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November 22, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Mercury X1 wheeled humanoid robot combines NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX AI controller and ESP32 motor control boards

Elephant Robotics Mercury X1 is a 1.2-meter high wheeled humanoid robot with two robotic arms using an NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX as its main controller and ESP32 microcontrollers for motor control and suitable for research, education, service, entertainment, and remote operation. The robot offers 19 degrees of freedom, can lift payloads of up to 1kg, work up to 8 hours on a charge, and travel at up to 1.2m/s or about 4.3km/h. It’s based on the company’s Mercury B1 dual-arm robot and a high-performance mobile base. Mercury X1 specifications: Main controller – NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX CPU – 6-core NVIDIA Carmel ARM v8.2 64-bit CPU with 6MB L2 + 4MB L3 caches GPU – 384-core NVIDIA Volta GPU with 48 Tensor Cores AI accelerators – 2x NVDLA deep learning accelerators delivering up to 21 TOPS at 15 Watts System Memory – 8 GB 128-bit LPDDR4x @ 51.2GB/s Storage – 16 […]

November 20, 2024November 23, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2024 – International deals and coupons

While Black Friday and Cyber Monday used to be a US-only event, it changed many years ago, and we’ve been writing about international Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals and coupon codes since 2014, since a large portion of our audience cannot benefit from promotions on Amazon’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday events that will take place from November 21 until December 2 this year. So I’ve gathered some international Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2024 deals and discount coupon codes from relevant manufacturers and popular online stores such as Aliexpress, Banggood, and others. Aliexpress Black Friday and Cyber Monday event Aliexpress’ Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2024 event has already started. There are three periods: Nov 19-21 PST – Warm Up event where users can find and add items to the cart before purchasing during the main event. Nov 22-30 PST – “On Sale” event with discounts up to […]

November 15, 2024November 15, 2024 by Tomisin Olujinmi - No Comments

CYOBot v2 ESP32-S3-based open-source modular robotics platform supports up to 16 servos (Crowdfunding)

CYOBot v2 ESP32-S3 modular robotics platform

Create Your Own Bot (CYOBot) v2 is an open-source, modular robotics platform for students, educators, hobbyists, and future engineers based on the ESP32-S3 microcontroller and featuring up to 16 servo motors for complex control. The CYOBot v2 is a follow-up to the previous quadrupedal robotic platform from the same company. It adds new features such as a modular design, an upgrade to the ESP32-S3 chip, more motor channels, and an expansion block with more peripherals. It also supports integrating AI systems, such as ChatGPT, for added functionality. The CYOBot supports up to three configurations via the CYOBrain — which powers the robotics platform and controls the servo motors — and separate 3D-printed components. The CYOBot Crawler is a four-legged robot powered by eight 180-degree servo motors. The CYOBot Wheeler form factor features four 360-degree motors linked to wheels at the end of each leg and is essentially a hybrid between […]

October 3, 2024October 2, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Olimex RVPC is a one Euro RISC-V computer kit with VGA and PS/2 connectors

Olimex RVPC is one Euro RISC-V computer powered by a WCH CH32V003 RISC-V microcontroller and equipped with a VGA port for video output and a PS/2 connector to connect a keyboard. You won’t be able to do much with this device as an end-user, but it does not matter since the RVPC open-source hardware board mostly targets the education market and is offered as a kit to be soldered to lower the selling price and to serve as a soldering learning kit. Olimex RVPC specifications: MCU – WCH CH32V003 32-bit RISC-V2A microcontroller up to 48 MHz with 2KB SRAM, 16KB flash (SOP8 package with 6x GPIOs) Video Output – VGA connector (3x GPIO used for Vsync, HSync, and RGB) Keyboard port – PS/2 connector (2x GPIO used) Programmer port – 2-pin header for CH32V003 programming through a board such as ESP32-S2-DevKit-LiPo-USB Misc – Buzzer (1x GPIO) and Red power LED […]

August 19, 2024August 19, 2024 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Pimoroni Explorer board is a Raspberry Pi RP2350-based learning platform with 2.8-inch LCD, breadboard sensors and more

