Espressif Category - Page 65 of 94 - CNX Software

March 12, 2020July 31, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

$5 Sinilink WiFI USB Power Switch Works with Tasmota Firmware, Supports up to 20V/5A

Late last year, ITEAD launched Sonoff Micro WiFi USB switch that allows you to turn on and off USB powered devices over WiFi using eWelink app for Android or iOS. It integrates with Amazon Alexas and Google Home, and does the job, but people who like to use the open-source Tasmota firmware will be disappointed to learn it’s not based on ESP8266 processor hence not compatible. Luckily, there’s another option: Sinilink WiFi USB switch (aka XY-WFUSB) based on ESP8266 WiFi SoC, and supporting up to 20V/5A according to the manufacturer. It is currently sold for under $5 including shipping on Aliexpress. Sinilink XY-WFUSB specifications: WiSoC – Espressif ESP8266 processor with 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 USB Input – USB type-A female port supporting 3.5V to 20V up to 5A (100 Watts max) USB Output – USB type-A male port up to 100W Misc On/off button – Pressing 5 seconds also change the […]

March 11, 2020September 2, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Meshtastic Mesh Networking Project Combines ESP32, LoRa and GPS Radio

Meshtastic is a project using off-the-shelf, inexpensive ESP32-based hardware with GPS & LoRa connectivity to create mesh networks helping hikers. skiers, paragliders, or people exercising other outdoor activities communicate short messages such as their GPS location. This allows each member of a private mesh network to see the location and distance of all other members and read/or any text messages sent to a group chat. No phone is required unless you have an ESP32 LoRa board without GPS in which case it would get the GPS coordinates from your phone over Bluetooth. A phone is also needed to send a message. The project currently works on three different boards TTGO T-Beam, TTGO LORA32 and Heltec LoRa 32. The T-Beam is recommended as it sells for around $26 plus shipping and features a 18650 battery holder so you can source the battery easily locally. Just make sure to purchase the right […]

March 5, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

$55 Watchy Smartwatch Combines ESP32 WiFi & Bluetooth SoC with E-ink Display

SQFMI has designed a (mostly) open-source hardware smartwatch based on an ESP32-S wireless module for WiFI and Bluetooth connectivity, and equipped with an E-ink display of 200×200 resolution. Watchy also comes with a BMA423 accelerometer, four buttons, a DS3231 real-time clock, and a vibration motor. The watch should last around 2 weeks on a charge. I mentioned the watch is “mostly” open source hardware because while the GERBER files, bill of materials (BoM) and the PDF schematics have been released on Github, the KiCAD schematics and PCB layout files have not so far. That still means you can understand the design, repair the design, or even make your own, but if you intended in modifying the design, you’d have some more work to do. Tom Fleet, writing for Hackster.io, does go through different sections of the schematics and explain what they do. One the software side, the watch can be […]

March 4, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

ESP32-S2-Kaluga-1 “Multimedia” Development Board Comes with Touchscreen Display & Camera

ESP32-S2 secure WiFi processor based on Xtensa LX7 core was first unveiled in May 2019, before the datasheet was released, and the first development boards were showcased in September. The Coronavirus outbreak slowed down progress, but the company has now announced the start of mass production for ESP32-S2 SoC, ESP32-S2-WROVER & ESP32-S2-WROOM modules, and ESP32-S2-Saola-1 development board. So that means we should soon be able to buy any of those. Apart from improved security, ESP32-S2 chip also provides a USB OTG interface and interfaces for HMI (Human Machine Interface) solutions thanks to LCD & camera interfaces. So that’s probably why the company has developed ESP-S2 Kaluga-1 board with an LCD touchscreen display, touch panel, support for camera image acquisition, audio playback, and more. We do not have the full specifications at this stage, but here are some of the highlights of the board: LCD interfaces – SPI interface or 8-/16-/24-bit […]

February 21, 2020February 21, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Barracuda App Server for ESP32 Let You Easily Develop Lua Apps via Your Web Browser

We covered Real Time Logic’s open-source lightweight Minnow Server for microcontrollers last year, and now the company has released another project: Barracuda App Server for ESP32. This project is more complex and requires an ESP32 board with PSRAM to run such as boards based on ESP32-WROVER module with 4 to 8MB PSRAM. The Barracuda App server (BAS) comes with a Lua VM, and in complement with the LSP App Manager that facilitates active development on the ESP32 by providing a web interface. The Barracuda App Server runs on top of FreeRTOS real-time operating system part of Espressif free ESP-IDF development environment. The company provides instructions to build BAS from source, as well as the LSP (Lua Server Pages ) App Manager that links to the binary-only BAS library. The Linux version of the ESP-IDF is recommended, so in Windows, you should install the “Windows Subsystem for Linux” first. The source […]

February 16, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

How to Improve Productivity with an ESP8266 Light Controller & Andon Manufacturing System

ANAVI Light controller was launched in 2018, and I had the chance to review a sample and wrote a guide showing how to use an ESP8266 board to control an LED strip using Arduino code, MQTT protocol, and HTML5 code. It’s a fun toy for people using it at home, but Paul Cancouët – working for Wing company offering “Logistics as a Service” solutions – added several ANAVI Light controllers to their packing warehouse. You can see the lights on the left side of the packing stations. Those are pretty, but what are they for? The lights help to improve productivity using an Andon system usually found in factories, but in this case, used for packing. Andon – meaning paper lantern in Japanese – refers to a system to notify management, maintenance, and other workers of a quality or process problem with the alert either activated automatically or manually by […]

February 14, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 33 Comments

CNX Software is 10 Years Old – Top 10 Posts of the Last Decade

Around 10 years ago, I decided it might be a good idea to have an online presence. At the time, I just thought I would write from time to time, and I had no idea it would eventually become my main activity. My very first post was on February 14, 2010 about software development tools such as CVS and Bugzilla. That means today is the 10th anniversary of CNX Software website! So I thought it might be fun to look at the most popular posts of the last ten years. I only installed Google Analytics sometimes in 2011, but it should not affect the results since I did not have many readers at the time, and the post that really started to bring more visitors, and made me switch from a $1 monthly hosting plan to a VPS, was “74 USD AllWinner A10 Android 4.0 Mini PC” published in May […]

February 12, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

ESP32 JTAG Debugging can be done through a MicroSD Card Socket

Found in most microcontrollers and processors, JTAG is an industry standard for verifying designs and testing printed circuit boards after manufacture, and that is also often used for low-level debugging or reverse-engineering. Espressif ESP32 also has a JTAG interface, but interestingly it’s shared with the SD card interface, and in ESP32 LyRaT audio development board where both MicroSD card slot and JTAG header are present selection is made by jumpers. The extract from ESP32 LyRaT schematics above shows IO’s 12, 13, 14 and 15 can present on the SD card and 4-pin JTAG header. Some boards may not come with a JTAG header but may feature a MicroSD card slot, but you don’t have to solder wires to the board to access JTAG, and instead, you could simply use a custom MicroSD card adapter to insert into the MicroSD card socket of the board and access JTAG as explained by […]