education News - Page 7 of 21 - CNX Software

November 3, 2022November 4, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Learn soldering and programming with the Arduino Make Your UNO Kit

Arduino Make Your UNO Kit is a kit with two boards, one for the microcontroller and the other for audio, and all components required that can be used to learn how to solder and then Arduino programming. Once soldering and assembly are complete you’ll hopefully get a working Arduino UNO and an audio synthesizer shield. But before you get there, you’ll need to equip yourself with a soldering iron and some soldering tin to solder the components below to the two PCBs. Package content: Arduino Make Your UNO board’s components Make Your UNO PCB Socket for ATMega328p MCU Microchip ATmega328p 8-bit AVR microcontroller USB Type-C serial adapter board Various 1k Ohm, 10k Ohm. and 1M Ohm resistors 3x Ceramic capacitors (22pF) 3x Electrolytic capacitors (47uF) 7x Polyester capacitors (100nF) 1x 1N4007 diode 1x 16MHz crystal 4x Yellow LEDs, 1x Green LED 1x Push-Button 1x MOSFET 2x I/O connectors 6-pin header […]

November 2, 2022November 3, 2022 by Leo Zachary - 13 Comments

DongshanPI-D1s – An Allwinner D1s RISC-V development board designed to teach programming

The DongshanPI-D1s development board is comprised of a soldered-on Allwinner D1s RISC-V system-on-module board (SoM) and a carrier board with two 40-pin headers and a 2.0mm dedicated header. This development board is specifically designed to teach programming with a focus on the RISC-V architecture. The development board was designed by 100ask. They previously designed the Dongshan NeZha STU a development board based on the Allwinner D1. The main difference between the two is that 100ask did not include the Ethernet and HDMI interfaces on the DongshanPI-D1s board. The pinout of the headers is also slightly different because they opted to make the headers compatible with the widely used 40-pin GPIO from Raspberry Pi single board computers. DongshanPI-D1s preliminary specifications: D1s Core Lite SoC – Allwinner D1s single-core XuanTie C906 64-bit RISC-V processor @ 1.0 GHz with with 32 KB I-cache + 32 KB D-cache Memory – 64 MB DDR2 (SIP) […]

November 1, 2022January 17, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Review of myCobot 280 Pi robotic arm with Python and visual programming

myCobot 280 Pi is a versatile robotic arm with a 6 degree of freedom design. It was developed by Elephant Robotics using the Raspberry Pi 4 board as the main controller. The robot is compact and delivers stable operation making it ideal for confined spaces. It can also be programmed in a variety of languages, is easy to use, and offers a lot of features. It is suitable for those who are interested in learning how to program a robotic arm controller and for engineering projects. Unboxing myCobot 280 Pi The myCobot 280 Pi arm has a working range of 280 mm, weighs 850 grams, and can handle a payload of up to 250 grams. It is powered by 6 servo motors, one for each degree of freedom, and comes with a 5×5 matrix LED display, and supports LEGO parts as well. Controlled by a Raspberry Pi 4 single board […]

October 19, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Mini Pupper 2 – Raspberry Pi 4 / CM4 robot dog adds ESP32, ROS2 support, servo feedback (Crowdfunding)

Mini Pupper 2 is an improved version of the Mini Pupper robot dog powered by a Raspberry Pi 4 introduced last year. The new model support either the Raspberry Pi 4 SBC or CM4 module, adds an Arduino programmable ESP32 wireless MCU, support for ROS2, and servo feedback. Two variants are offered with the Mini Pupper 2 implementing position servo feedback, and the Mini Pupper 2 Pro position, velocity, and torque servo feedback. Other changes common to both variants include the addition of an IMU, microphone & speaker, a touch sensor, support for autocalibration, as well as a new mobile app for control. Mini Pupper 2 specifications: CPU module – Raspberry Pi 4 SBC or Raspberry Pi CM4 system on module MCU – ESP32 WiFi and Bluetooth dual-core microcontroller programmable with the Arduino IDE Display – 320×240 LCD for facial animation Audio – Built-in Microphone and speaker Camera – Support […]

