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October 29, 2024October 31, 2024 by Debashis Das - 4 Comments

CodeCell is a ESP32-C3 mini development board for robots, wearables, smart home projects

CodeCell ESP32 C3 mini development board

Engineer and YouTuber Carl Bugeja recently developed CodeCell, a tiny ESP32-C3 development board designed as the brain for robots, wearables, and smart home devices. This module features a nine-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU) for motion fusion and an optional VCNL4040 light sensor. It includes a USB Type-C port for data and power as well as a lithium-polymer battery with a charging circuit. Measuring just 18.5 x 18.5mm this compact board is even smaller than other tiny ESP32 development boards such as Waveshare’s ESP32-S3-Zero and Seeed Studio’s XIAO ESP32S3. However, the Epi C3 is smaller at 23 x 12.75 mm, and so are the Unexpected Maker NANOS3 (25 x 10 mm) and Unexpected Maker OMGS3 (28 x 11 mm). CodeCel ESP32-C3 mini development board specification Microcontroller – ESP32-C3 RISC-V MCU 160MHz 32-bit RISC-V processor core 400kB SRAM, 4MB flash storage Wi-Fi 4 and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connectivity Sensors Vishay VCNL4040 light […]

October 23, 2024October 23, 2024 by Sayantan Nandy - No Comments

MentorPi is a ROS2-compatible, Raspberry Pi 5-based robot car with Mecanum or Ackermann chassis

Hiwonder MentorPi A1 and MentorPi M1 robot car

MentorPi is a ROS2-compatible robot car powered by the Raspberry Pi 5, designed for AI-driven robotics and Python programming. It offers two chassis options: MentorPi-M1, which features a Mecanum-wheel chassis, and MentorPi-A1, equipped with an Ackermann chassis. Both variants come with high-performance components such as closed-loop encoder motors, STL-19P TOF lidar, 3D depth cameras, and high-torque servos. These enable precise navigation, SLAM mapping, path planning, and dynamic obstacle avoidance, making MentorPi an ideal platform for robotics tasks. The system utilizes a dual-controller architecture to optimize performance. The Raspberry Pi 5 handles AI vision processing and strategic functions, while Hiwonder’s RRC Lite expansion board manages motion control and sensor data processing. This task distribution enhances efficiency in machine vision, AI-powered navigation, and robotic control, allowing MentorPi to tackle complex AI and vision-based applications with ease. MentorPi also supports advanced features like 3D visual mapping and YOLOv5-based object detection for recognizing road […]

October 14, 2024 by Sayantan Nandy - 1 Comment

Infineon XENSIV game controller features PSoC 6 MCU, magnetic sensors, and OPTIGA Trust M security

Infineon Technologies XENSIV game controller is a reference design that integrates XENSIV magnetic position sensors for precise joystick control without sensor drift and XENSIV Hall switch triggers for reliable operation. The controller also features capacitive CAPSENSE buttons, CAPSENSE presence detection, and a SPIDER+ rumble driver. These components work together with the PSoC 6 BLE microcontroller to create a low-power, plug-and-play solution. The onboard display allows users to monitor joystick movements, connection status, configurations, and battery information. The controller connects to PCs or smartphones as a USB human interface device (HID) without requiring manual configuration or driver installation. It also supports Bluetooth Low Energy and uses capacitive presence detection to optimize battery life. The design includes a PSoC 6 debugger and supports customizable shields providing flexibility for software and hardware integration. Previously, we covered an Arduino Nano Matter-powered game controller that successfully ported Quake, a popular first-person shooter game. We’ve also […]

October 11, 2024 by Sayantan Nandy - 1 Comment

AirCard Pro and AirNotch Pro Bluetooth trackers support Google/Apple network integration (Crowdfunding)

Rolling Square introduces its latest Bluetooth trackers – AirNotch Pro and AirCard Pro – designed for use with personal items like keys, wallets, bags, and more. Both trackers are designed for portability, and the AirNotch Pro is designed as a keyring, while the AirCard Pro suits wallets with a thinner, credit card-like design. The products integrate into Apple and Google’s tracking networks, with some features currently limited to Apple. Previously, we covered the SenseCAP T1000, a credit card-sized LoRaWAN GPS tracker powered by Semtech’s LR1110. Several years ago we covered some Bluetooth beacons such as the Puck.js or RuuviTag, but we have yet to explore Bluetooth-only trackers with wireless charging capabilities. Rolling Square AirCard Pro Bluetooth trackers AirCard Pro technical features: Network White version – Operates on Google’s Android Find My Device network (Android 6 or above) Black version – Operates on Apple Find My network (iOS 14 or above) […]

