$59 Digitstump DigiX is an Arduino Due Compatible Board with Wi-Fi and Mesh Networking

The DigiX, by Digistump, is hobbyist board with an Atmel SAM3 Cortex M3 MCU @ 84 MHz, embedded low power Wi-Fi (b/g/n) and mesh networking,audio output, USB on the go support, and the company claims it is 100% compatible with anything that works with the Arduino Due, with some extra I/Os for a total of 99 I/O pins.

DigiX

The hardware specifications go as follows:

  • MCU – Atmel AT91SAM3X8E 32-bit ARM Cortex M3 Processor @ 84 Mhz with 96KB SRAM, 512KB Flash
  • Connectivity
    • On-board 802.11b/g/n WiFi Module (FCC/CE Approved)
    • On-board nRF24L01+ wireless module (removable) – 2.4Ghz band
  • 99 I/O Pins including 12 PWM, 12 Analog Input, 2 Analog Output (DAC), CAN bus, 4x UARTs, 2x I2C, SPI, JTAG, DMA and more.
  • Audio – 3.5mm stereo jack
  • USB – micro USB OTG port
  • Misc – On-board RTC, user LED
  • Power Supply – 3.3V, 3.4-5.5V (LiPo Ready), 5V, or 6-16V input (on-board buck regulator)
  • (Max?) Power Consumption – 1A @ 3.3V and 1A @ 5V Available (when powered at 5V+)

They did not disclose the Wi-Fi module model, but it embeds all TCP/IP stack, consumes an average of 5ma in active mode, and less than 2uA in sleep mode, so the Wi-Fi processor in the module looks similar to TI SimpleLink CC3000 [Update: The Wi-Fi module is currently from USR, more details are available in the comments section]. You can just use Arduino 1.0.5 IDE for development, load one of the sketches for Arduino Due, and it should work out of the box. The board will be compatible with several IoT cloud services such as Xively (formerly Pachube), ThingsSpeak, and Temboo.

For an easy comparison, Digitstump setup a table between DigiX and products for similar applications. The UDOO is a bit in a different league, and its $109 version already includes Wi-Fi, but overall the comparison is very interesting.

DigiX vs Arduino Due vs Arduino Yun vs Spark Core vs UDOO
DigiX vs Arduino Due vs Arduino Yun vs Spark Core vs UDOO

The board is ready-production, but they launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring the cost down. There are now just 2 pledges possible for this project:

  • $59 DigiX board to be delivered in September 2013
  • $149 DigiX board to be delivered in July 2013, with a signature and an “exclusive” add-on.

You can watch the video below for an overview of the board, and see some examples such as an audio player.

On a separate, yet somewhat related, note, if you’re interested in adding Wi-Fi + 2x Ethernet to your Arduino board, you may want to have a look at URUK Wi-Fi Router Module.

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16 Replies to “$59 Digitstump DigiX is an Arduino Due Compatible Board with Wi-Fi and Mesh Networking”

  1. If I only had time to play with these kind of things…

    Didn’t even had time to transform my cubie in a squeezbox server.

  2. @deets
    Yes, there are cheaper options to add WiFi to an Arduino Due, like this $44 module, but still it’s more than DigiX when including Arduino Due price. If you already have an Arduino Due, it’s another story.

  3. @cnxsoft
    First of all – thanks for the write up!
    We are actually using a module from USR – similar to the USR-WIFI232G – though we are taking a last minute look at a completely custom module depending on how the funding goes.

    We did not use the CC3000 because of the rather high 92ma consumption in Active RX mode.

    I’m reworking our layout right now to see if I can’t fit a microSD and EEPROM on the board as well!

    Thanks Again,
    Erik

  4. Actually probably not AR4100. It has ATSAM4S inside. It would not need the RF shielding if it was using AR4100 and has additional matching circuitry as well. So probably something else, maybe marvell?

  5. @deets
    I found the FCC photos. It is SAM4S. I can’t read the markings on the wifi chip, probably some USB wifi.

    What software is running on the 4S? Like LWIP but where do they get the 802.11 support. I’ve looked all over for open source support for 802.11 on something like a 4S without any luck finding it.

  6. Most wifi soc are proprietary firmware & api under NDA but these modules are getting cheap enough that it isn’t a big deal.

  7. @cnxsoft
    I followed the link to the communitysqueeze but it is based on fedora. So I prefer to buid one on my own with cubian or alarm. Then I can build it completely to my taste.

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