Sparrow is a sensor-to-cloud LoRaWAN solution based on STM32WLE5 microcontroller

Sparrow developer kit

Blues Wireless Sparrow is a LoRaWAN solution designed to connect a group of low-cost, low-power device sensors for shared data backhaul to the cloud. It is comprised of STMicro STM32WLE5 LoRa-based sensors whose data is then routed through the company’s Notecard-powered WiFi or cellular gateway and ultimately a cloud app hosted on AWS, Microsoft Azure, or other IoT cloud platforms. The company claims the Notecard and Sparrow solutions ease the development of IoT networks in a way that was previously only available “to sophisticated engineering firms”, and now Blues Wireless supports cellular, WiFi, and LPWAN technologies. Let’s have a look at the “Sparrow Essentials” board specifications first: Wireless SoC – STMicro STM32WLE5+ Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller @ 48MHz with 256KB Flash, 64KB of SRAM, Semtech SX126x LoRa transceiver I/Os Breadboard compatible 2.54mm headers with digital and analog I/O, I2C, UART, and SPI Qwiic Connector Debugging – JTAG (SWD capable) debug jack […]

u-blox XPLR-IOT-1 explorer kit embeds cellular IoT, Wi-Fi, BLE, GNSS, and sensors for IoT evaluation

XPLR-IoT-1 IoT evaluation plaform

u-blox XPLR-IOT-1 explorer kit is an all-in-one IoT evaluation platform with cellular IoT, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, and GNSS, plus some sensors to evaluate various IoT products and enable proofs of concepts such as logistics container trackers, industrial automation, sensor-to-cloud applications, and fleet management solutions. The device’s main module is the u-blox NORA-B106 with a dual-core Arm Cortex M33 microcontroller and Bluetooth LE 5.2 radio that host the application software and control the other modules, namely the SARA-R510S module for LTE-M and NB-IoT cellular connectivity, NINA-W156 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi module, and the MAX-M10S GNNS module. The XPLR-IOT-1 platform is also equipped with an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, and temperature, humidity, pressure, and ambient light sensors. u-blox XPLR-IOT-1 specifications: Main MCU – Nordic Semi nRF5340 dual-core Arm Cortex M33 @ 128/64 MHz with 512 + 64 kB RAM memory and 1024 + 256 kB flash (found in NORA-B106 module) Wireless […]

Digi IX30 is a cellular router for Industry 4.0, public safety, harsh environments

Digi IX30

Digi IX30 is a 4G LTE cellular router for industry 4.0 designed for distribution and automation, remote machines and sensor monitoring in industries such as oil and gas production, water utilities, smart cities, and outdoor signage. The Digi IX30 is a rugged device able to operate in harsh environments, and the US model supports FirstNet nationwide wireless broadband network dedicated to public safety in the event of an emergency (e.g. terrorist attack). The network is designed for first responders, city services, and infrastructure, as well as drilling and gas wells, Internet-connected irrigation systems, waste disposal, and septic tank services among others. A future version will also support the Anterix Band 8 (900 MHz) for critical infrastructure/mission-critical private LTE networks. Digi IX30 specifications: SoC, memory, storage – No information, except the processor is running Linux.  Connectivity Ethernet – 2x 10/100M Fast Ethernet ports Cellular options FirstNet capable LTE Advanced Cat 7 […]

Raspberry Pi 5G Development Kit to ship with Quectel RM50xQ or Telit FN980 modem

Raspberry Pi 5G development kit

SixFab is now taking pre-orders for its “Raspberry Pi 5G Development Kit” equipped with either Quectel RM50xQ or Telit FN980 5G modem fitted to SixFab’s Raspberry Pi 5G HAT, all housed in a plastic and acrylic enclosure with four antennas. The selected modems rely on the worldwide 5G NR Sub-6GHz and mmWave frequency bands, and the company says a data throughput of up to 5.0 Gbps (download) and 1.0 Gbps (upload) is possible with the kit. SixFab explained the 5G devkit is designed to help with the development, optimization, and testing of MTC (Machine-type Communication) and M2M projects leading to products such as IoT gateways, indoor and outdoor CPE, high bitrate video streaming, real-time sensor data broadcasting, high-speed mobile 5G hotspot, etc. SixFab Raspberry Pi 5G Development Kit specifications: Works with Raspberry Pi 4 or compatible SBC’s with USB 3.0 port Raspberry Pi 5G HAT with M.2 socket optionally fitted […]

