Two tastes that taste great together: Arduino and Ethernet. But until now the only way to connect an Arduino to the Internet via a LAN was to add an Ethernet Shield. Wouldn't it be great if there was an Arduino-compatible board with on-board Ethernet? Better still, what if that board was based on the Freetronics Eleven and the Freetronics Ethernet Shield (with Power-over-Ethernet support!) but merged together into a single, integrated board that was 100% Arduino compatible and network-enabled?
This, folks, is what you've been waiting for.
The EtherTen is a 100% Arduino compatible board that can talk to the world. Do Twitter updates automatically, serve web pages, connect to web services, display sensor data online, and control devices using a web browser. The Freetronics EtherTen uses the same ATmega328P as the Duemilanove and the same Wiznet W5100 chip used by the official Arduino Ethernet Shield, so it's 100% compatible with the Ethernet library and sketches. Any project you would previously have built with an Arduino and an Ethernet shield stacked together, you can now do all in a single, integrated board.
We've even added a micro SD card slot so you can store web content on the card, or log data to it.
All the good things about the Eleven and the Ethernet Shield have been combined into this one device so please see those pages for all the specific details, but the highlights include:
- Gold-plated PCB.
- Top and bottom parts overlays.
- Top-spec ATmega328P MCU.
- Mini-USB connector: no more shorts against shields!
- D13 pin isolated with a MOSFET so you can use it as an input.
- Power-over-Ethernet support, both cheapie DIY or full 802.3af standards-compliant.
- Ethernet activity indicators on the PCB and the jack.
- 10/100base-T auto-selection.
- Fully compatible with standard Ethernet library.
- Reset management chip.
- Fixed SPI behavior on Ethernet chipset.
- Robust power filtering.
- Sexy rounded corners.
Note that just like the Freetronics Ethernet Shield with PoE support, the EtherTen provides a number of options for different Power over Ethernet. You can use the supplied jumpers and feed 7-12Vdc down the wire for cheap DIY version, or you can fit the Freetronics PoE Regulator 24V and feed a bit more voltage down the wire, or you can use the Freetronics PoE Regulator 802.3AF along with a proper commercial PoE injector or switch. It's up to you.
Resources