September 26, 2024September 26, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Arduino releases a power management library for Arduino Pro modules to optimize power consumption

Arduino Portenta C33 Power Management Library Battery Monitoring

Arduino has released a new power management library designed for Arduino Pro modules to help users monitor battery usage, fine-tune charging parameters, and optimize the power consumption of their Arduino code by notably enabling sleep and standby modes on supported devices. Currently, the Arduino Portenta H7 boards, the Arduino Portenta C33, and the Nicla Vision module are supported by the new power management library. The company explains some boards consume under 100 microamperes in deep sleep mode enabling months or even years of continuous runtime on a single charge, so making use of those features is important to lower the power consumption of battery-powered IoT devices and wearables. Arduino power management library key features: Battery monitoring – Reports battery metrics such as voltage, current, percentage, and temperature. Battery health tracking – Monitors battery health with detailed insights into temperature and reported capacity. Charging control – Monitors and adjusts charging parameters […]

September 11, 2024September 10, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Khadas Mind 2 portable mini PC gets Intel Core Ultra 5 125H or Ultra 7 155H update, USB4 and Thunderbolt 4 interfaces

Khadas Mind 2 is an update to the Raptor Lake-powered Khadas Mind portable mini PC offered with either an Intel Core Ultra 5 125H or Core Ultra 155H Meteor Lake processor. It ships with up to 64GB LPDDR5, PCIe 4.0 storage, and adds Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 interfaces that were missing from the first model. We reviewed the original Khadas Mind Premium with both Windows 11 and Ubuntu 22.04, and its dock, and it was indeed a pretty cool, albeit pricey, device with features like a small built-in battery to move the computer from one room to another without turning it off, and the Mind Link interface enabling connecting to the Khadas Dock for extra peripherals, the Mind Graphics for higher-end graphics, and more. Limitations included the lack of USB4 and 2.5GbE ports and the Khadas Link was limited to 64GT/s, but the second generation model addresses most of these […]

August 30, 2024September 2, 2024 by Debashis Das - 11 Comments

LILYGO T-Deck Plus – A Blackberry-like ESP32-S3 devkit with QWERTY keyboard, trackball, LoRa, GPS, battery, and more

LILYGO T Deck Plus handheld development board

The LILYGO T-Deck Plus is an ESP32-S3 based handheld development kit that resembles a Blackberry phone with a QWERTY keyboard and trackball. The device features a 2.8-inch IPS LCD, a GPS module, a LoRa transceiver, and a 2,000mAh battery which means you can take it outside and do some pen-testing and research. Additionally, the board features a microphone, a speaker, and a microSD card slot for storage. Just last year, LILYGO introduced the LILYGO T-Deck ESP32-S3 development board with LoRa and a 2.8-inch display, and the T-Deck Plus builds on the earlier design but also adds a GPS module and a higher capacity battery. LILYGO T-Deck Plus specifications ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 wireless module SoC – ESP32-S3FN16R8 dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller @ up to 240 MHz with 2.4 GHz 802.11n WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE connectivity Memory – 8MB PSRAM Storage – 16MB SPI flash PCB antenna Storage – MicroSD card slot Display – […]

August 20, 2024September 2, 2024 by Sayantan Nandy - No Comments

XIAO RA4M1 stamp-sized Renesas RA4M1 USB-C board features 14-bit ADC, 12-bit DAC, CAN Bus interfaces

Seeed Studio has added yet another member to their XIAO board family with the XIAO RA4M1 powered by Renesas’ RA4M1 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4 MCU. This compact board includes 256KB Flash, 32KB SRAM, a 14-bit A/D converter, a 12-bit D/A converter, a CAN bus interface, and onboard charging circuitry. It’s designed for low-power, battery-powered applications. The company started the XIAO family with the Seeeduino XIAO (Microchip SAMD21G18) in 2020, and since then they’ve made several other variants with different processors including the XIAO RP2350, XIAO RP2040, XIAO ESP32C3, XIAO ESP32S3, XIAO ESP32C6, and the nRF52840-based XIAO BLE. Feel free to check them out if you are interested in these boards. XIAO RA4M1 specifications: Microcontroller – Renesas RA4M1 (R7FA4M1AB3CFM) as found in Arduino UNO R4 CPU – Arm Cortex-M4F operating at up to 48 MHz Memory – 32KB SRAM Storage 256 KB code flash memory 8 KB data flash memory USB – 1x […]