Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect WiFi & Bluetooth board launched for $25.50

Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect without headers

The Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect board was announced the day of Raspberry Pi Pico launch as one of the third-party boards featuring Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller. At the time all we had was renders of the board, later on, the company showcased some mass product photos, and then released Arduino Core mbed 2.0 for the board last month. But it’s only today that it has become possible to purchase Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect board for $25.50 on Arduino store with headers. Nano RP2040 Connect specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex M0+ microcontroller @ 133 MHz with 264 kB of embedded SRAM Storage – 16MB Flash IC (AT25SF128A) Connectivity – WiFi 4 & Bluetooth LE via Nina W102 uBlox module (Yes, that’s an ESP32 module.) USB – Micro USB port I/Os via 2x 15-pin headers (through and castellated holes) 20x digital I/O pins, 20x PWM pins, 20x […]

HEGduino V2 supports fNIRS and Blood-Flow Monitoring (Crowdfunding)

HEGduino V2 headband

AlasKit has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Crowd Supply for HEGduino V2. The device features noninvasive optical imaging through fNIRS (Functional near-infrared spectroscopy), apart from its brain blood flow monitoring functionality. We saw the previous version of the HEGduino in September 2019 which only supported blood flow monitoring. But the HEGduino V2 also monitors breathing, heart rate, and skin temperature. HEGduino V2 has a MAX86141 optical pulse oximeter cum heart-rate sensor for incorporating Heart Rate Variability (HRV) training. It also allows breath and skin temperature monitoring. The sensor has a specification of 2×4096 SPS sensing with a 19-bit resolution which is a bit higher than its previous version. As HEGduino V1 had an 860 SPS sensing with a 16-bit resolution. However, the practical application observes even lesser values for HEGduino V1. Setup of HEGduino V2 The device also comes with an ESP32 breakout board with rechargeable battery support. The board […]

ATMegaZero ESP32-S2 board supports OLED displays

ATMegaZero ESP32-S2

EspinalLab ATMegaZero board was introduced last year with Raspberry Pi Zero form factor, the Arduino Leonardo compatible, 16 MHz Microchip ATmega32U4 microcontroller, and a connector for an optional OLED display. The company is now back with an update following the same form factor with ATMegaZero ESP32-S2 board equipped with a more powerful ESP32-S2 single-core processor @ 240 MHz with WiFi connectivity, and most of the same features, including OLED display support, plus a micro USB OTG port and an RGD LED. ATMegaZero ESP32-S2 board specifications: WiSoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S2 single-core processor @ 240 MHz with WiFi RAM – 8MB PSRAM Storage MicroSD card 256Mbit (32MB) SPI Flash (note: only 16MB can be used for now due to firmware limitations) Display – 32-pin OLED display port compatible with 30-pin SSD1306 and SH1106 based displays Wireless Connectivity – 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 up to 150 MHz with 3D antenna  USB – […]

AI-Thinker introduces 5 ESP32-C3 modules pin compatible with ESP8266 & ESP32 modules

ESP32-C3 modules

ESP32-C3 is the first RISC-V wireless SoC from Espressif Systems, and at the time of the initial announcement promised to cost about the same as ESP8266 but adds support for Bluetooth 5.0 LE besides 2.4 GHz WiFi, and retain software compatibility through the ESP-IDF framework. We were also told the goal was to provide ESP8266 compatible modules, and AI-Thinker has just announced five new ESP32-C3 modules compatible with earlier ESP8266 & ESP32 modules as shown in the table below. The table above is quite low resolution but that’s the best I could obtain from the company… It’s also a complete mess, not showing all alternative ESP8266 or mistaken in board sizes. So I’ll try to give a short summary of differentiating features and equivalent ESP8266/ESP32 modules: ESP32-C3F is meant to replace ESP-12F with a 24 x 16 mm form factor. It does add an IPEX connector, besides the PCB antenna. […]

