong area.. But found (back then) that Itead was the best solution, as they would handle manufacturing, stock, and shipment for us, and pay us a commission of the sale which makes it extremely easy for us to handle product launches

With the other manufacturers we had to buy 100/200 units, and handle stock / shipment ourselves, and with the limited time for the project (as most of us have families and daytime jobs to take care of, besides of bringing new products into the world), this is not a feasible solution..

My contact person at Itead, promised that she would get the quotation guy to answer me today. So let's see what happens

[TheoL]

I'm not sure. But I think I read somewhere that the manufacturers in china are closed due to holiday.... At least I think I read that on aliexpress.