education News - Page 13 of 21 - CNX Software

March 31, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Kontron 3.5″-SBC-WLU Single Board Computer Takes CNVi M.2 WiFi Cards

We first found out about Intel CNVi (Connectivity Integration Architecture) for WiFi in a block diagram for Gemini Lake processors in 2017. CNVi integrates a WiFi MAC, Bluetooth MAC, and Baseband Modem into the processor, and connect over a CNVio interface to a separate CRF (Companion RF) module handling the RF part. This allows overall cost & power savings and reduction in size. AFAIK, all new Intel desktop and mobile processors come with a CNVi block, but somehow only a few SBC’s are made with M.2 slot compliant with CNVi WiFi cards. But Kontron 3.5″-SBC-WLU single board computer powered by an Intel Whiskey Lake processor is one of those and features an M.2 E-key slot that supports Intel Integrated Connectivity (CNVi) WiFi & Bluetooth modules. Kontron 3.5″-SBC-WLU specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Core i7-8665UE quad-core processor @ up to 4.4 GHz with 8MB cache, Intel UHD Graphics 620; […]

March 15, 2020March 15, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Radiona ULX3S Open Source Hardware ECP5 FPGA Development Board Launched for $99 and Up (Crowdfunding)

ULX3S Lattice ECP5 FPGA Educational Board

Last summer, we wrote about Radiona ULX3S education board combining a Lattice Semi ECP5 FPGA with an Espressif Systems ESP32 WiFi & Bluetooth WiSoC. Designed for a digital logic course at the University of Zagreb, the board is open-source hardware with KiCAD hardware design files released on GitHub, and programmable with the Arduino IDE (FPGArduino) and ProjectTrellis open-source toolchain. At the time, there was only a version based on Lattice ECP5 85F with 84K LUT, but they’ve now made versions with cheaper variants of ECP5 FPGA and launched the board on Crowd Supply. Radiona ULX3S specifications: FPGA (one of the other) Lattice ECP5 LFE5U-85F-6BG381C with 84K LUT Lattice ECP5 LFE5U-45F-6BG381C with 44K LUT Lattice ECP5 LFE5U-12F-6BG381C with 12K LUT System Memory – 32MB SDRAM @ 166 MHz Storage – 4–16MB Quad-SPI Flash for FPGA config and user data storage; MicroSD slot Audio – 3.5 mm jack with 4 contacts (analog […]

February 2, 2020February 1, 2020 by Stephen Vicinanza - 8 Comments

Sania Box Raspberry Pi 4 based DIY Kit is Designed for STEM Education (Crowdfunding)

Sania Box, A Special Kind of DIY RPi4 Based Kit The 13-year-old Sania Jain is a young entrepreneur, published writer and tech aficionado who now offers an embedded computer kit called Sania Box. The Raspberry Pi 4 based embedded system kit comes with an add-on board and has been designed to develop coding skills in anyone 8 years old or more, and for learning IoT, STEM, and for all kinds of DIY fun. Background Some DIY RPi-based kits can be found in our archives, such as the Piper Computer Kit 2 made for children’s education, but there’s now another option thanks to Sania Jain who has been designing, building, and writing in the STEM arena for some time. Sania Jain’s accomplishments are amazing, and look to be just her beginning in STEM-based endeavors. A Concept With Wide Reach The Sania Box was conceived by Sania Jain and built by Moonshot […]

January 24, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Arduino Education Unveils Four New STEAM Kits for Pupils and Students

We briefly mentioned the Bett Show 2020 in an article about a Snapdragon 7c laptop for education that Microsoft will showcase at the event, but Arduino Education is also present and introduced four new educational kits for pupils and students at different stages of their curriculum. Education Starter Kit – Age: 11+ This kit is for secondary school pupils with no prior experience with electronics or programming. It comes with Arduino boards, breadboard, a multimeter, and other accessories to get started. The kit also includes teacher guides and lessons to wire projects and start programming. IoT Starter Kit – Age: 14+ The IoT starter kit (no photo provided) requires some basic knowledge and targets advanced secondary school and university students who want to learn about the Internet of Things with the kits including various sensors and step-by-step tutorials for ten different projects to help students get introduced to automation, logging, […]