How to use PinePhone as a mobile hotspot

PinePhone SIM Card MicroSD Card

I’ve recently started using my Android phone as a mobile hotspot with mixed results so instead, I’ve switched to using PinePhone as a hotspot with Manjaro Arm Linux with Plasma Mobile instead, and performance seems much more stable now. Early this year, I received Pinephone with PostMarketOS beta, and after playing with it a bit I did not do much with it so far. But in recent times, I’ve been staying in various places without WiFi, so I purchased a lost cost SIM card with a one-year cellular data plan to be able to work from any location using my Android 10 smartphone (Huawei Y9 Prime 2019) as a mobile hotspot. It works most of the time, but sometimes I have massive packet loss, and the only way to recover is to turn off and on the hotspot, and in some cases even reboot the phone. Playing with settings on […]

Embedded development board features Microchip PolarFire RISC-V FPGA SoC

PolarFire RISC-V FPGA SoC development board

Microchip/MicroSemi first introduced PolarFire RISC-V FPGA SoC at the end of 2018, with the chip being like the RISC-V equivalent of Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ Arm & FPGA MPSoC. The following year, ARIES Embedded unveiled the ARIES M100PF system-on-module and evaluation board, before Microchip launched PolarFire SoC Icicle 64-bit RISC-V and FPGA development board, followed by the more compact PolarBerry SBC in 2020. There’s now at least a fourth platform based on PolarFire SoC with Aldec TySOM-M-MPFS250 embedded development board.   Aldec TySOM-M-MPFS250 specifications: SoC – Microchip PolarFire MPFS250T-FCG1152 SoC  with 4x SiFive U54 RV64GC application cores (similar to Cortex-A35 performance), 1x SiFive E51 RV64IMAC monitor core, FPGA fabric with 254K logic cells, 17.6 Mb RAM System Memory 2GB (16Gbit) 32-bit DDR4 for the FPGA 2GB (16Gbit) 36-bit RAM with ECC for the RISC-V cores (aka MSS = Microprocessor Subsystem) Storage – MicroSD card socket, eMMC flash, SPI flash, 64 Kbit […]

Venice GW7100 compact industrial SBC packs one Gigabit Ethernet port, one mPCIe socket

Venice GW7100 SBC

Gateworks introduced the new Venice Industrial IoT SBC Family based on NXP i.MX 8M Mini processor with up to two Ethernet ports and four mPCIe Sockets last September starting with GW7300 board with dual Gigabit Ethernet and three mPCIe sockets. But the US company has now announced the availability of the smallest member of the family with Venice GW7100 SBC equipped with just one Gigabit Ethernet port and one mPCIe socket in a compact 100x35mm form factor. Venice GW7100 specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Mini single, dual or quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.6GHz, with Arm Cortex-M4 at 400+MHz, 3D GPU (OpenGL ES 2.0), 2D GPU, and 1080p VPU System Memory – 1 GB LPDDR4 (up to 4GB) Storage – 8 GB eMMC flash (up to 64GB) Connectivity 1x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port with passive PoE support WiFi/Bluetooth or Cellular connectivity via mini PCIe socket and Nano-SIM […]

UG65 LoRaWAN gateway supports Node-RED, up to 2,000 nodes

LoRaWAN Gateway Red-Node

Node-RED is a popular flow-based, visual programming development tool originally developed by IBM for wiring together hardware devices, APIs, and online services as part of the Internet of Things. But despite being designed for the IoT, I’ve seldom seen Node-RED support for LoRaWAN hardware, the only exception being the Axon platform, a tiny WiFi & LoRaWAN board. But there’s at least one more option with Milestone IoT’s UG65 LoRaWAN gateway, launched late last year, getting a firmware update that adds Node-RED support. UG65 LoRaWAN gateway specifications: SoC – NXP quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @  1.5 GHz System Memory – 512 MB DDR4 RAM Storage – 8 GB eMMC flash Connectivity LoRaWAN Semtech SX1302 based Fully Integrated Internal Antenna (Optional: 1 × 50 Ω N-Female External Antenna Connector) 8 channels Frequency Bands – CN470, IN865, EU868, RU864, US915, AU915, KR920, AS923 Sensitivity – -140dBm Sensitivity @292bps Output Power – 27dBm Max Protocol […]

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