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September 21, 2018September 21, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Skoobot is a Tiny Robot with BLE Connectivity and Sensors (Crowdfunding)

If you want to get started with robotics either for yourself, or maybe teach children, Skoobot robot could be an interesting option. It’s extra small with a 2.5 cm cubic shape, support Bluetooth Low Energy, and includes some sensors like ST VL6180 distance and ambient light sensor, and a microphone. Skoobot hardware specifications: MCU – Nordic Semi nRF52832 Arm Cortex M4F microcontroller with 512KB flash, 64KB SRAM Connectivity – Bluetooth Low Energy (built into nRF52832) Sensors ST VL6180X distance sensor (0 to 10 cm range) and ambient light level sensors Knowles microphone for word and beep recognition Two motors and wheels Misc – Buzzer Battery – Yes (no capacity specified) Dimensions – 2.5 x 2.5 x 2.5 cm A separate companion board is also provided to handle charging, UART and J-Link mode debugging and programming. The robot can be controlled from an Android app, or a Raspberry Pi board using […]

August 23, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Kohler Novita “Therapy Bidet” Bluetooth LE Enabled Toilet Seat Works with Android & iOS Smartphones

If you’ve ever been to Japan, and to a lesser extend in Korea, you’ll probably have used one those toilet seat that sprays water, and ends with a gentle drying once you’re done with business. That’s all good, but you’d still need to press the buttons to activate it, and who knows what kind of germs may be on those buttons. But with Nordic Semi nRF52832 powered Kohler Novita “Therapy Bidet” (BD-TE80M) you don’t need to worry about third party germs, since it can be controlled over Bluetooth LE with your very own smartphone contaminated with your very own germs. The toilet seat bidet supports three different spray modes (active, silky, and mist) aka “water experiences”, as well as dual dry air blower combined with far infrared for “better skin care” and improved blood circulation. An auto-customization mode is available for ladies during the thing that normally happens every moon […]

August 16, 2018August 16, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

$50 Fish32 Seed “Education” ESP32 Board Comes with Plenty of I/Os, Sensors, and Connectivity Options

Sometimes I feel the word “Education” is sometimes thrown around for marketing purpose, and AnalogLamb Fish32 Seed board for “ESP32 Community Education Board” feels that way to me as so far, I could not see any tutorials or other teaching/ learning resources for the board. Having said that I can see why it could be potentially used for education: the sheer number of features, sensors, and connectivity options should allow students to learn to program my different components around ESP32. It’s just at this stage it may not be such an easy platform to learn on. Fish32 Seed board specifications: Supported ESP32 Modules – ESP32-WROVER, ALB32-WROVER, ESP32-WROOM-32 Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.2 via ESP32 10/100M Ethernet (RJ45) via WIZnet W5500 chip with support for up to 8 independent sockets LoRa via SX1278 chip (433 MHz) Sensors NXP MPU-9250 with 3-axis MEMS gyroscope, 3-axis MEMS accelerometer, 3-axis MEMS magnetometer […]

July 17, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Espruino Pixl.js is a Bluetooth LE Display Programmable with JavaScript, Compatible with Arduino Shields

Espruino is an open source firmware that allows you to control micro-controllers board with JavaScript, and used in hardware such as Wio LTE GPS tracker, some STM32 Cellular IoT Discovery Kits, and other platforms. I have actually tried Espruino and JavaScript programming in an ESP32 board myself, and it worked reasonably well. But Espruino developers also provide hardware platforms for Espruino, which – as one should expect – are normally better supported than other third-party board. One of their latest platforms is Espruino Pixl.js a Bluetooth smart display powered by Nordic Semi nRF52832 WiSoC. Espruino Pixl.js specifications: WiSoC – Nordic Semi nRF52832 Arm Cortex-M4 @ 64MHz with 64kB RAM, 512kB Flash, Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity (via a Raytac Corportation module) Display – 54mm diagonal, 128 x 64 sunlight readable monochrome display with white backlight Connectivity – Bluetooth LE and NFC tag I/Os 20x GPIO in Arduino footprint with PWM, SPI, […]

