Review of MaTouch_ESP32-S3 4-inch Display Demo Kit with sensors, Arduino, LVGL graphics library

Matouch Environmental Monitor LVGL graphics library

Makerfabs MaTouch_ESP32-S3 4-inch Display Demo Kit is an ESP32-S3 development board with a 4-inch touchscreen display, a TVOC sensor, and a thermal camera. It can be used to make various projects such as electronic photo frames. air quality monitors, or patient screening devices MaTouch_ESP32-S3 4-inch display demo kit unboxing When we unpack the box, we will find the device as in the picture, consisting of the following items: The mainboard of the MaTouch_ ESP32-S3 4-inch Display with the following specifications: Controller –  ESP32-S3-WROOM-1, PCB Antenna, 16MB Flash, 8MB PSRAM, ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N16R8 Wireless – WiFi & Bluetooth 5.0 Storage – MicroSD card slot LCD 4.0-inch IPS display with  480×480 resolution, 50+ FPS RGB 5/6/5+ SPI interface using ST7701S controller. 5 Points Touch, Capacitive via GT911 touch panel driver. Audio – MAX98357A USB – Dual USB Type-C (one for USB-to-UART and one for native USB); USB to UART Chip: CP2104 Expansion – 2x […]

UDOO VISION SBC with Intel Atom x5-E3940 or x7-E3950 CPU offers Arduino Leonardo compatibility

UDOO VISION

UDOO VISION single board computer is powered by either an Intel Atom x5-E3940 or x7-E3950 Apollo Lake processor and features the same Microchip ATmega32U4 8-bit AVR microcontroller found in the Arduino Leonardo board to control GPIOs. Two versions of the Pico-ITX SBC are available: the X5 with an Atom x5 processor, 4GB RAM, 32GB eMMC flash, and the X7 with an Atom x7 processor, 8GB RAM, and 64GB eMMC flash. Both come with miniDP++ and eDP vision interfaces, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, USB ports, M.2 sockets for expansion, and a 26-pin header with the same signals as in the Arduino Leonardo board. UDOO VISION specifications: SoC UDOO VISION X5 – Intel Atom x5-E3940 quad-core Apollo Lake processor @ 1.6 / 1.8 GHz (Turbo) with 12EU Intel HD Graphics 500 series; 9.5W TDP UDOO VISION X7 – Intel Atom x7-E3950 quad-core Apollo Lake processor @ 1.6 / 2.0 GHz (Turbo) with […]

EDATEC ED-IPC2010 – A compact DIN Rail mountable industrial computer based on Raspberry Pi CM4

DIN Rail Raspberry Pi CM4 industrial computer

EDATEC has launched yet another Raspberry Pi CM4-powered industrial computer with the ED-IPC2010 offering a more compact design than the company’s CM4 Industrial and CM4 Sensing models, and an aluminum alloy enclosure that can easily be mounted to a DIN Rail. Most of the specifications of the new ED-IPC2010 are pretty common with a choice of Raspberry Pi Compute Modules 4 with up to 8GB RAM, 32GB flash, and optional WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0, as well as a full-size HDMI video output, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and a few USB ports. What’s a little different is one FPC connector on the mainboard with both HDMI and USB for touchscreen displays. ED-IPC2010 specifications: SoM – Raspberry Pi CM4 SoC – Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 processor @ 1.5GHz with VideoCore VI GPU System Memory –  1GB, 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB RAM Storage – 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB eMMC flash Wireless – […]

KOKONI SOTA 3D printer handles 600mm/s prints, 7-color printing (Crowdfunding)

KOKONI SOTA 3D printer

KOKONI SOTA 3D printer with an inverted design (the printing head is under the hotbed) that supports printing speeds of up to 600mm/s, as well as 7-color printing through a filament tower adding support for 5 extra filament rolls. The upside-down design was made to move motors and rails to the bottom base of the printer to lower the center of gravity and help improve stability, reduce the vibration to virtually nothing, and enable the faster printing speed. KOKONI also says the SOTA 3D printer offers 0.1mm accuracy thanks to AI radar detection and error compensation and operates relatively silently at 30dB one meter from the 3D printer. KOKONI SOTA specifications: Printing size – 200 x 200 x 200 mm XY axis – Linear rail Z-axis SOTA Lite – Lead screw SOTA – High-precision ball screws Drive motor SOTA Lite – high-speed stepper motor SOTA – Closed-loop motor with magnetic […]

