Exen Proto Arduino Compatible Board is based on Microchip SAMD21 MCU (Crowdfunding)

Nerdonic launched Exen Mini last year as the world’s smallest 32-bit Arduino compatible board, and getting the smallest board possible is very good for some projects, but so not much for other as Exen Mini is limited to just 8 I/O pins. So the company made another larger board called Exen Proto based on the same Microchip SAMD21 Cortex M0+ microcontroller, but offering more I/Os. Exen Proto specifications with difference against Exen Mini highlighted in bold: MCU – Microchip SAMD21 Cortex M0+ MCU @ 48 MHz with 256KB flash, 32KB SRAM I/Os via 2x 12-pin 2.54mm pitch headers Up to 20x digital I/O Up to 19x PWM Up to 11x analog (ADC) up to 12-bit resolution 2x UART Up to 5x I2C 1x reset Limits – 3.3V, 7mA USB – 1x micro USB port Programming – Via micro USB port or SWD header Misc – Power LED, user LED, button […]

TS80 USB type-C Soldering Iron Up for Sale for $79.99

TS100 digital programmable soldering iron has been popular in recent years due to its compact size, open source STM32 firmware, fast heating, and it does the job. Another advantage is that the soldering can be powered by a standard 19V laptop power supply. As noted in a post about a separate soldering pen board with audio jack, the company behind TS100 has been working on a new model called TS80 powered via USB type C port, lighter & more compact, and supporting soldering tips that connect through a typical 3.5mm audio jack. The good news is that TS80 is now available for $89.99 on Sainsmart under the ToolPAC brand. Use TS80 coupon for $10 discount. [Update: TS80 is now sold on Banggood for $72.99 shipped] TS80 SUB type-C soldering iron specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32F103T8 Arm Cortex-M3 MCU @ 72 MHz with 20KB SRAM, 64KB or 128KB flash Temperature Range […]

Wavlink AC600 Waterproof WiFi Repeater & Router Claims up to 2 km Range

Wavlink AC600 Waterproof WiFi Repeater

WiFi is used indoors in most cases, but if you are a service provider, or own property with a park or beach, you may want to extend your WiFi coverage outdoors. The only problem is that more routers are not designed to be placed outdoors, and it’s not always easy to protect them from raining, humidity or even sunlight. So ideally in those case, you’d want a weatherproof / waterproof WiFi repeater or touter, and one of those is Wavlink AC600 dual band AC repeater / router which I first found on Banggood for $69.99.Wavlink WL-WN570HA1 AC600 router specifications: Connectivity WiFI Dual band 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac WiFi up to ~600 Mbps:  150Mbps @ 2.4 GHz, 433Mbps @ 5 Ghz Encryption mode – WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK Transmission distance – 2km Max Functions – WDS & WPS (No VPN) “Up to 1000 mW of power and enhanced receiver design” Ethernet – Waterproof 10/100Mbps Ethernet port (RJ45) Misc – 3x LEDs for signal strength indication Power Supply – […]

ClearFog GT 8K is a High-End Networking SBC Powered by Marvell ARMADA A8040 Processor

A few years ago, SolidRun launched ClearFog Pro and Base router boards based on Marvell ARMADA 388 Armv7 (32-bit) processor, and about a year later, the company introduced MACCHIATObin networking board powered by a more powerful Marvell ARMADA 8040 quad core Cortex A72 processor. The company has now given an upgraded to its ClearFog family with ClearFog GT 8K networking board powered on the same ARMADA A8040 processor as on the community board, and offering support for up to 16GB RAM, 6 network interfaces including one 10GbE SFP+ cage , and three mPCIe slots. ClearFog GT 8K specifications: SoC – Marvell ARMADA A8040 quad-core Cortex A72 processor up to 2GHz (commercial), up to 1.6 GHz (industrial) Memory – DIMM slot for up to 16GB DDR4 Storage – Up to 128GB eMMC flash, 64 Mbit SPI flash, micro SD slot, M.2 SSD via optional M.2 mPCIe adapter Connectivity 4x 1GbE switched LAN […]

