Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft), Author at CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

July 12, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Beginner friendly Arduino Plug and Make Kit features Arduino UNO R4 WiFi and Modulino I2C modules

Arduino has just launched a “Plug and Make” kit designed for beginners with an Arduino UNO R4 WiFi board, several “Modulino” modules, a “Modulino” base to neatly attach the UNO R4 and modules, and various cables, spacers, screws, and nuts. When thinking about Arduino projects, breadboards or even soldering may come to mind, but the new Arduino Plug and Make Kit does not require any of those. No breadboard, jumper wires, or soldering needed. Users can simply connect the modules to the Arduino board through Qwiic cables, neatly attach everything together on the provided base, and follow one of the seven projects complete with step-by-step instructions provided with the kit. The Arduino Plug and Make Kit content Arduino UNO R4 WiFi board 7x Modulino I2C nodes Modulino Knob* – Encoder for value adjustments Modulino Pixels* – 8x LC8822-2020 RGB LEDs Modulino Distance – STMicro VL53L4 Time-of-Flight (ToF) proximity sensor to […]

July 11, 2024July 12, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

High Torque Robotics Mini π is a bipedal robot powered by an Orange Pi 5 SBC

High Torque Robotics mini Pi bipedal robot

High Torque Robotics’ Mini π is a 54cm high bipedal robot that can walk and dance with two legs and leverages the Orange Pi 5 SBC’s features such as the 6 TOPS AI accelerator in the Rockchip RK3588S processor. The robot offers 12 degrees of freedom (DOF) and can run, jump, and even flip thanks to its twelve join motors that were developed by the company. The Mini π is designed for locomotion algorithm research and education and supports ZMP (zero moment point), MPC (Model Predictive Control), reinforcement learning locomotion control algorithms, and ROS SLAM navigation features. Mini π bipedal robot highlights: SBC – Orange Pi 5 RK3588S single board computer Controller – Custom-design “high-performance underlying controller” using 4x CAN FD communication DOF – 6 DoF per leg, or 12 in total Joint motors 8x HTDM-5047-36-NE with gear ratio: 36, 16Nm peak torque 4x HTDM-4438-32-NW with gear ratio: 32, […]

July 11, 2024September 2, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

LILYGO T3S3 E-Paper combines ESP32-S3 WiFi & BLE SoC with LoRa module, 2.13-inch e-Paper display

LILYGO T3S3 E-Paper is an ESP32-S3 WiFi and Bluetooth LE development board with a 2.13-inch e-Paper display and an SX1262 LoRa module that should make it suitable for off-grid messsaging even under sunlight. LILYGO has made some ESP32-S3 boards with an e-Paper display and some ESP32-S3 boards with a LoRa module, but unless I’m mistaken, the T3S3 E-Paper is the first board from LILYGO that combines ESP32-S3 SoC with e-Paper display and a LoRa module. It builds upon the earlier LILYGO T3S3 board with a 0.96-inch OLED. LILYGO T3S3 E-Paper specifications: ESP32-S3-WROOM-1U wireless module SoC – ESP32-S3FH4R2 dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller @ up to 240 MHz with 2.4 GHz 802.11n WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE connectivity Memory – 2MB PSRAM Storage – 4MB SPI flash IPEX antenna connector Storage – MicroSD card slot Display – 2.13-inch e-Paper display (DEPG0213BN) with 250×122 resolution; size: 48.55 x 23.70mm Wireless 2.4 GHz […]

July 10, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

DFI ASL9A2 COM Express Mini Type 10 module features Intel Atom x7000RE Amston Lake processor

DFI ASL9A2 COM Express Mini Type 10 Amston Lake module

DFI ASL9A2 is a COM Express Mini Type 10 module based on Intel Atom x7000RE Amston Lake processors which are pin-to-pin compatible with the Alder Lake-N Series processors and designed for the embedded market with a wider operating temperature range. The credit card-sized COM Express Mini module supports up to 16GB LPDDR5 memory, up to 128GB an eMMC flash, and exposes various interfaces such as 2.5GbE, PCIe Gen3, SATA 3.0, DDI and eDP/LVDS for dual display support, ten USB 3.2/2.0, and more. DFI ASL9A2 specifications: SoC (one or the other) Amston Lake Intel Atom x7211RE dual-core processor @ 1.0 to 3.2 GHz with 6MB cache, 16EU Intel UHD graphics; 6W TDP Intel Atom x7213RE dual-core processor @ 2.0 to 3.4 GHz with 6MB cache, 16EU Intel UHD graphics; 9W TDP Intel Atom x7433RE quad-core processor @ 1.5 to 3.4 GHz with 6MB cache, 32EU Intel UHD graphics; 9W TDP Intel […]

July 10, 2024July 10, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Microchip PIC64GX is a quad-core 64-bit RISC-V microprocessor for real-time processing

