IoT

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on $4 Lolin S2 Mini ESP32-S2 WiFi IoT board works with Wemos D1 Mini shields

$4 Lolin S2 Mini ESP32-S2 WiFi IoT board works with Wemos D1 Mini shields

Lolin S2 Mini board

If you liked Wemos D1 mini ESP8266 board with stackable add-on boards, you’ll probably love Wemos/Lolin S2 Mini board with the same factor, but fitted with an ESP32-S2 single-core WIFi processor, and offering twice the number of I/Os. The board comes with 4MB flash, 2MB PSRAM, a USB-C port for power and programming, as well as two 16 pin headers for GPIOs, ADC, DAC, and more. Lolin S2 Mini V1.0.0 specifications: SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S2FN4R2 Xtensa  single-core 32-bit LX7 microprocessor up to 240 MHz with 320 KB SRAM, 4MB Flash, 2MB PSRAM Expansion headers – 2x 16-pin headers with 27x IO, ADC, DAC, I2C, SPI, UART, USB OTG USB – 1x Type-C USB for 5V power and programming Misc – Reset button and button 0 also used to enter Device Firmware Upgrade (DFU) Dimensions – 34.3 x 25.4 mm Weight – 2.4 grams The board is compatible with Lolin/Wemos […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on 5G compatible Arm Pico-ITX SBC is expandable through multi-function I/O board

5G compatible Arm Pico-ITX SBC is expandable through multi-function I/O board

IBASE IBR215 SBC plus IO expansion board

IBASE IBR215 is a 2.5-inch Pico-ITX SBC powered by NXP i.MX 8M Plus quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 AI processor that supports 5G cellular connectivity via an M.2 3052 socket, and can be extended with an I/O expansion board with support for WiFi/BT, 4G/LTE, LCD, camera, NFC & QR-code functions. Equipped with up to 4GB RAM and 128GB flash storage, the single board computer has a ruggedized and fanless design that makes it suitable for industrial automation, smart home and buildings, smart cities and factories, retail environment, machine learning, and other industrial IoT applications. IBASE IBR215 specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Plus quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with 512KB ECC cache, Arm Cortex-M7 @ up to 800 MHz, Vivante GC7000UL 3D GPU, Vivante GC520L 2D GPU, HiFi 4 DSP, 2.3 TOPS Neural Processing Unit (NPU) System Memory – 3GB DDR4 (optional 1/2/4GB) Storage 16GB eMMC flash (optional […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on UP Xtreme i11 Tiger Lake SBC launched for $299 and up

UP Xtreme i11 Tiger Lake SBC launched for $299 and up

UP Xtreme i11 Tiger Lake-SBC with AI accelerator

Ever since the launch of Intel Atom Cherry Trail powered Up Board SBC in 2015, AAEON has kept launching more UP boards with faster, yet still low power processors, as well as complete turnkey solutions based on their x86 SBC such as the UP Xtreme Smart Surveillance kit. The company has now started taking pre-orders for the UP Xtreme i11 Tiger Lake SBC, and a UP Xtreme i11 Edge Compute Enabling kit mini PC based on the board will become available in Q3 2021. The board features a choice of Intel 11th generation Tiger Lake Embedded “GRE” Core or Celeron processors, an Intel Altera MAX V FPGA, up to 64GB RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, 2.5GbE networking, and more. UP Xtreme i11 SBC Specifications: Tiger Lake “E”/”GRE” SoC (one or the other) Intel Core i7-1185G7GRE quad-core/8-thread processor @ up to 4.4 GHz with 96 EU Intel Iris Xe Graphics; up to 28W […]

Posted on by Saumitra Jagdale - No Comments on Microsoft Azure IoT, Balena, Particle, or Toit – Choosing the Right IoT Development Platform

Microsoft Azure IoT, Balena, Particle, or Toit – Choosing the Right IoT Development Platform

IoT Development Platforms

With the ongoing fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), IoT technologies are playing a major role in automating industrial processes. Integrating existing systems with IoT results in an intelligent solution that focuses more on providing better adaptability and resource efficiency. If you start building such systems from scratch while ensuring reliability and other factors, it will surely take a lot of research and time. This is where an IoT development platform steps in to save your time and makes things a lot easier. The main idea behind these platforms is to avoid reinventing the wheel and to provide standardized functions and features, so you don’t waste your time implementing something that someone has already done for you. You can collect data, control and manage apps and connect to their cloud services for better machine-to-machine communication. This article will look at some modern IoT development platforms and finally compare them to help […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on BL-63B – A smaller BL602 IoT module that sells for $1.5

