nRF52840 MDK Base Dock Adds AA Battery Holder, Grove Connectors

nRF52840 MDK Base Dock

Makerdiary nRF52840 Micro Development Kit (MDK) is a breadboard-friendly devkit for Nordic Semi nRF52840 multi-protocol wireless SoC that supports Bluetooth 5.0, Thread, IEEE 802.15.4, ANT, and 2.4GHz proprietary, and various popular frameworks or OS such as Arm Mbed OS, or the Zephyr Project. nRF52840 MDK Base Dock makes development just a little easier, by adding an AA battery holder, and four Grove connectors compatible with Seeed Studio’s Grove modules. nRF52840 MDK Base Dock specifications: Dual 2×18 Socket Headers compatible with nRF52832-MDK & nRF52840-MDK 4 Grove connectors with selectable UART/I2C/I2S/PDM/QDEC/SPI/ADC NFC tag-A PCB Antenna Power Power button with latching circuit AA battery holder Synchronous, Step-up Converter with VIN>VOUT Down Mode Operation 0.8V-to-4V Input Range 3.3V Output with Over-Current Protection Battery level sensing with 1:2 voltage divider on AIN2 Low power consumption: 5uA Shutdown Current; 145uA Idle Current Dimensions – 58mm x 54mm x 17mm The board also adds an NFC PCB […]

WeTek Air Hybrid 4K HDR Set-top Box Now Available for 119 Euros and Up

WeTek Air

We previously covered WeTek Air,  an upcoming Android TV set-top box taking DVB-T2/C, DVB-S2 or ATSC tuner cards and certified by Google. The company has now officially launched the device, and you can buy WeTek Air for 119.00 Euros without tuner or for 129.90 Euros with either a DVB-S2 or DVB-T2/C tuners. Just two caveats, only 400 pieces are available now, and they will only ship to Europe, although a worldwide launch is planned for the next batch. Here’s a reminder of the specifications: SoC –  Amlogic S905D quad core Arm processor System Memory – 2 GB DDR4 Storage – 16 GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60Hz with HDR-10 support Video codecs – H.265 & H.264 AVC up to 4K60Hz, H.264 MVC, MPEG-4 ASP, VC-1, AVS, MPEG-2, MPEG-1 up to 1080p60 Audio codecs – MP3, AAC, […]

iCatch V37 4K AI Camera Processor Features a Neural Processing Unit (NPU)

iCatch V37

Taiwan based iCatch Technology has recently announced iCatch V37 SoC for AI camera applications. The processor can capture 4Kp30 video thanks to the company’s 7th generation image signal processor (ISP) and H.264 high-performance encoder, and includes a neural processing unit (NPU) to enable features such as people detection. The V37 series includes V37A and V37M, where V37M has an embedded DRAM in the package to enable smaller form factor designs. iCatch V37 4K AI camera SoC key features: 32-bit RISC CPU Dual CIS Support HDR Combination 5-axis Electronic Image Stabilization Dewarping Engine Video Noise Reduction (MCTF) Rolling Shutter Compensation H.264 4Kp30 Video Encode Neural Processing Unit Security Engine USB 2.0, HDMI v1.4b, GMAC External WiFi/BT Support The SoC can be used to design products such as digital still camera (DSC), action camera, 360° VR Camera, digital video recorder (DVR), home security camera, or body worn camera. One example of use […]

SainSmart DS802 Review – A Dual Channel Virtual PC Oscilloscope

DS802 Oscilloscope Arduino

Hey Karl here. Today we’re going to look at the SainSmart DS802 Dual-channel oscilloscope. I have always wanted to have an oscilloscope and add it to my tools. When SainSmart asked to review the DS802, I was pretty excited. I can get my nerd on and troubleshoot all kinds of things. A couple weeks later it arrives and my anxiety kicks in. How the heck do I review an oscilloscope. I used an oscilloscope in high school in a class called principles of technology. But we never really went into much depth and only looked at the signals generated by a signal generator. I understand the basics. This is written from a perspective of a complete noob. SainSmart DS802 Specs Pulled directly from Sainsmarts website: Channels: 2 Analog channels Interface: USB 2.0 Output: 1k HZ amplitude 1.5V, 50% duty cycle square wave signal Maximum sampling rate: 80 MSps per channel […]

