AquaPing is an open-source, battery powered acoustic water leak detector module (Crowdfunding)

Acoustic leak detector

The AquaPing is an open-source hardware, ultra-low power acoustic water leak detector sensor based on Texas Instruments MSP430 microcontroller and a microphone that can detect leaks without having to do any plumbing, instead capturing audio for water leak detection, and it even works for leaks behind walls. All signal processing and analysis occur on the MSP430 MCU, so no audio is streamed to the cloud and eavesdropping is impossible, plus the sensor only captures high frequencies out of the range of normal conversations, so eavesdropping is not feasible, plus those higher frequencies are also said to provide highest sensitivity and reliability. AquaPing specifications: MCU – Texas Instruments MSP430FR5994 microcontroller to perform FFT spectral analysis (10x faster/efficient than ARM-Cortex M0+) Audio capture – MEMS microphone covered by a small rectangular plastic structure to form a Helmholtz resonator. Minimum detectable leak rate – 0.01 gpm (gallon per minute) depending on stand-off distance […]

Pixel Pump is an open-source, manual pick-and-place machine (Crowdfunding)

Pixel Pump pick-and-place machine

Pixel Pump is an open-source hardware vacuum pump that should be easier to use than a pair of tweezers to pick and place SMT components, and suitable for prototypes and small production runs. The system comes with a pen with five exchangeable stainless-steel nozzles to match the size of components, a foot pedal, and several tactile silicone buttons with RGB backlighting to control the unit. The button on the unit (customized parts bought from Alibaba) allows you to change operation modes, switch between high- and low-power settings, or activate reverse mode to clean your nozzle. It’s also possible to configure vacuum power and LED brightness with the buttons. The foot pedal is used to control the vacuum pump to pick up and release the components. A serviceable air filter is also integrated into the design to protect the vacuum pump and valves from debris. Robin Reiter, Pixel Pump’s designer, explains […]

ShaRPiKeebo handheld Linux computer based on Raspberry Pi Zero (2) W ships with a LoRa radio (Crowdfunding)

Raspberry Pi Zero portable Linux computer with LoRa

Morpheans ShaRPiKeebo is a portable Linux computer based on Raspberry Pi Zero W or Zero 2 W SBC that reminds me of the Allwinner R8 powered PocketCHIP handheld computer that was introduced in 2016, and was quite popular (for a niche product) at the time. The ShaRPiKeebo comes with a physical QWERTY keyboard, a daylight-readable screen, and Wi-Fi & Bluetooth connectivity, but also adds a 433 MHz LoRa radio that should make it usable as an off-the-grid communicator. Just like PocketCHIP, the ShaRPiKeebo can be used for system administration, retro-gaming, pen testing, STEM education, and all sort of maker projects. ShaRPiKeebo specifications: Supported SBCs via 40-pin GPIO header – Raspberry Pi Zero W, Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, and (maybe) compatible SBCs like Radxa Zero or Banana Pi M2 Zero Display – 2.7- inch SHARP memory display (LS027B7DH01) with 400×240 resolution, low-latency, low-power Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n WiFi 4, Bluetooth 4.2 […]

Rockchip RK3588 Pico-ITX board launched with four-node cluster box (Crowdfunding)

Mixtile Blade 3 SBC

The Mixtile Blade 3 Pico-ITX single board computer (SBC) powered by Rockchip RK3588 processor has now launched on Crowd Supply with either 8GB or 16GB RAM, and an optional four-node cluster box with a built-in PCIe switch designed to accommodate four Mixtile Blade 3 boards. The board also comes with up to 128GB of storage, two 2.5GbE interfaces, HDMI 2.1 output, HDMI 2.0 input, USB 3.2 Gen 1 USB Type-C ports, as well as a mini PCIe Gen 2 for expansion and a 30-pin GPIO header for expansion, as well as U.2 edge connector with 12V, PCIe x4 Gen 3 and SATA signals to interface with other Mixtile boards and build clusters. Mixtile Blade 3 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588 octa-core processor with four Arm Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, four Arm Cortex-A55 cores, Arm Mali-G610 MP4 quad-core GPU with support for OpenGL ES3.2, OpenCL 2.2, Vulkan1.1, 6 […]

