Nanode – a low cost, internet connected Arduino board
Back in August 2010, an Electronics Engineer from the UK called Ken Boak wrote that he had built a web connected Arduino for £12 and later shared the schematic.
These posts became the basis of a whole new product he would create which is known as the “Nanode”. Nanode is short for “Network Application Node” and is an open source, low cost Arduino board with built in Ethernet courtesy of the Microchip ENC28J60 chip. Over 1000 Nanode’s have been sold in the past few months.
The Nanode consists of a standard Arduino circuit with an ATMega328 IC, 16Mhz crystal and supporting circuitry, a Microchip ENC28J60, 25Mhz crystal, Magjack, supporting circuitry and a 74HC125 IC to increase the 3.3v levels coming from the ENC28J60 to the 5v levels used by the ATMega328.
The Nanode is fully compatible with the Arduino and fully supports both the Arduino software and expansion boards, which are called “shields”. It also supports memory expansion using SPI or I2C devices, a handy port for connection of the RFM12B wireless RF modules, a serial bus for interconnecting multiple Nanodes on a wired network and is powered by way of a serial programming header, USB or through a standard DC transformer using the on-board 7805 voltage regulator.
Pictured below are my two completed Nanode’s (one of the original green boards and one of the newer Red boards and an un-built kit).
The Nanode is available as a build yourself kit for around £20 from the following retailers:
- Ken Boak directly – contact Ken by email: ken [dot] boak [at] gmail [dot] com or on Twitter.
- Earthshine Electronics in the UK
- SKPang in the UK
- Wicked Devices in the US
As the Nanode is ideal for reading data from sensors and uploading it onto the internet, a site dedicated to that task, Pachube are offering a free upgrade to their Pro tier for Nanode users.
Here are some useful links relating to the Nanode:
- My Nanode Useful Links/Information page
- The Nanode web site
- The Nanode Wiki – where lots of useful information can be found.
- The build guide for the Nanode – takes around an hour.
- Ken’s Blog
- The Nanode schematics/boards on SolderPad
- The Nanode schematics/boards on Thingiverse
- Andrew Lindsay’s EtherShield Library can be used to utilise Ethernet on the Nanode and contains a number of example sketches in the examples directory of the distribution. He also has some useful information on his blog and can often be found talking Nanode on Twitter.
On the back of the success of the “Nanode 5″, Ken has recently been working on two new Nanode boards which are scheduled for general availability at the end of the year:
- The Nanode RF
- The Wi-Node