Microchip has introduced its first 64-bit RISC-V microprocessor family with the PIC64GX pin-to-pin compatible with the company’s PolarFire SoC FPGA devices and designed for edge designs for the industrial, automotive, communications, IoT, aerospace, and defense segments. The PIC6GX MPU supports asymmetric multiprocessing (AMP) to run Linux, real-time operating systems, and bare metal in a single processor cluster with secure boot capabilities. The company further claims the PIC64GX MPU is “the first RISC-V multi-core solution that is AMP capable for mixed-criticality systems”. The first member of the PIC64GX RISC-V family is the PIC64GX1000 microprocessor. Microchip PIC64GX1000 specifications: CPU Quad-core SiFive U54 64-bit five-stage, single-issue, in-order pipeline RISC-V (RV64GC) processor at up to 625 MHz with AMP and deterministic latencies, PMP and MMU units Single-core SiFive E51 64-bit RISC-V (RV64IMAC) monitor processor core at up to 625 MHZ with PMP unit Cache L1 memory subsystem with Single-Error Correct, Double-Error Detect (SECDED) Flexible […]

July 9, 2024July 9, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

Banana Pi BPI-R4-NIC-BE14 WiFi 7 module for BPI-R4 SBC launched for $74

The Banana Pi BPI-R4 was introduced last year as a WiFi 7 router board with two 10GbE SFP cages and four GbE ports based on MediaTek Filogic 880 SoC. The only issue is that WiFi 7 is implemented through a dual mini PCIe module that was not available until now. The good news is that the tri-band Banana Pi BPI-R4-NIC-BE14 WiFi 7 module for the Banana Pi BPI-R4 board can now be purchased for $73.69 on Aliexpress. It is based on MediaTek MT7995AV WiFi 7 chipset, MT7976CN dual-band (2.4GHz and 5 GHz) chipset, and MT7977IAN 6GHz chipset. Banana Pi BPI-R4-NIC-BE14 specifications: MediaTek MT7995AV WiFi 7 – IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be compliant 32-bit RISC-V MCU for Wi-Fi protocols and Wi-Fi offload Embedded SRAM and ROM UART interface with hardware flow control MediaTek MT7976CN dual-band 2.4GHz 2×2 MIMO and 5GHz 3×3 MIMO MediaTek MT7977IAN 6GHz 3×3 MIMO Bandwidth 2.4 GHz – 20 and […]

July 9, 2024July 9, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

QNAP unveils TS-432X and TS-632X Arm-based NAS with 10GbE networking, up to six SATA bays

QNAP has unveiled TS-432X 4-bay and TS-632X 6-bay Tower NAS systems that feature not only 2.5GbE ports but also one or two 10GbE SFP+ cages, as well as one PCIe Gen 3 x4 slot and are powered by an Annapurna Labs Alpine AL524 4-core 64-bit Arm processor. We had seen NAS with 10GbE networking before such as the QNAP HS-453DX and ASUSTOR FLASHSTOR, but those were powered by Intel processors. The new TS-432X and TS-632X NAS systems combine a 64-bit Arm processor and 10GbE networking in a way similar to the earlier QNAP TS-431X-2G-USARM powered by a dual-core 32-bit Arm CPU. QNAP TS-432X/TS-632X specifications: SoC – Annapurna Labs Alpine AL524 4-core 64-bit Arm processor @ up to 2.0 GHz System Memory – 4GB DDR4 (non-ECC), upgradeable up to 16GB DDR4 (ECC memory supported) via SO-DIMM socket Storage 512 MB flash with dual boot OS protection Drive bays TS-432X – […]

July 9, 2024July 10, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

WisGate Soho Pro RAK7267 LoRaWAN gateway supports LTE Cat 1 and WiFi 4 connectivity, solar battery kits

WisGate Soho Pro RAK7267 LoRaWAN gateway with solar battery kit

Designed for both indoor and outdoor deployments, RAKwireless’ WisGate Soho Pro RAK7267 is an 8-channel LoRaWAN gateway with LTE Cat 1 and WiFi 4 connectivity and support for 9V-36V DC input compatible with the company for solar battery kits. The LoRaWAN gateway is based on the MediaTek MT7628 MIPS processor with 256MB RAM and 32MB flash, runs a fork of OpenWrt with a dashboard for configuration, and integrates with WisDM cloud-based IoT management platform. WisGate Soho Pro RAK7267 specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT7628 MIPS processor at 580MHz System Memory – 256MB RAM Storage – 32MB NOR flash, microSD card socket LoRaWAN connectivity to sensors Semtech SX1303 LoRa Concentrator for up to 8 channels Frequencies 868 MHz – EU868/ IN865/ RU864 9150 MHz – US915/ AU915/ KR920/ AS923 Rx Sensitivity – At least -139 dBm Tx Power – Up to 27 dBm LoRaWAN v1.0.3 LoRa Frame filtering (node whitelisting) Buffering of […]