Google & Arduino Unveils the Arduino Science Kit Physics Lab

Arduino Science Kit Physics Lab

Google and Arduino have partnered together to developer and launch the Arduino Science Kit Physics Lab, the first official Arduino kit designed for middle school curriculum (ages 11 to 14). Based on Arduino WiFi MKR1010, the science kit will allow pupils to experiment with forces, motion, and conductivity, and log data with Google’s Science Journal “digital science notebook” app for Android. Arduino Science Kit Physics Lab kit content: Arduino MKR WiFi 1010 based on Microchip SAMD21 Cortex-M0+ MCU and Espressif Systems ESP32 WiSoC (WiFi + Bluetooth) Arduino Science Carrier Board 2x Silicone standoffs 1x Flat micro USB cable 1x Grove-compatible light sensor module 1x Grove-compatible temperature sensor module 1x Grove-compatible white LED module 3x Grove Cable 20cm – universal 4-pin connector 2x Double-ended cable: crocodile clip/banana plug (50 cm), 2x Double-ended cable crocodile clip/banana plug (20 cm) 1x Magnet 1x Hook-and-loop Velcro strap, 1x Hook-and-loop Velcro dot 2x PCB sticks, 1x […]

Smartphones in 2019 – Foldable Displays, Button-Free & Port-Free Experiences

Xiaomi Foldable Smartphone

In recent years, I’ve found smartphones releases mostly underwhelming with some incremental improvement in performance, better cameras, the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack, and in some case a notch appeared in the design for the camera, but nothing that radically changes the market. 2019 may be a different year, as smartphones with foldable displays will be launched, and some companies will introduce smartphone without any buttons, nor ports. Foldable Phones So far at least four companies have announced plans for foldable phones as Google is implementing foldables support in Android. We’ve already covered Samsung Infinity screen in the previous link, but there have been reports a new $1,5000 Motorala Razr phone is coming up with a foldable display, and a Royole FlexPai prototype was demonstrated at CES 2019 with a 7.8″ AMOLED display that folds in half and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor. The latter is actually the first […]

Intel RealSense Tracking Camera T265 is Designed for Autonomous Devices

Intel RealSense Tracking Camera T265

Intel has just launched another smart camera with RealSense Tracking Camera T265 powered by the company’s Myriad 2 VPU (Vision Processing Unit) also found in the first Neural Compute Stick, and designed for autonomous robots, drones, and augmented/virtual reality applications. The T265 camera is said to use proprietary visual inertial odometry simultaneous localization and mapping (V-SLAM) technology “delivering high-performance guidance and navigation”. Intel RealSense tracking camera T265 hardware specifications: VPU – Intel Movidius Myriad 2 vision processing unit with 12 VLIW 128-bit vector SHAVE processors optimized to run V‑SLAM at low power Cameras – 2x Omnivision OV9282 high-speed image sensors with Fisheye lenses for a combined 163±5° FOV; infrared cut filter Sensor – Bosch BMI055 6-axis IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) to measure rotation and acceleration of the device USB – 1x USB 3.1 Gen 1 Micro B port to transfer pose data, or pose + image data. Dimensions – 108 x 24.5 x 12.5 mm; 2x […]

$54 ZMI MF855 is Both a Power Bank and a Portable 4G Wireless Router

ZMI MF855 4G Router Power Bank

Tiny routers usually come with at least one USB port that allows you to connect a 3G or 4G cellular dongle, and since it’s often used on the go, or as a backup solution it makes sense to have a battery in the router as well, as was the case for Marstek MPR-N9 I covered way back in 2013. Xiaomi ZMI MF855 portable wireless router offers the same function but with an integrated 4G modem, a larger 7,800 mAh battery that can also be used to charge your other device. The router looks like a standard power bank from the outside. ZMI MF855 router key features: Cellular Connectivity 4G/3G and 2G networks Micro SIM card socket FDD-LTE bands – B1 1800 B3 2100 B7 2600 MHz TDD-LTE bands – B38 1900 B39 2300 B40 2500 B41 2600MHz WCDMA bands – B1 850 B2 900 B5 1900 B8 2100 MHz WiFi […]

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