The Pimoroni Explorer board is an electronic prototyping board built around the Raspberry Pi RP2350 chip with a 2.8-inch LCD screen, a speaker connector, and various I/Os, which makes it easy to build circuits, prototype projects, and even make small robots. It also features a mini breadboard, tactile buttons, and crocodile clip terminals, making it suitable for both beginners and experienced makers. The RP2350 MCU was recently released by Raspberry Pi Limited along with the $5 Raspberry Pi Pico 2 board. Since that initial release, we have seen many RP2350-based development boards like the Cytron MOTION 2350 Pro, the Bus Pirate 5XL and 6, and many other development boards released, feel free to check those out if you are looking for development boards built around the RP2350 MCU. Pimoroni Explorer board specifications Microcontroller – Raspberry Pi RP2350B MCU CPU Dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 @150MHz with Arm Trustzone for secure boot Dual-core 32-bit […]

August 9, 2024August 19, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Cytron MOTION 2350 Pro – A Raspberry Pi RP2350 board for robotics and motor control

As mentioned in the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 article, third-party RP2350 boards are already available, and one of them is the MOTION 2350 Pro board from Cytron designed for robotics and motor control. The board features a DC motor driver capable of controlling up to 4 brushed DC motors with voltage ratings from 3.6V to 16V. It also features eight 5V servo ports, eight GPIO ports, and three Maker ports for sensor or actuator modules. Each I/O is matched with its own LED which makes the board ideal for the education market and also simplifies debugging. Finally, a USB 1.1 host port is present to connect peripherals such as the RF dongle for a joystick or a keyboard. Cytron MOTION 2350 Pro specifications: Microcontroller – Raspberry Pi RP2350 CPU – Dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 processor @ 150MHz (RISC-V cores are not mentioned, so they are likely not used at all) Memory […]

August 8, 2024August 8, 2024 by Sayantan Nandy - 2 Comments

MechDog AI Robot Dog features ESP32-S3 controller, supports Scratch, Python, and Arduino programming

Hiwonder’s MechDog is a compact AI robot dog powered by an ESP32-S3 controller that drives eight high-speed coreless servos. It features built-in inverse kinematics for precise and agile movements and has ports for various I2C sensors such as ultrasonic and IMU sensors. The robot is equipped with a durable aluminum alloy frame and a removable 7.4V 1,500mAh lithium battery for power. MechDog integrates with the ESP32-S3 AI vision module, supporting dual-mode network communication either AP Hotspot Direct Connection Mode or STA LAN Mode so that users can access a designated URL webpage via an app or PC for real-time monitoring using a high-definition camera. Also, this robot dog supports various sensor modules, including a touch sensor, light sensor, dot matrix display, and programmable MP3 module, allowing for secondary development and expansion, offering extensive creative possibilities. Previously, we wrote about the Waveshare UGV AI Rover, which features a 2mm thick aluminum […]

August 2, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

M5Stamp Fly ESP32-S3 WiFi drone is controlled by the M5Atom WiFi joystick controller using ESPNOW

M5Stack M5Stamp Fly is a tiny ESP32-S3 WiFi drone based on the company’s M5Stamp S3 WiFi 4 and BLE IoT module, equipped with four motors and several sensors. and controllable the M5Atom WiFi joystick controller also based on ESP32-S3 WiSoC. We have recently seen some tiny ESP32 or ESP8266 WiFi drones with a low-cost ESP32 DIY drone and the PiWings 2.0 drone, but the M5Stamp Fly is more advanced with a total of six sensors including a barometer, two time-of-flight distance sensors, a 6-axis IMU, a 3-axis magnetometer, and an optical flow detection sensors, plus two Grove connector for additional sensors or modules. M5Stamp Fly (K138) specifications: Main controller – M5Stamp S3 module WiSoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3FN8 dual-core 32-bit Xtensa LX7 microcontroller with AI vector instructions up to 240MHz, RISC-V ULP co-processor, 512KB SRAM, 2.4GHz WiFi 4 (802.11b/g/n), Bluetooth 5.0 BLE + Mesh, 8MB flash Connectivity 2.4 GHz WiFi […]