October 11, 2022October 20, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Maker Pi Pico Mini adds battery, buzzer, GPIO LEDs to Raspberry Pi Pico (W)

Cytron’s Maker Pi Pico Mini is an add-on board for the Raspberry Pi Pico and the latest Raspberry Pi Pico W with a battery port, GPIO status LEDs, a WS2812B Neopixel RGB LED, passive piezo buzzer, user and reset button, as well as “Maker” ports for expansion. It comes with most of the features found in the company’s Maker Pi Pico board, but in a much more compact form factor, since the add-on board is only slightly larger than the Raspberry Pi Pico to allow for soldering using the castellated holes. Maker Pi Pico Mini specifications: Fitted with Raspberry Pi Pico / Pico W LEDs – 6x Status indicator LEDs for GPIOs, 1x RGB LED (WS2812B Neopixel) Audio – 1x Passive piezo buzzer (to play musical tones or melody) Buttons – Reset and user buttons Expansion 3x Maker ports compatible with Qwiic and STEMMA QT, as well as Grove modules […]

October 5, 2022October 5, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

The BBC has released a new web-based Python editor for the micro:bit board

There are already Python editors such as Thonny, but the BBC thought those were not good enough and released a new web-based Python editor specifically designed for the micro:bit education board targeting 11 to 14 years old pupils. The micro:bit Python editor includes drag and drop code examples, code structure & error highlighting, auto-complete feature, a simulator to test the code before uploading it to the micro:bit board, and a Quick ideas section to help pupils get started with projects. The BBC’s micro:bit Python editor works with both the micro:bit V1 and V2, but note the simulator shows a micro:bit V2, so if you are using the previous generation micro:bit, some code may work on the simulator but not on your micro:bit V2 board. For that reason, the BBC marked the code that only works on a micro:bit V2 with ‘V2’ in the Reference section. While the BCC is a […]

September 28, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Raspberry Pi RP2040 gets into BBC Micro:bit lookalike board

ELECFREAKS Pico:ed V2 is a Raspberry Pi RP2040 board heavily inspired by the BBC Micro:bit with an edge connector exposing rings suitable for crocodile clips, a 17×7 LED matrix display, and designed for the classroom. We’ve seen several BBC Micro:bit clones – or rather adaptations – over the years with boards such as the SiFive Learn Inventor, Elecrow Mbits, and HiHope “Big Brother” board. The Pico:ed V2 adds to the list, and the main differences are that it is based on the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller instead, and does not come with wireless connectivity relying on a USB interface only. ELECFREAKS Pico:ed V2 specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ up to 133Mhz with 264kB of SRAM Storage – 2MB QSPI flash Display – 17×7 dot-matrix display USB – 1x micro USB 1.1 port for power, data, and programming I/Os 25-pin notched “Wavy” connector with up to […]

September 24, 2022September 25, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 42 Comments

Orange Pi 800 Keyboard PC – A Raspberry Pi 400 alternative powered by Rockchip RK3399

Raspberry Pi 400 Keyboard PC alternative

There’s now a Raspberry Pi 400 alternative with the Orange Pi 800 Keyboard PC that offers a very similar design, but it is powered by a Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core Cortex-A72/A53 processor. Like the Raspberry Pi model, the Orange Pi 800 comes with 4GB RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, dual-band WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0, two USB 3.0 ports, and one USB 2.0 port, but it also adds 64GB on-board flash storage and features one full-size HDMI port capable of 4Kp60 resolution plus a VGA port, instead of two micro HDMI ports. Orange Pi 800 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core big.LITTLE processor with 2x Arm Cortex-A72 cores up to 1.8GHz, 4x Arm Cortex-A53 cores up to 1.4GHz, and an Arm Mali-T860MP4 GPU System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 64GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot Video Output HDMI 2.0 port up to 4Kp60 VGA port up to Full HD resolution Audio 3.5mm […]