Want Long WiFi Range? This $10 Directional Antenna Should Help

A typical WiFi router range is limited to around 50 meters, and even less in a building with walls and competing WiFi routers. But it’s also possible to use WiFi for longer range communication, and for example, CNLohr managed to get an ESP8266 module answering ping requests over 4km away with a powerful antenna that is supposed to allow for up to 20km range and costs around $80 (NB-2G18 model). But if you’re budget is more limited, Banggood has started to sell a “10dB directional antenna” for $9.84 shipped. It is said to be for TTGO ESP32 board, but I don’t see why if would not work with other WIFI boards with a u.FL or SMA connector. Specifications listed for the antenna: Frequency – 2400~2500MHz S.W.R.: <=1.5 Antenna Gain – 10dbi Radiation – Directional antenna Polarization – Linear Impedance – 50 Ohm Wire distance – 1m Connector: IPEX The main cable features an SMA […]

Banana Pi BPI-P2 Zero Board Combines PoE, Camera Interface, and Allwinner H2+ Processor

Banana Pi BPI-P2 Zero

Allwinner H2+ quad core Cortex A7 processor has enabled some of the cheapest Arm Linux boards on the market with products such as NanoPi Duo or Orange Pi Zero with the latter now selling for about $9 and up. SinoVoIP also had their own inexpensive – and Raspberry Pi Zero compatible – Allwinner H2+ board with Banana Pi M2 Zero, and the company has now been working on another model dubbed BPI-P2 Zero which includes support for PoE (Power-over-Ethernet) as well as a CSI camera interface. Banana Pi BPI-P2 Zero specifications: SoC – Allwinner H2+ quad core Arm Cortex A7 processor with Mali-400MP GPU. System Memory – 512MB DDR3 SDRAM. Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, micro SD card slot Video Output – mini HDMI port Connectivity 10/100M Ethernet with PoE support WiFi & Bluetooth via AP6212 module Camera I/F – CSI camera interface USB – 1x USB OTG port Expansion […]

Lanner NVA-3000 Machine Vision Computer is Equipped with 8 PoE+ Ports

Lanner Electronics, a company headquartered in Taiwan, and specializing in   network appliances and rugged industrial computers, has recently introduced NVA-3000 embedded computer powered by Intel Pentium N4200 or Atom x7-E3950 “Apollo Lake” processor, and targeting video surveillance & machine vision applications with 8 PoE+ ports. Lanner NVA-3000 specifications: SoC Model NVA-3000A – Intel Pentium N4200 quad core Apollo Lake processor @ 1.10 / 2.50 Hz with 18 EU Intel HD graphics 505; 6W TDP Model NVA-3000B – Intel Atom x7-E3950 quad core Apollo Lake processor @ 1.60 / 2.00 GHz with 18 EU Intel HD graphics 505; 12W TDP System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 2400MHz via 1x SO-DIMM slot Storage 32Mbit SPI Flash for BIOS, 2x SATA ports, 1x 3.5″ SATA/SSD drive bay, eMMC flash Model NVA-3000A – 8GB capacity Model NVA-3000B – 64GB capacity Network Connectivity Ethernet controller – Intel I210IT, I210IS, Marvell 88E6390 Ethernet Switch, 88E1512 PHY 2x […]

GAPUINO GAP8 is a $229 RISC-V MCU Developer Kit for A.I. Applications

GAPuino Board

GreenWaves GAP8 is a low power RISC-V “MCU class” processor with eight compute cores optimized for artificial intelligence applications, and its main selling point is the ability to do tasks like computer vision or audio processing at very low power, even good enough to run on batteries. When we first covered GAP8 RISC-V processor at the beginning of the year, the company also mentioned a development kit comprised of GAPDUINO Arduino compatible board, a sensor board, and a QVGA camera module to experiment with the solution.  The board and development kit are now easier to purchase as the devkit is sold on SeeedStudio for $229. GAPuino board specifications: SoC – GAP8 IoT Application Processor with 8x RISC-V  compute cores, 1x RISC-V fabric controller core delivering up to 200 MOPS at 1mW and  >8 GOPS at a few tens of mW Memory / Storage –  HyperBus combo DRAM/Flash with 512 Mbit […]

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