I just released the latest version of the chibiArduino code. There are two main changes:

1) The code was modified and tested to be compatible with the Arduino v1.0 IDE as well as previous versions.

2) The code has been moved to github.

I think that's about it. Sorry I didn't make the changes for the Arduino 1.0 compatibility sooner. It was actually pretty painless. The move to github is nice too. Its much nicer to have the repo online rather than having to juggle the version control on my local computer. 

Here's the project link:

Link to chibiArduino Project

I just released chibiArduino v0.54 which fixed the broken release known as v0.52. I had thought I tested v0.52 before releasing it into the wild, however an experimental configuration header file got into the release and was wreaking major havoc with the stack. I recommend anyone that downloaded v0.52 to not use it and switch over to v0.54 immediately. It is tested and working with Arduino v021 and v022 IDEs. If there are any questions, please feel free to email me or post on the forums.

Link to chibiArduino Project

I've just released the Chibi stack v0.91 and chibiArduino stack v0.51. For Chibi, I added the sleep mode function to the AT86RF212 boards. I also removed unneeded code that added a carriage return to the virtual COM port whenever it saw a newline. I found that this caused some strange errors and was actually not needed so I decided to strip it. The additional carriage return is automatically added in the chibi command line handler already. For both stacks, I fixed a bug where the radio required a delay when waking from sleep mode to allow the PLL to lock.

But probably the main feature I introduced in this release is the support for promiscuous mode. Being able to support promiscuous mode opens the door to an extremely powerful feature where you can turn the stack and hardware into an 802.15.4 packet sniffer. When used in conjunction with a protocol analyzer like Wireshark, it becomes an extremely powerful tool for protocol stack and software development, debugging, and security research. I'll be talking more about this in the next post. 

The chibiArduino Datasheet was also updated to include a Troubleshooting section and a matrix table for setting the power jumpers and switches on the Freakduino.

Also, the chibiArduino HOWTO guide was updated with the CHIBI_PROMISCUOUS parameter definition. 

Link to Chibi project page

Link to chibiArduino project page

Things have been pretty hectic last week with the intro of the Freakduino-Chibi boards and I was overwhelmed for a bit. However things are starting to stabilize and I've had the chance to put together an assembly tutorial for the boards. Actually, this tutorial is not only about how to assemble the kit portion of the board, but also how to set it up so that you can start to communicate wirelessly with it and make sure the board/s work.

I've also included a small tutorial towards the end that demonstrates the technique I use to solder through hole components. I debated about including it because there's a risk that people that try it out might burn their fingers. But I decided to include it because it's kind of a neat way to do through hole parts. Through hole parts can be a pain because you have to simultaneously hold the part in place, flip the board over (or tilt it at an angle), and then solder down the part. I always found this irritating so I tried different ways to get around this. When you're soldering through hole parts onto 50+ boards, you naturally start looking for shortcuts. Anyways, I like the technique that I'm showing because you don't need any type of fixture to hold a board or tilt it, and it lets me fix all the parts in place and then turn the board over and solder down everything in one go. Not sure if you'll like it as much as I do, but just thought I'd throw it out there in case someone finds it helpful. 

And in case you don't which board I'm referring to in this assembly tutorial, you can find the Freakduino-Chibi boards at the FreakLabs store :)

Hope you enjoy!