TinyS2 ESP32-S2 board is designed for battery operation

TinyS2 ESP32-S2 board

Unexpected Maker has launched a follow-up to the ESP32 based TinyPICO board with TinyS2 board equipped with an ESP32-S2 WiFi processor featuring 4MB flash and 2MP embedded PSRAM. The new board is still designed with a LiPo battery charging circuit, comes with an onboard RGB LED, and while it is compatible with TinyPICO form factor, it has become a little longer with a 41 x 17.8mm footprint to accommodate for extra I/Os. TinyS2 specifications: WiSoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S2FN4R2 single-core processor @ 240 MHz with 4MP SPI flash, 2MP PSRAM Connectivity – 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 plus 3D antenna USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and programming Expansion – 12 + 11-pin headers for up to 17x GPIOs, SPI, I2C, UART, ADC, DAC, 5V, 3.3V and BAT signals Misc – Boot and Reset buttons, battery charging status LED, power LED, user-programmable RGB LED that can be shut […]

Crowbits Master Kit Tutorial – Part 2: ESP32 intrusion scanner and visual programming

Crowbits Intrusion Scanner

I started Crowbits Master Kit review last month by checking out the content, user manual, and some of the possible projects for the ESP32 educational kit including a 2G phone and a portable game console. For the second part of the review, I’ll go through one of the lessons in detail, namely the intrusion scanner to show the whole process and how well (or not) it works. Let’s go to Lesson 5 directly, although I’d recommend going through the first lessons that provide details about the hardware and visual programming basics using Letscode program, which is basically a custom version of Scratch for Crowbits The user manual introduces the project, explains it is to detect intruders, and lists the learning goals as we’ll learn how to control the servo and play music on the Crowbits kit. Kit Assembly But first, we’ll have some assembly to do, in a similar way […]

ESP32-C6 WiFI 6 and Bluetooth 5 LE RISC-V SoC for IoT devices coming soon

ESP32-C6

Espressif Systems introduced their first RISC-V wireless SoC last year with ESP32-C3 single-core 32-bit RISC-V SoC offering both 2.4GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE connectivity, and while the company sent some engineering samples of ESP32-C3 boards months ago, general availability of ESP32-C3-DevKitM-1 and modules is expected shortly. But the company did not stop here, and just announced their second RISC-V processor with ESP32-C6 single-core 32-bit RISC-V processor clocked at up to 160 MHz with both 2.4 GHz WiFi 6 (802.11ax) and Bluetooth 5 LE connectivity. ESP32-C6 preliminary specifications: CPU, Memory, and Storage 32-bit RISC-V single-core processor up to 160 MHz 384 KB ROM 400 KB SRAM (16 KB for cache) 8 KB SRAM in RTC SPI, Dual SPI, Quad SPI, and QPI interfaces for external flash and/or PSRAM Wi­Fi 2.4 GHz 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 with 20 MHz bandwidth, support for station interface 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n  WiFI 4 with 20/40MHz […]

LilyGo sells Open-Smartwatch open-source hardware ESP32 watch by “Paul’s 3D Things”

T-Open-Smartwatch

We’ve previously covered three variants of LilyGo T-Watch-2020 smartwatch based on ESP32 WiFi & Bluetooth SoC with TTGO T-Watch-2020 (V1) launched about a year ago, following by T-Watch-2020 V3 with a microphone for voice control, and T-Watch-2020 V2 with GPS. The company has recently launched a new rounded smartwatch based on ESP32-PICO-D4 SiP with a twist as they did not design it themselves and instead partnered with “Paul’s 3D Things” for the Open-Smartwatch, and just handle manufacturing and production. LilyGo Open-Smartwatch “Light Edition” specifications: Wireless module – LILYGO T-micro32 module based on ESP32-PICO-D4 module with dual-core ESP32 processor, 4MB FLASH, ceramic antenna or u.FL antenna connector Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.2 BR/EDR BLE and WiFi 4 2.4GHz 802.11 b/g/n Display –  1.3 inch circular LCD with 240×240 resolution USB – Micro USB for charging and programming Sensor – 3-axis BMA400 accelerator Debugging – USB to TTL via CH340E chip Misc -Reset […]

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