PicoVNA 5 software for vector network analyzers supports Windows, Linux, MacOS, and Raspberry Pi

PicoVNA 108 vector network analyzer

Pico Technology has released PicoVNA 5 control software for their vector network analyzers for Windows x86 64-bit, Mac, Linux x86 64-bit, and Raspberry Pi 3 and greater single board computers, superseding the Windows-only PicoVNA 3 software. As a Ubuntu user, I hate it when some hardware tool forces me to install software on Windows when there’s no Linux alternative, so any company that provides cross-platform tools is making the right move. I’m also not quite sure what a “vector network analyzer” (VNA) is, so I’ll first look into the PicoVNA 106 and PicoVNA 108 6/8.5 GHz VNAs from the company. PicoVNA 106/108 vector network analyzers highlights and specifications: Frequency ranges PicoVNA 106 – 300 kHz to 6 GHz PicoVNA 108 – 300 kHz to 8.5 GHz Up to 5500 dual-port S-parameters per second > 10 000 S11 + S21 per second Quad RX four-receiver architecture Up to 124 dB dynamic […]

Creality Ender-3 S1 Pro review – Part 2: Engraving and 3D printing

Creality Ender 3 S1 Pro 3D Printer laser Engraver

Earlier this year, I received the Creality Ender-3 S1 Pro 2-in-1 3D printer & laser engraver and in the first part of the review, I showed the package content and how to assemble the system either to use it as a 3D printer or a laser engraver, but didn’t start it at the time. I’ve now had time to play with both laser engraving (less luck with cutting) and 3D printing, so I’ll report my experience in the second part of the review. Creality Ender-3 S1 Pro laser engraving Since in the last part of the review I had the 10W laser module installed on the 3D printer, I decided to start the testing with laser engraving and cutting. Contrary to the TwoTrees TS2 laser engraver I reviewed last year, the Creality Ender-3D S1 Pro laser engraving kit does not support autofocus, so I used the provided multi-level fixed-focus bar […]

HealthyPi 5 WiFi & BLE biosignal-acquisition sensor platform captures body temperature, ECG, PPG, SpO₂, and other vitals (Crowdfunding)

Standalone Vital Sign Monitor

HealthyPi 5 is an open-source sensor platform for biosignal acquisition based on Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller and ESP32-C3 WiFi & BLE module used to capture vitals such as electrocardiogram (ECG), respiration, photoplethysmography (PPG), oxygen saturation (SpO₂), and body-temperature data. It is a complete redesign of the HealthyPi v4 Raspberry Pi HAT with many of the same features. While the HealthyPi 5 also follows the Raspberry Pi HAT form factor and can be connected to a Raspberry Pi SBC to analyze the data, it can also be used as a standalone device with the processing handled by the RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller and connectivity through an ESP32-C3 wireless module, and data visualized on a 3.5-inch SPI display or a smartphone over WiFi or Bluetooth. HealthyPi 5 specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 133 MHz with 264 KB SRAM Wireless Module – ESP32-C3 RISC-V module with 2.4 […]

AMD Radeon PCIe graphics card tested with a Rockchip RK3588 SBC (Radxa Rock 5B)

AMD Radeon PCIe graphics card Rockchip RK3588 SBC

When Rockchip first introduced the Rockchip RK3399 processor with a PCIe interface people initially hoped they could connect graphics card, but those hopes were quickly squashed due to a 32MB addressing limit. However, the PCIe implementation on the newer Rockchip RK3588 processor does not have such a limitation, and last November, Radxa teased a demo with an AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 PCIe graphics card connected to the Rock 5B SBC running the glxgears demo on the Radeon GPU. I couldn’t find any instructions to reproduce this setup, but this got Jasbir interested, and he tried to do a test of his own with the Radxa Rock 5B connected to an AMD Radeon R7 520 (XFX R7 250 low-profile) through an “M.2 Key M Extender Cable to PCIE x16 Graphics Card Riser Adapter” ($14 plus taxes on Aliexpress) and powered by an LR1007 120W 12VDC ATX board. The experiment was […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC