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March 19, 2023March 25, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

A first look at GL.iNet GL-S200 Thread Border Router kit with three nRF52840 Thread boards

GL-S200 Thread Border Router review with Thread Dev Boards

GL.iNet are better known for their routers, but the company is also offering IoT gateways and Smart Home hubs such as the GL-S10 BLE to MQTT IoT gateway. The company is now preparing to launch the GL.iNet GL-S200 Thread Border Router in early April, and I’ve been asked to do some beta testing before launch, so GL.iNet have sent me a kit with the GL-S200 and three Thread development boards acting as IoT nodes. A Thread Border Router acts as a WiFi or/and Ethernet gateway connecting to battery-powered Thread sensor nodes equipped with a low-power 802.15.4 radio. In this first post, I’ll go through the hardware and specifications, before reporting my finding in a separate post next week. GL-200 Thread Border Router kit unboxing and specifications The development boards are all identical and they were each kept in an antistatic bag. But let’s open the GL-S200 package first. The Thread […]

March 17, 2023March 17, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

WisDuo RAK11720 LoRaWAN & Bluetooth LE module features Ambiq Apollo3 Blue low-power MCU

RAKwireless WisDuo RAK11720 is a LoRaWAN and Bluetooth LE (module) equipped with Ambiq Apollo3 ultra-low-power BLE 5.0 microcontroller and a Semtech SX1262 LoRa transceiver. The Wisduo RAK11720 is pin-to-pin compatible with the STM32WL-based Wisduo RAK3172 LoRaWAN module, and provides an easy upgrade path for IoT applications that require Bluetooth LE connectivity and more memory. WisDuo RAK11720 specifications: MCU – Ambiq Apollo3 Blue AMA3B1KK-KBR-B0 Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller locked at up to 96 MHz with 1MB flash, 348 SRAM, Bluetooth LE 5.0, and an active power consumption of less than < 6 μA/ MHz LoRa Semtech SX1262 sub-GHz radio transceivers LoRaWAN 1.0.3 specification compliant Supported bands: EU433, CN470, IN865, EU868, AU915, US915, KR920, RU864, and AS923-1/2/3/4 LoRaWAN activation via OTAA/ABP LoRa Point-to-Point (P2P) communication Long-range – greater than 15 km with optimized antenna Antennas – 2x IPEX antenna connectors or RF pads for LoRa and Bluetooth I/O expansion – UART, I2C, SPI, […]

March 17, 2023March 20, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Synaptics SYN4382 SoC supports Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, and 802.15.4 connectivity

Synaptics SYN4382 is a triple combo SoC with Wi-Fi 5/6E, Bluetooth 5.3, and IEEE 802.15.4 (Zigbee/Thread/Matter) radios, and manufactured with a 16nm process to lower power consumption for IoT and multimedia applications. The chip can deliver up to 1,200 Mbps WiFi throughput, supports dual-band (RSDB) 2.4 and 5 or 6/6E GHz operation to combine the links at different frequencies, as well as features such as LE Audio for multiple concurrent audio streams in a multi-device environment. Synaptics SYN4382 key features: Wireless Triband 2×2 Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) with 1200 Mbps throughput, RSDB, and support for legacy 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi Bluetooth 5.3 with LE Audio, Channel Sounding (HADM = High Accuracy Distance Measurement) for accurate positioning 802.15.4 radio for Thread and Zigbee Matter interoperability Smart Co-Ex for coexistence in the 2.4 GHz band Multipoint external coexistence interface for LTE, GPS On-chip power amplifiers (PAs) and low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) with support for external PAs […]

March 16, 2023March 17, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

SONOFF MINIR4 review – A Tiny WiFi Smart Switch tested with eWelink app/web, and R5 controller

In this post, we’ll review the SONOFF Mini Extreme, also known as MINIR4, WiFi smart switch based on ESP32 wireless MCU by installing it into a wall-mounted light switch box and controlling it with both the eWelink mobile app for Android and the SONOFF R5 scene controller. SONOFF MINIR4 Installation We’ve already gone through the specifications, unboxing, and teardown in the announcement, so I’ll get straight to the installation part. Note this review was done with a light switch “box” (about 11x6cm) in Thailand, so your mileage may vary. The first challenge is that contrary to the similarly-sized SONOFF ZBMINI Extreme Zigbee switch, the MINIR4 WiFi switch requires a neutral cable, and most lights in Thailand are wired without a neutral wire, so I had to get the neutral wire from the outlet switch box underneath. When I call those “boxes” there are really holes in the wall here… Wiring […]

March 15, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Silicon Labs announces MG27 and BG27 Bluetooth LE & 802.15.4 SoCs for small devices, healthcare