RoenDi is a rotary encoder with a color display (Crowdfunding)

rotary encoder display

RoenDi is a rotary encoder with an integrated round color display. Based on an STM32L4 MCU, it can be programmed with the STM32CubeIDE or the Arduino IDE, and be used as an information display, an IoT controller, a locking mechanism, as well as in audio applications. RoenDi specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32L433 Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller @ 80 MHz with 256 KB flash memory Storage – 128 Mbit SPI NOR flash Display – Round 1.28-inch TFT LCD display with 240 x 240  resolution, up to 262K colors Rotary Encoder – 15 pulses / 30 detents USB – Micro USB connector I/Os – Breakout pads for peripherals: I2C, GPIO, PWM, CAN; 5V tolerant Debugging – Adaptor board and cable for ST-LINK Misc – BOOT boot, RTC (built-in into STM32 MCU) Power Supply – 3V to 5V DC input, 3 V, 400 mA LDO Dimensions – 40 x 40 mm (PCB) Enclosure  – […]

802.11ah WiFi HaLow development board launched for $99 (Crowdfunding)

802.11ah Halow development board

When 802.11.ah WiFi operating in the 900 MHz frequency range for low-power long-range communication was announced in 2014, then named WiFi HaLow in 2016, I naively assumed it would soon compete against other LPWAN standards like LoRaWAN or Sigfox. However, over the next few years, we did not see much interest in the wireless standard. But it may be picking up now, as Gateworks recently announced a Newracom NRC7292 based 802.11ah WiFi HaLow Mini PCIe module for their Arm Linux SBC’s, and a company called TELEDATICS has now introduced the Halo TD-XPAH 802.11ah Hallow development board featuring an AzureWave AW-HM482 module. Halo TD-XPAH board specifications: 802.11ah WiFi HaLow connectivity AzureWave AW-HM482 module based on Newracom NRC7292 Cortex-M3/M0 SoC with 752KB RAM, 2MB flash Compliant with IEEE 802.11ah WiFi HaLow operating in 902.0 ~ 928.0 MHz range Up to 15 Mbps data rate Up to at least 1km range, but can […]

CANFDuino – A Dual CAN Arduino based platform with enclosure, proto area (Crowdfunding)

CANFDuino

CANFDuino is an Arduino-compatible dual CAN bus platform with CAN FD support that can be used for both prototyping and deployment on the field thanks to its rugged aluminum enclosure, two DB9 CAN connectors, an IO terminal block. The board is powered by a Microchip SAMC21G18A microcontroller with CAN-FD support, a MicroSD card slot, a micro USB port, various analog and digital I/O, as well as a prototyping area allowing users to solder their own components to the board if needed.   CANFDuino specifications: MCU – Microchip SAMC21G18A Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ up to 64 MHz with 32KB SRAM, 256KB flash Storage – MicroSD card slot I/Os 2x DB9 connectors with CAN/CAN-FD up to 5 Mbps 12-way screw terminal block IO Through holes with 10x analog inputs Up to 24 digital IO w/14x PWM 2x UART (+1 UART2USB) 1x I2C,1x SPI 3.3V and 5V supplies Prototyping area for soldering extra […]

Inkplate 6COLOR – A 5.8-inch e-paper color wireless display (Crowdfunding)

Inkplate 6COLOR

Inkplate 6COLOR is a 5.8-inch color e-paper display equipped with ESP32 WiSoC to provide WiFi and Bluetooth LE connectivity, and programmable with the Arduino IDE or MicroPython. We’ve covered Inkplate ESP32-based e-paper displays since Inkplate 6 was launched in 2019, and since then the company introduced a larger model and an upgraded variant with a touchscreen display and higher resolution. But so far, all were grayscale models, and Inkplate 6COLOR is the first to come with color, or more exactly 7 colors. Inkplate 6COLOR specifications: Wireless module with dual-core ESP32 processor, Wi-Fi 4 & Bluetooth 4.0 (BLE) connectivity External storage – MicroSD card socket Display  – 5.8-inch, 600 x 448 e-paper display with 7 colors (Black, White, Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Orange) 128 DPI 25 seconds refresh time (manufacturer); tested by Inkplate: 10 to 11 seconds USB – 1x USB Type-C port for programming and power Expansion – Headers for […]

EmbeddedTS embedded systems design