Suggestions and options for building a testbed and programming motes:

There are three options at this point:

• Ping Pong Table testbed:

We have a lantronix ETS32PR device, which serves 32 serial ports on a single IP address. You can connect to each port from your machine using a sockets. This is exactly as if serialForwarder were running 32 times on the lantronix box, so it is automatically compatible with all existing development tools.

From that device we have 32 RJ45 cables Running straight to 32 programming board. We of course first convert the RJ45 to a DB9 (standard serial) adapters using RJ45/DB9 converters that you can also buy from lantronix. The grand total for all this equipment is about $2000, plus the cost of 32 programming boards and a table, perhaps a total of more than $3000.

At this point, we have the programming boards attached to 51 pin flat flex ribbon cables, which we run through a ping pong table to attach to the motes above the table. Everything else is under the table. This is only for convenience, however, and you could put your mote on the programming board directly.

The cables can be bought at meritec.com, but they are about $40 a piece and have a 4-6 week lead time. These cables add about $1200 to the cost of your testbed.

• Single-port lantronix server:

Philip Buonadonna [pbuonado@intel-research.net] has built a serial-programming/debugging board that gives you access to each mote via IP. It is basically a board that merges the functionality of the Atmega AVR programming device and a lantronix single serial port server, which serves a serial port over IP. The advantages over the testbed above:

• you don’t need to buy programming boards because this board interfaces directly with the mote
• you don’t need 51 pin connectors because the interface already has a flat ribbon cable
• you can distribute your motes anywhere that you have an ethernet jack (they are not confined to be in one place, as in the ping-pong table)
• the form factor of the board fits all known sensor boards, allowing you to program while the sensor board is attached
• reprogramming is extremely reliable because it uses the Atmel reprogrammer

These have been produced in large quantity, although are not available for resale anywhere, yet (probably will be soon). They cost about $129 each. You could ask phil for the schematics and parts list and have them made or just make them yourself (about 10 minutes of soldering for each one)

• USB programming board:

Robert Szewczyk [szewczyk@cs.berkeley.edu] has built a USB programming board. The advantages are:

• you don’t need 51 pin connectors
• the board slides between two other boards, so it is compatible with all known sensor boards
• you don’t need network access
• you can program over this, but only by using network re-programming over the serial lines

Because these are USB, you can daisy-chain programming boards onto your PC. This would allow you to program and transmit receiver data. They cost on the order of $25, but have not been produced in mass and are not available for resale anywhere (although crossbow has the schematics already and may be willing to produce them upon request). You could also ask rob for the schematics and have somebody produce them for you.

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