Raspberry Pi Zero (W) Shield for Arduino is an Arduino UNO Baseboard for RPI Zero Board

There are already various Arduino compatible shields for Raspberry Pi  where the add-on board connect to a Raspberry Pi 3 board to provide  Arduino headers, but Raspberry Pi Zero (W) Shield for Arduino is a little different as it acts as a baseboard with Arduino header for Raspberry Pi Zero (W) RPI Zero (W) shield specifications: Reset switch for the micro-controller LED – Shield power LED,  LED connected to Arduino pin 13,  LED connected to Raspberry Pi GPIO pin 13 Expansion Female headers allowing for full-access to all Arduino pins. ICSP header access for AVR Micro-controllers Misc 3mm mounting holes for securely mounting Raspberry Pi Zero (W) to shield (mounting hardware included) Solder-jumpers to disconnect Micro-controller SDA/SCL pins from pull-up resistors Solder-jumper to disconnect Raspberry Pi GPIO13 from LED Power Supply – 6.5 to 12V power supply (6.5 to 9V recommended) via  2.1mm power barrel jack, or 5V via micro […]

NoCAN IoT Platform Leverages Raspberry Pi & Arduino for CAN Bus Projects (Crowdfunding)

Many IoT projects rely on wireless connectivity through WiFi or Bluetooth, but in some cases it may be more reliable and convenient to use wired connectivity. The CAN Bus is a little like a low bandwidth Ethernet PoE solution for IoT, as it allows to transfer data over a serial connection while provided power at the same time, and can be daisy chain to support multiple boards. Omzlo’s NoCAN IoT platform provides a CAN bus solution leveraging Raspberry Pi 3 board through their PiMaster HAT acting as a CAN bus gateway, and Arduino compatible CANZERO boards to which you can connect sensors and actuators. Omzlo PiMaster HAT specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32F042 Cortex-M0 32bit ARM MCU – 48Mhz. Networking –  125000 bps CAN bus up to 300 meters range GPIO – Communicates with Raspberry Pi through SPI + GPIOs Security – Smart power switch with over-current protection. Power Supply – […]

SIM7020E 4G NB-IoT Mini Development Board Sells for Just $14

Cheap-NB-IoT-Board

We now have plenty to choose from when it comes to NB-IoT development boards or shields, but so far pricing has not been very attractive, and the cheapest NB-IoT solution I found so far was probably Dragino NB-IoT Bee, a XBee compatible board going for $23. But this morning, I saw an even cheaper NB-IoT board with SIM7020E 4G NB-IOT Mini development board selling for $14.30 on Electrodragon. Not quite the price of 2G solutions, but we’re getting there. Board specifications: NB-IoT Module – SIMCom SIM7020E module working globally with B1/B3/B5/B8/B20/B28 bands supported Nano SIM card holder and u.FL connector for NB-IoT Expansion – 9-pin unpopulated 2.54mm pitch header with 2x UART (3.3V / 5V), ADC, Boot, 3.3V, 5V and GND USB – 1x micro USB port that can be recognized by PC, but as Electrodragon puts it: “not sure how to use it”. Misc – Net LED, power key […]

ODROID-GO is an Arduino Compatible, ESP32 based Portable Gaming Console Kit

ODROID-GO

When I first saw Hardkernel made ODROID-GO portable gaming console, I immediately thought they did a Linux device ala PocketCHIP, since so far the company has only designed Android & Linux development board. But ODROID-GO game console is actually based on Espressif ESP32 WiSoC,  programmable with the Arduino IDE, and launched to celebrate Hardkernel’s 10-year anniversary. ODROID-GO specifications: SoC – Custom ESP32-WROVER module with ESP32 SoC @ up to 240 MHz, 16 MB Flash, and 4MP PSRAM Storage – micro SD card slot connected via SPI Display –  2.4″ 320×240 TFT LCD (SPI) Connectivity – WiFi 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz – 2.5GHz, Bluetooth 4.2 BR/EDR, BLE Speaker – 0.5Watt 8Ω Mono USB – 1x micro USB port for charging (500mA) and USB-UART communication Expansion Port – 10-pin header with  I2C, GPIO, IRQ at 3.3Volt Misc – Buttons: Menu, Volume, Select, Start, A, B, Direction Pad Battery –  3.7V/1,200mAh Li-Polymer good for […]