January 20, 2020January 20, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

MarsCat is a Bionic Cat Powered by Raspberry Pi 3 (Crowdfunding)

Elephant Robotics MarsCat is a robotic cat that tries to mimic the behavior of actual cats through artificial intelligence. It can have a life of its own roaming the house, and you can also interact with it as it will play with toys/teasers through its camera, and you can send voice command to ask it to walk, run, look at you, be quiet. etc… but the trick is that it may not always obey like a real cat, and its personality will evolve depending on how you interact with it. Beside being a bionic pet, MarsCat can also be used to teach/learn robotics as the company will release an open-source SDK allowing you to change the Python code running on the Raspberry Pi 3 board powering the cat, and access API’s to control the camera, microphone, touch sensors, as well as the 16 servos connected to a Microchip ATMega2560 MCU […]

January 17, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

JP.IK Turn T101 Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Laptop for Education to Sell for $299 and Up

Qualcomm Snapdragon Windows 10 mobile PCs/laptops offer long battery life and 4G LTE connectivity, but usually suffer from a disappointing performance/price ratio. That means you may have to spend fairly more than you may expect for a Windows 10 Arm laptop, and for instance, Microsoft Surface Pro X goes for $999 and up with a Snapdragon 8cx based Microsoft SQ1 processor. But much more affordable Arm laptop may not be that far off, as Microsoft published some news about their education solutions, and two new Snapdragon 7c laptops are in the works: JP.IK Turn T101 starting at $299 Positivo Wise N1212S starting at $575 Both laptops promise twice the battery life and 25 percent better performance than competing platforms, as well as (4G LTE) cellular connectivity. A $300 Arm laptop with decent performance looks promising, but so far we have very few details at this point, so I’ll speculate […]

September 23, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Piper Computer Kit 2 is a DIY Raspberry Pi 3 Computer for Kids’ Education

Kids can easily build theirs own computer and then learn more about electronics and programming thanks to Piper Computer Kit 2. The kit is based on Raspberry Pi 3 SBC, a 9″ display, a power bank, and all bits and pieces required for assembly. There’s also a 16GB microSD with the OS and the company’s PiperCode software to learn the basics of programming. The complete kit comes with the following items: SBC – Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Storage – 16GB MicroSD card Display – 9″ 1024 x 600 LCD display with HDMI cable Audio – Integrated speaker 25+ laser-etched wooden and acrylic pieces 50+ hardware pieces 20+ electronic components Battery – 7,800 mAh rechargeable battery/power bank Phillips-head screwdriver 8 square foot laminated blueprint USB Mouse This is whay it looks like after around two hours of assembly time. Kids can then start playing Raspberry Pi Edition Mineccraft and some […]

August 30, 2019March 15, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

ULX3S Education Board is Powered by Lattice Semi ECP5 FPGA & ESP32 WiFi/BLE Module

A few days ago, we covered the KiCAD designed OrangeCrab open-source hardware board powered by a Lattice Semi ECP5 FPGA, and compliant with Adafruit Feather form factor. It’s turned out there’s another Lattice Semi ECP5 FPGA board that’s also designed with KiCAD and open source hardware. Radiona ULX3S differs are it’s larger and exposes more I/Os since it was specifically designed to meet the meets of the digital logic course at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER) of the University of Zagreb in Croatia. ULX3S specifications: FPGA – Lattice ECP5 LFE5U-85F-6BG381C with 84K LUT System Memory – 32MB SDRAM @ 166 MHz Storage – 4–16MB Quad-SPI Flash for FPGA config and user data storage; MicroSD slot Audio – 3.5 mm jack with 4 contacts (analog stereo + digital audio or composite video) Video – Digital video (GPDI General-Purpose Diferential Interface) with 3.3V-5V I2C bidirectional level shifter Display – […]