Woodoonics' FuseRF Is the "Fusion" of Arduino-Compatible Dev Board and nRF24L01+ Radio Chip

Finnish maker firm Woodoonics has launched a development dongle which aims to combine the best of the Arduino platform with the Nordic Semiconductor nRF24L01+: the FuseRF.

"This project is adding wireless and HID [Human Interface Device] capabilities to [the] Arduino [platform]," Woodoonics explains of its latest design. "The board consists of a [Microchip] ATmega32u4 (like [the] Arduino Micro and Leonardo) together with the [Nordic Semi] nRF24L01+, RF circuitry, PCB antenna and a full size USB 2.0 male connector."

That somewhat-unusual form factor gives the FuseRF the ability to operate while plugged into any USB port, either for power alone or for data transfer — without a cable. DEspite its small form factor, though, the board includes two rows of general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins in a breadford-friendly layout to provide access to eight digital and six dedicated analog input inputs, with a further five analog inputs shared with the digital pins.

"This is a fully Arduino compatible board with analog, digital and serial communication port markings on the top and bottom side," Woodoonics explains of the development board, which ships with the Arduino bootloader already installed. "You can use it as a standalone Arduino or as a wireless transmitter/receiver."

The company has released board schematics on GitHub under an unspecified license, along with a sample sketch that turns the FuseRF into a wireless echo device for testing. Assembled boards, meanwhile, can be purchased from the company's Tindie store for $70 — initially from a very limited early production run batch, but with more units on the way.