July 16, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

KidBright32 Board is Thailand’s BBC Micro:Bit Equivalent

BBC Micro:Bit board was first announced in July 2015. Designed for STEM education, the board was then offered to UK schools in March 2016, and a few months later UK store would start selling it worldwide. It’s now available pretty much anywhere, and you can likely find it in a local store or online. The Thai government must have seen this, and thought to themselves “If the British can do it, we can do it too!”, as the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) part of Thailand’s Ministry of Science and Technology designed KidBright32 board and courses to teach STEM to Thai students. The board is based on Espressif Systems ESP32-WROOM-32 WiFI and Bluetooth module, and comes with large holes for power (5V/GND) and 6 digital inputs/outputs, smaller through holes for I2C and more I/Os, as well as an I2C header. We’ll also find some LEDs, two dot matrix […]

July 5, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

ESP32-SOLO-1 is a Single Core ESP32 WiFi and Bluetooth Module

Espressif ESP32 is popular dual core processor with built-in WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, except as we’ve seen last year, the company also developed a single core version with ESP32-S0WD chip, whose price is only slightly more expensive than ESP8266. But so far, I had not seen many hardware platforms announced with the single core version, with the exception of Particle Argon board. But I believe we should soon see more ESP32-S0WD boards brought to market, since Espressif Systems has now announced ESP32-SOLO-1 single core module. ESP32-SOLO-1 wireless module specifications: SoC – Espressif ESP32-S0WD single core Tensilica Xtensa LX6 processor @ up to 160 MHz with 448 KB ROM, 520KB on-chip SRAM, and 16KB SRAM in RTC Storage – 4MB SPI flash Connectivity 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n WiFi up to 150 Mbps Bluetooth 4.2 LE + EDR I/Os – SD card, UART, SPI, SDIO, I2C, LED PWM, motor PWM, I2S, IR, […]

July 4, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

BOSON Kits Feature LEGO Compatible Building Blocks for STEM Education

Last year, DFRobot successfully introduced BOSON Kit “Powerful Building Blocks For LEGO STEM”via Kickstarter, and I’ve just noticed the company is now selling two BOSON Kits on their website: BOSON Science Kit for $149 BOSON Inventor Kit for $249 The kits are plug and pay and do not require coding, nor soldering. The modules come with built-in magnets, or they can be attached with screws, Velcro or to LEGO parts. BOSON modules are based on Intel Curie BLE modules, but those are being phased out, so you may want to inquire DFRobot if long term availability / appropriate stock is a concern. BOSON Science Kit As its name gives away, the kit is a set of exploration tool for aspiring young scientist with the following items: 8 scientific sensors for physics, chemistry and biology: Light sensor Humidity sensor Soil moisture sensor Temperature sensor Waterproof temperature sensor pH sensor (That’s the […]

June 28, 2018April 13, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Visual Studio 2017 with an Embedded Linux Arm Device

This is a non-sponsored guest post written by Marc Goodner: Principal Program Manager, Microsoft, and Jeremias Cordoba: Innovation Engineer, Toradex. Today many embedded devices run some flavor of Linux as their primary operating system. This poses a challenge to developers who run Windows on their development machine. This article explains a new way to use the latest Visual Studio for C++ development on an embedded Arm Devices from a Windows Host PC using containers for the build environment. The device we are deploying to is from the Toradex Colibri Family of System on Modules using the NXP i.MX 6ULL SoC, which features an Arm Cortex A-7. As a demo project, we will connect a Bluetooth Sensor with the Toradex Colibri Module. Please note that Visual Studio support for this case is in an early state, you will see improvements from Microsoft and Toradex in the coming months. Prerequisites Colibri i.MX 6ULL […]