Video Category - Page 3 of 329 - CNX Software

March 31, 2025March 31, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

SparkFun Air Quality PM1/PM2.5/PM10 Sensor features Bosch’s BMV080, the world’s smallest particulate matter sensor

SparkFun’s “Air Quality PM1/PM2.5/PM10 Sensor – BMV080 (Qwiic)” is breakout board for the Bosch Sensortec BMV080 particulate matter sensor which the German company claims is the world’s smallest and 450 times smaller in volume than any comparable device on the market. It’s summer in Thailand right now, and besides scorching temperatures of over 40°C during the day, it’s also smog season with high PM 2.5 values and frequent alerts not to exercise outdoors. We usually get the Air Quality Index (AQI) from apps like IQAir AirVisual, or people can install air quality monitors in fixed locations to get local readings. But the small size (4.4 x 3.0 x 20 mm³) of the Bosch BMV080 can enable PM2.5 monitoring in wearables or other small devices like the PurpleAir PIXEL USB dongle. SparkFun Air Quality PM1/PM2.5/PM10 Sensor – BMV080 (Qwiic) specifications: Sensor – Bosch Sensortec BMV080 PM Mass Concentration Range: 0 to […]

March 30, 2025March 31, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

Radxa Orion O6 Preview – Part 2: Debian 12 – What works, what doesn’t

I went through an unboxing and Debian 12 installation on the Radxa Orion O6 at the end of January, but decided to work on other reviews since software support still needed to be worked on. Since then, there’s been some work done, but no new image released. After waiting for almost two months, I’ve decided to carry on with the review by testing the Debian 12 image in a way similar to the Rock 5B SBC preview I did with Debian 11 in 2022 to check what works and what doesn’t on the Orion O6 at the time of the review. That will involve testing all ports, including 5GbE networking and the PCIe slot with an (old) NVIDIA graphics card, running some benchmarks, and also trying the Debian 12 image with a self-built Linux 6.13 kernel using ACPI instead of UEFI for the default image. Orion O6 SBC benchmarks on […]

March 29, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

SATURN NITRO – A Microchip PIC32MK development board with Arduino Nano form factor

While Microchip regularly releases PIC32 microcontrollers and evaluation kits, we don’t see that many PIC32 development boards from third parties. The SATURN NITRO is an exception, and the Arduino Nano-inspired development board is equipped with a 120 MHz PIC32MK general-purpose and motor control 32-bit MIPS microcontroller with 256KB SRAM, 1024KB flash, and 4KB EEPROM. The board closely follows the design of the official Arduino Nano board and can be seen as a beefed-up version with a much more powerful microcontroller delivering 198 DMIPS compared to the Microchip ATmega328P 8-bit microcontroller @ 16 MHz with just 2KB SRAM, 32 KB flash, and 1KB EEPROM, and a less capable I/Os. SATURN NITRO specifications: MCU – Microchip PIC32MK1024MCM064 Core – MIPS32 microAptiv MCU core @ 120 MHz with FPU; up to 198 DMIPS Memory – 256 KB SRAM Storage – 1MB flash, 4KB EEPROM USB – 1x Micro USB OTG port also used […]

March 22, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

M5Stack StamPLC – An ESP32-S3-based PLC with opto-isolated inputs, relay ouputs, RS485, CAN Bus, and more

“M5Stamp PLC Controller with M5StampS3” or just “M5Stack StamPLC” is a programmable logic controller (PLC) based on the StampS3A ESP32-S3 wireless module and offering 8 opto-isolated digital inputs, 4 relay outputs supporting both AC and DC loads, plus RS485 and CAN Bus interfaces. The DIN Rail IoT controller also features a 1.14-inch color display, a RESET/BOOT button, 3 user buttons, and a buzzer or user interaction. The M5Stack StamPLC also integrates an LM75 temperature sensor and an INA226 voltage/current sensor, as well as a microSD card slot for data storage, and it can take a wide voltage input between 6 and 36V DC. M5Stack StamPLC specfications: Control Module – StampS3A (similar to M5Stamp S3) SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3FN8 CPU – Dual-core 32-bit Xtensa LX7 microcontroller with AI vector instructions up to 240MHz, RISC-V ULP co-processor Memory – 512KB SRAM Storage- 8MB flash Wireless – 2.4GHz WiFi 4 (802.11b/g/n), Bluetooth […]

