Elsofgel Launches Dual-Port PIC32MX-Powered ARSHXNS Arduino Ethernet Shield
Clever design incorporates a managed L2 switch, but there's no backwards compatibility for Wiznet-based programs.
Canadian electronics enthusiast Elsofgel has launched an upgraded Ethernet Shield for Arduino and compatible microcontrollers, offering two Ethernet ports rather than the usual one.
"This Ethernet Shield is powered by a PIC32MX controller with an L2 three port network switch and a microSD connector," Elsofgel explains of the ARSHXNS design, which is an upgraded revision of the earlier single-port ARSHXIP Ethernet Shield. "This Ethernet Shield is NOT compatible with the Arduino Ethernet Library for Wiznet chips."
That's not the only caveat to come with Elsofgel's creation, either. "While the hardware design is public," the documentation notes, "the firmware on the PIC32MX controller is not. The PIC32MX on this board cannot run user firmware."
Presuming that's not a blocking feature, the low-cost ARSHXNS includes the two Ethernet ports along with 22 additional general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins accessible via the SPI bus, 106kB of send and receive buffer memory, 16 independent multi-subnet sockets, and a KSZ8863RLL three-port L2 managed network switch on-board.
The board is now available for $28 from Elsofgel's Tindie store, a $6 premium over the original single-port design; hardware files and examples, though not yet a promised user guide, can be found on Elsofgel's GitHub repository under an unspecified license.