ESP8266 RGB LED Strip Control with ANAVI Light Controller, Arduino, MQTT, and HTML5

Anavi-Light-Controller-Starter-Kit-Assembly

A few months ago I reviewed ANAVI Light pHat for Raspberry Pi which allows you to control an LED RGB strip from the popular development board. However, if all you need is to switch the RGB LED light on and off, or change the color, the hardware is clearly overpowered for the tasks. So Leon ANAVI designed another board based on ESP8266 – ANAVI Light Controller – which does the same thing with lower cost and more power efficient hardware. Leon sent me a sample for review, so let’s see what we’ve got. ANAVI Light Controller Starter Kit Unboxing I received a package for the Starter kit that’s offered for $39 on CrowdSupply. We’ve got the main board, a USB debugging, an acrylic enclosure with screws and spacers, a one meter RGB LED strip, and some stickers inside the package. If we have a close look at the board we […]

Wio LTE GPS Tracker Board Gets a Cat M1/NB1 Version for $59

Seeed Studio launched a family of GPS tracker boards staring with Wio GPS with 2G cellular connectivity, followed by Wio LTE board offering 4G connectivity several months later. The company is taking pre-order for an LTE Cat M1/NB1 version with NB-IoT / eMTC connectivity, and going for $59 plus shipping. The board is expected to start shipping on July 25th. Wio LTE Cat M1/NB1 board specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32F405RG Arm Cortex-M4 @ 168MHZ with 1M Flash, 192+4KB RAM Connectivity LTE uBlox SARA-R410M module LTE CAT M1 and NB-IoT Cat M1 Half-duplex (375 kb/s DL and UL) Cat NB1 Half-duplex (27.2 kb/s DL, 62.5 UL) Nano SIM and micro SD card 2-in-1 socket GNSS uBlox MAX-M8Q module PS, BeiDou, GLONASS, and Galileo 2.5m CEP(GPS), 4.0m CEP(GLONASS) USB – 1x micro USB port for power supply and DFU Expansions – Grove headers: 2x digital, 2x analog, 1x UART, 1x I2C Misc […]

UDOO BOLT AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 SBC Goes for $229 and Up (Crowdfunding)

UDOO-BOLT

While Intel has been outing low cost and low power processors with less than 10W TDP over the years with their Bay Trail, Cherry Trail, Braswell, Apollo Lake, and now Gemini Lake processors, AMD has not really ventured into the low power space, and the latest announcements about 10-12W processors was for their Embedded G-Series J Family, which I have not seen in many products. More recently, the company introduced Ryzen Embedded V1000 family of processors with 4 to 8 Zen cores, 4K support, 10 GbE interface, and more with a TDP of 12 to 25W for Ryzen Embedded V1202B & V1605B dual / quad core processors. The latest x86 UDOO board – dubbed UDOO BOLT – will be one of the rare AMD development boards available on the market with pricing starting at $229. Two versions of the board will be available: UDOO BOLT v3 with Ryzen Embedded V1202B, […]

Sony SPRESENSE Arduino Compatible GNSS + Audio IoT Board To Sell for $50 (in Japan)

Sony-Spresense-Arduino-Board

Last year,  we covered Sony Spritzer, an Arduino compatible with a Sony hexa-core Arm Cortex-M4F micro-controller, a built-in GNSS receiver, and an audio codec. The product page for this product is now gone, but it appears Sony only renamed it to SPRESENSE, made some design modifications, and is ready to launch the main board for 5,500 JPY (~$50), and the extension board for an extra 3,500 JPY ($32) on July 31, 2018. Sony SPRESENSE main board (CXD5602PWBMAIN1) specifications: MCU – Sony CXD5602 ARM Cortex-M4F ×6 micro-controller clocked at up to 156 MHz with 1.5MB SRAM Storage – 8MB Flash Memory GNSS – GPS & GLONASS Audio – 3.5mm audio jack Expansion I/Os Digital I/O Pins – GPIO, SPI, I2C, UART, PWM, I2S Analog Pins – 2ch (0.7V range) Camera interface USB – 1x micro USB port for programming and power Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port Dimensions – […]

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