BL-63B – A smaller BL602 IoT module that sells for $1.5

Bouffalo Labs BL602 is a low-cost, low-power RISC-V microcontroller that offers 2.4 GHz WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0 LE connectivity for IoT projects for about the price of ESP8266. We first discovered it last year, together with a development board. Pine64 created its own PineCone board fitted with the $2 PineNut module, and some reverse-engineering work has started on BL602 SDK. But there’s now another smaller BL602 module with “Machine Intelligence” (that’s the company name) BL-63B that sells for $1.5 on Taobao in China, as well as on LCSC Electronics albeit you’d need to purchase 1000 pieces to get that price, and single-unit pricing is currently $2.5. BL-63B WiFI & BLE module specifications: SoC – Bouffalo Labs BL602 32-bit RISC-V processor @ up to 192 Mhz with 276KB RAM, 128KB ROM, 1Kbit eFuse, WiFi and BLE Storage – 2MB flash Wireless 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n WiFI 4 1×1 SISO up to 65 Mbps […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Congatec COM-HPC & COM Express Xeon modules target high-end IoT gateways, medical edge applications

Congatec COM-HPC & COM Express Xeon modules target high-end IoT gateways, medical edge applications

Tiger Lake-H COM-HPC & COM Express CPU modules

Yesterday, we wrote about ADLink Express-TL COM Express Basic Size Type 6 module powered by the latest Intel Tiger Lake-H Xeon, Core, and Celeron processors designed for high-end industrial & embedded systems. But as one would expect more such modules are coming to market, and Congatec announced both COM-HPC and COM Express CPU modules based on Intel Tiger Lake-H processors with target applications include high-end IoT gateways and medical edge applications. Let’s check out both conga-HPC/cTLH COM-HPC Client Size B modules (120mm x 120mm), as well as the conga-TS570 COM Express Basic Type 6 modules (125mm x 95mm). conga-HPC/cTLH COM-HPC module Key features and specifications: SoC – Choice of ten Intel Xeon, Core i3/i5i/7, or Celeron 6600HE processors with Intel Xe Gen12 graphics part of Tiger Lake-H family System Memory – Up to 4 SO-DIMM sockets for DDR4 ECC memory modules up to 32 GB each (128 GB total) with […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments on ESP32-H2 RISC-V WiSoC announced with Zigbee 3, Thread, and Bluetooth LE 5.2

ESP32-H2 RISC-V WiSoC announced with Zigbee 3, Thread, and Bluetooth LE 5.2

ESP32-H2 with Thread, Zigbee 3, BLE 5.2

Just a few days ago, we noted ESP32-H2 802.15.4 & BLE RISC-V SoC had shown up in the source code, and tried to derive specs and a block diagram from the info seeing it was similar to ESP32-C3, but swapping the WiFi radio for an 802.15.4 radio. We don’t need to guess anymore, as Espressif Systems has just announced ESP32-H2 RISC-V WiSoC with support for Zigbee 3.x, Thread 1.x through the 802.15.4 radio, as well as Bluetooth LE 5.2. So overall it’s very close to what we discussed from the information in the source code with ESP32-H2 highlights including: CPU – 32-bit RISC-V core (at up to 96 MHz) RAM – 256 KB SRAM Storage – External flash support Wireless connectivity IEEE 802.15.4 radio with Zigbee 3.x and Thread 1.x support, Matter protocol Bluetooth 5.2 (LE) radio designed in-house, with support for direct connection, Bluetooth Mesh, Bluetooth LE Audio Future […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on ESP32-H2 Bluetooth LE & 802.15.4 RISC-V SoC shows up in ESP-IDF source code

ESP32-H2 Bluetooth LE & 802.15.4 RISC-V SoC shows up in ESP-IDF source code

ESP32-H2

Espressif Systems is working on yet another RISC-V chip with ESP32-H2 SoC offering Bluetooth LE and 802.15.4 connectivity showing up in the ESP-IDF framework source code. A code comparison shows ESP32-H2 is very similar to ESP32-C3 with a single RISC-V core, albeit clocked at up to 96 MHz, and the first Espressif SoC without WiFi, as the WiFi radio is replaced with an 802.15.4 radio for Thread, Zigbee, etc… that can be used for the development of Home Automation, Smart Lighting, and wireless sensor network applications. While looking at the source code differences between ESP32-C3 and ESP32-H2, the really only major differences were the 802.15.4 radio and lower maximum frequency, and at the current time, it looks like most of the rest is unchanged, so it’s possible they kept the same amount of RAM (400KB), storage, and most of the same peripherals, but it could just well be the code […]

EmbeddedTS embedded systems design