Arduino Yún - Wi-Fi and Ethernet with it

The other day the Italian company presented and launched sales of a new model in the family of its devices - Arduino Yún . The main highlight was what many Arduino fans have been waiting for a long time - built-in networking capabilities. Two network interfaces were immediately added to the board - Wi-Fi and Ethernet.

The board itself is based on Arduino Leonardo and is controlled by a combination of ATMega32u4 microcontroller and Atheros AR9331 SoC running Linino (Yún's Linux), a customized version of OpenWRT.

Interprocess communication

Yún's Linux and Arduino communicate via the Bridge library, which allows Arduino sketches to send commands to Linux. The processors themselves are connected by a serial interface, that is, ATMega32u4 works with Yún's Linux via the command line interface (CLI). It is also possible to install and run your Linux application using Bridge.

')
Another interesting feature is the ability to fill Arduino sketches via WiFi interface through SoC AR9331. With the presence of Arduino Yún on the same network as the computer, the board is automatically defined in the Arduino IDE (a new version of IDE has been released for this). The sketch will be transferred to AR9331 and Yún's Linux will produce AVR microcontroller firmware via SPI, acting as AVR ISP programmer.

Networking opportunities

Access to the network is realized by two separate interfaces:

• 10/100 Mbit / s Fast Ethernet
• IEEE 802.11 b / g / n 2.4GHz WiFi supporting WEP, WPA and WPA2

The WiFi interface can also work in the access point mode. In the access point mode, other WiFi devices can connect directly to the Arduino Yún, however, unfortunately, in this mode, internet connection is not possible, despite the presence of another network interface.
To simplify the work with popular Internet services, a partnership was made with Temboo and the addition of the library of the same name in the Arduino SDK. This resource simplifies access to hundreds of popular web services acting as a proxy.

Nutrition

Arduino Yún can be powered from:

1. micro usb
2. Vin pins
3. optional Power Over Ethernet (POE) module

Power supply through Vin pins can be carried out only by applying 5V, because unlike other popular Arduino boards, there is no voltage stabilizer on Yún.

Linux

The operating system on the SoC Atheros AR9331 uses the OpenWRT distribution of Linino. 16MB of flash-memory contains a Linux image, a full python and a package manager. 64MB DDR2 should allow to perform resource-intensive tasks, such as launching a web server or broadcasting video from a webcam. If necessary, the built-in 16MB of memory can be expanded by using an SD card or USB Flash. To do this, you just need to create the folder arduino in the root of the card or flash drive and it will be automatically detected upon connection.

USB host

Arduino Yún has a USB port connected to the SoC AR9331. Various peripherals can be connected to it: webcams, data storage devices, various input devices, other devices, drivers for which are present in Linino. It is also possible to install drivers for specific devices. This USB port is not directly accessible from Arduino sketches.

Price

69 $ / 52 €

Small presentation

Conclusion

The device should first of all be liked by Arduino fans. And even despite pretty serious competitors (Raspberry Pi, virt2real) I think Arduino Yún will succeed.

Links

1. Arduino Yún
2. It's time to enjoy the Arduino Yún: now available for purchase!
3. Let's explore Arduino Yún's unique features - Hardware review