Silicon Labs has just announced the tiny BG27 Bluetooth LE and MG27 multiprotocol wireless SoCs designed for small devices, and they will be especially useful in connected health applications, or the so-called Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), as well as wearables, sensors, switches, smart locks, and commercial and LED lighting. Both chips feature a Cortex-M33 core clocked at 76.8 MHz, up to 768KB flash, and up to 64KB RAM, but the BG27 only supports Bluetooth LE, Mesh, and propriety 2.4 GHz connectivity, while the MG27 also adds an 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee, OpenThread, and Matter protocols Silicon Labs BG27 and MG27 specifications: CPU – Arm Cortex-M33 @ 76.8 MHz with DSP instruction and floating-point unit Memory – Up to 64 kB RAM data memory Storage – Up to 768 kB flash program memory 2.4 GHz Radio BLE 5.3 Bluetooth mesh Proprietary 2.4 GHz MG27 adds Matter OpenThread Zigbee Modulation – […]

March 9, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

SONOFF iHost Smart Home Hub enables local control of SONOFF, Tasmota, Matter home automation devices

SONOFF iHost is a Smart Home Hub that enables local control of SONOFF smart switches, lightbulbs, Zigbee sensors, and so on without having to require a connection to the cloud (e.g. eWelink). Future software upgrades will also add more devices such as the ones flashed with Tasmota firmware and any device compatible with the Matter IoT protocol. The gateway is based on either a Rockchip RV1109 SoC with 2GB RAM or a Rockchip RV1126 with 4GB RAM and offers 10/100M Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth LE, and Zigbee 3.0 connectivity, as well as a USB 2.0 port to allow for more connectivity. SONFF iHost Smart Home Hub specifications: SoC and Memory Rockchip RV1109 dual-core Arm Cortex-A7 @ 1.5 GHz with RISC-V MCU @ 400 MHz, 2D graphics engine, 1.2 TOPS NPU, 5MP H.264 and H.265 hardware video decoder and encoder, and 2GB DDR4 Rockchip RV1126 quad-core Arm Cortex-A7 @ 1.5 GHz with […]

March 9, 2023March 9, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

BeaglePlay – A $99 Texas Instruments AM625 industrial SBC with plenty of communication and expansion options

The BeagleBoard.org Foundation has just launched their latest single board computer with the BeaglePlay SBC powered by a Texas Instruments AM625 Cortex-A53/M4/R5 processor with 16GB eMMC flash, 2GB DDR2, and a wide range of I/Os, wired and wireless communication options, and support for expansion module compatible with MikroBus, Grove, and Qwiic connectors. Two wired Ethernet are offered, namely a typical Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port, as well as a single-pair Ethernet RJ11 port limited to 10 Mbps but with a much longer range and power over data, and wireless connectivity includes dual-band WiFi 4, Bluetooth LE, and Sub-GHz. The board also features HDMI and MIPI DSI display interfaces and a MIPI CSI camera interface. BeaglePlay specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM625 (AM6254) with Quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.4 GHz Arm Cortex-M4F at up to 400 MHz Arm Cortex-R5F PowerVR Rogue 3D GPU supporting up to 2048×1080 @ 60fps, […]

March 4, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

IoT board supports WiFi, Bluetooth, NB-IoT, Cat-M and GNSS with ESP32-S3 and SIM7080G modules

LILYGO T-SIM7080G-S3 is an ESP32-S3 WiFi and Bluetooth IoT board with a SIMcom SIM7080G LTE Cat-M (eMTC), NB-IoT, and GNSS module for low-power long-range connectivity and asset tracking. The board also comes with a 18650 battery holder, a solar panel input, a microSD card slot, a camera port, and several I/Os and provides an alternative to the TTGO T-Beam ESP32 board that relies on LoRaWAN for long-range connectivity instead. LILYGO T-SIM7080G-S3 specifications: Wireless modules Espressif ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N16R8 module with ESP32-S3 dual-core LX7 microprocessor @ up to 240 MHz with Vector extension for machine learning, 16MB flash, 8MB PSRAM, WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5 LE/Mesh SIMCom SIM7080G global multi-band Cat-M and NB-IoT module with GNSS Bands: Cat-M – B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B8/B12/B13/B14/B18/B19/B20/B25/B26 /B27/B28/B66/B85 NB-IoT – B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B8/B12/B13/B18/B19/B20/B25/B26/B28 /B66/B71/B85 Data rate Cat-M – Uplink: 1,119 Kbps, downlink: 589 Kbps NB-IoT: Uplink: 150 Kbps downlink: 136 Kbps LTE RF Power Class: 5 (Typ. 21dbm) GNSS – GPS, GLONASS, […]