March 20, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Forlinx FET3506J-S low power system-on-module features Rockchip RK3506J industrial-grade tri-core Cortex-A7 SoC

Forlinx FET3506J-S system-on-module (SoM) is based on a Rockchip RK3506J SoC, the industrial version of the RK3506 tri-core Cortex-A7 SoC, designed for smart industrial applications, and operating at a low power consumption of about 0.7 Watts. The Rockchip RK3506 SoC was first unveiled in 2023 through a product roadmap. However, we only spotted it in a product at the very end of 2024 with the Luckfox Lyra and Luckfox Lyra Plus featuring a MIPI CSI display connector and optional Ethernet. The Forlinkx FET3506J-S CPU module is the first platform with the industrial version (RK3506J), and the company also provides the OK3506 carrier board/development board for evaluation. Forlinx FET3506J-S system-on-module Specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3506J CPU 3x Arm Cortex-A7 core up to 1.5 GHz or 1.6 GHz (depending on where one looks in the documentation) Arm Cortex-M0 real-time core GPU – 2D GPU only No VPU, no NPU System Memory – […]

March 19, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

MediaTek Genio 720 and 520 AIoT SoCs target generative AI applications with 10 TOPS AI accelerator

The announcement of the MediaTek Genio 720 and Genio 520 octa-core Cortex-A78/A55 AIoT SoCs is one of the news I missed at Embedded World 2025. The new models appear to be updates to the Genio 700 and Genio 500 with a beefier NPU, and the Taiwanese company says the new Genio series supports generative AI models, human-machine interface (HMI), multimedia, and connectivity features for smart home, retail, industrial, and commercial IoT devices. Both are equipped with a 10 TOPS NPU/AI accelerator for transformer and convolutional neural network (CNN) models and support up to 16GB of LPDDR5 memory to handle “edge-optimized” (i.e. quantized) large language models (LLMs) such as Llama, Gemini, Phi, and DeepSeek, and other generative AI tasks. MediaTek Genio 720 and Genio 520 specifications: Octa-core CPU Genio 520 2x Arm Cortex-A78 up to 2.2 GHz (Commercial) or 2.0 GHz (Industrial) 6x Arm Cortex-A55 up to 2.0 GHz (Commercial) or […]

March 17, 2025March 23, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

MicroPython-programmable OpenMV N6 and AE3 AI camera boards run on battery for years (Crowdfunding)

OpenMV has launched two new edge AI camera boards programmable with MicroPython: the OpenMV AE3 powered by an Alif Ensemble E3 dual Cortex-M55, dual Ethos-U55 micro NPU SoC, and the larger OpenMV N6 board based on an STMicro STM32N6 Cortex-M55 microcontroller with a 1 GHz Neural-ART AI/ML accelerator. Both can run machine vision workloads for several years on a single battery charge. The OpenMV team has made several MCU-based camera boards and corresponding OpenMV firmware for computer vision, and we first noticed the company when they launched the STM32F427-based OpenMV Cam back in 2015. A lot of progress has been made over the years in terms of hardware, firmware, and software, but the inclusion of AI accelerators inside microcontrollers provides a leap in performance, and the new OpenMV N6 and AE3 are more than 100x faster than previous OpenMV Cams for AI workloads. For example, users can now run object […]

March 17, 2025March 17, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

M5Stack Unit Gateway H2 – A tiny ESP32-H2 Thread/Zigbee gateway selling for $6.50

M5Stack’s Unit Gateway H2 is a small Thread/Zigbee gateway powered by the ESP32-H2-MINI-1 module with an 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee 3.0, Thread 1.3, and Matter connectivity. The Unit Gateway H2, also known as Gateway H2 Unit…, can operate as a gateway (e.g. a Thread Board Router) or a terminal device that communicates with a M5Stack device via serial/UART through the Grove interface. It also features a USB-C port for power, firmware flash, and debugging. M5Stack says it’s suitable for smart homes, environmental monitoring, sensor networks, and low-power wireless communication nodes. M5Stack Gateway H2 Unit specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-H2-MINI-1-N2 SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-H2 CPU – 32-bit RISC-V SoC clocked at up to 96 MHz RAM and storage – 320 KB SRAM, 128 KB ROM, 4 KB LP memory Wireless – 802.15.4 radio with Zigbee 3.0, Thread 1.3, and Matter support. (Note: the ESP32-H2 also supports Bluetooth 5.2 LE/Mesh, […]