matter News - Page 3 of 9 - CNX Software

May 20, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Matter 1.3 specification adds support for water and energy management, electric vehicle chargers, and various household appliances

The Connectivity Standard Alliance (CSA) has just announced the release of the Matter 1.3 specification and SDK with energy reporting, support for water and energy management devices, electric vehicle chargers, several new “major appliances”, namely various kitchen appliances and laundry dryers, and various other features. As a reminder the Matter protocol was initially introduced several years ago under the name Project CHIP to improve the interoperability of Smart Home devices from various vendors, so for example, users could connect a Matter-compatible Philips Hue light bulb to a Samsung gateway, or a white-brand Matter sensor with Google Home, etc… Matter started to pick last year with several products launched, and Paisit notably reviewed the MINI Extreme Wi-Fi Smart Switch (MINIR4M), the first Matter device from SONOFF, last October. Matter 1.3 adds various new capabilities and devices. Matter 1.3 highlights: Support for Water and Energy Management Devices Energy Management – Matter 1.3 […]

May 17, 2024May 17, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

SONOFF Zigbee Bridge Ultra (ZBBridge-U) Zigbee 3.0 gateway and Matter Bridge supports up to 256 sub-devices

SONOFF Zigbee Bridge Ultra, also known as ZBBridge-U, is a Zigbee 3.0 gateway and Matter Bridge powered by a 1.5 GHz Rockchip RV1109 dual-core processor and equipped with Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 multiprotocol SoC. The gateway also offers WiFi and Ethernet connectivity and supports up to 256 Zigbee 3.0 sub-devices improving on the 128 sub-devices supported by the earlier SONOFF ZBBridge-P (ESP32+CC2652P) that also lacks Matter support. The new ZBBridge-U gateway further implements a Turbo mode increasing the line-of-sight range to up to 200 meters. SONOFF Zigbee Bridge Ultra (ZBBridge-U) specifications: SoC – Rockchip RV1109 dual-core Arm Cortex-A7 @ 1.5 GHz with RISC-V MCU @ 400 MHz, 2D graphics engine, 1.2 TOPS NPU, 5MP H.264 and H.265 hardware video decoder and encoder System Memory – 1GB DDR4 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash for the OS Connectivity 10/100M Ethernet RJ45 port 2.4GHz WiFi 4 Zigbee 3.0 via Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 SoC with […]

May 3, 2024May 5, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

WeAct ESP32-C6-Mini is the cheapest ESP32-C6 board so far going for less than $4

WeAct ESP32-C6-Mini is a small development board based on Espressif Systems ESP32-C6 WiFi 6, Bluetooth, and 802.15.4 wireless SoC that’s the cheapest we’ve seen so far selling for just $3.86 on Aliexpress. WeAct was one of the first companies to launch a third-party ESP32-C6 development board year with the price starting at just $6. I still remember the excitement around the first $5 ESP8266 WiFi 4 module when we first covered it in 2014, and ten years later, we can get a full $4 development board with a more powerful 160 MHz RISC-V microcontroller, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, and an 802.15.4 radio for Thread, Zigbee, and Matter. WeAct ESP32-C6-Mini specifications: Wireless SoC – ESP32-C6-N4 CPU Single-core 32-bit RISC-V clocked up to 160 MHz Low-power RISC-V core @ up to 20 MHz Memory – 512KB SRAM, 16KB low power SRAM Storage – 320KB ROM, and 4MB flash Wireless – 2.4 GHz […]

April 15, 2024April 14, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

ESP32-H4 low-power dual-core RISC-V SoC supports 802.15.4 and Bluetooth 5.4 LE

Espressif Systems has formally announced the ESP32-H4 low-power dual-core 32-bit RISC-V wireless microcontroller with support for 802.15.4 and Bluetooth 5.4 LE portfolio after having unveiled it at CES 2024. It’s the first Espressif chip to support Bluetooth 5.4 LE with previous models such as ESP32-H2 or ESP32-C6 only supporting Bluetooth 5.0/5.2. Besides BLE 5.4 support, the new ESP32-H4 dual-core RISC-V WiSoC is an evolution of the ESP32-H2 single-core chip with PSRAM support (up to 4MB built-in), additional GPIOs (36 vs 24), touch sensing GPIOs, and some extra security features such as a power glitch detector also found in the recently announced ESP32-C61. ESP32-H4 specifications: CPU – Dual-core 32-bit RISC-V core (at up to 96 MHz) RAM – 320KB KB SRAM, optional PSRAM up to 4MB Storage – 128KB ROM, External flash support Wireless connectivity IEEE 802.15.4 radio with Zigbee and Thread support, Matter protocol Bluetooth 5.4 (LE) radio designed in-house, […]

April 9, 2024May 8, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Silicon Labs MG26, BG26, and PG26 Cortex-M33 AI microcontrollers offer up to 3200KB flash, 512KB RAM, 64 GPIO’s

Silicon Labs MG26 BG26 P26 Cortex M33 microcontrollers

Silicon Labs has announced the xG26 family of Cortex-M33 wireless SoCs and MCUs that consists of the multiprotocol MG26 SoC, the Bluetooth LE BG26 SoC, and the PG26 general-purpose MCU without wireless connectivity, and features double the flash and RAM of the Silicon Labs xG24 devices. The xG26 family also comes with double the number of general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins as the xG24 to enable engineers to build more complex devices in combination with the larger flash and memory reaching up to 3200 KB and 512KB respectively and also integrates a Matrix Vector Processor (MVP) for AI/ML hardware acceleration and Math functions. Silicon Labs MG26 and BG26 wireless SoCs MG26 and BG26 key features and specifications: MCU core – Arm Cortex-M33 @ 78 MHz AI/ML accelerator – Matrix Vector Processor that is 8x faster and 6x lower power than Cortex-M33 processing, and supports an MVP Math Library for non-ML workloads […]

April 8, 2024April 7, 2024 by Tomisin Olujinmi - No Comments

u-blox ALMA-B1 and NORA-B2, Bluetooth 5.4 LE modules are based on Nordic nRF54H20 and nRF54L15 SoCs

Wireless communication solutions provider, u-blox has added two new modules to its Bluetooth LE portfolio with the ALMA-B1 and NORA-B2 modules built upon the latest low-power wireless nRF54 chips from Nordic Semiconductor. Both modules come in a portable, power-efficient layout and support Bluetooth 5.4 and 802.15.4 (Thread, Matter, Zigbee). The ALMA-B1 and NORA-B2 BLE modules are powered by the low-power nRF54H20 and nRF54L15 SoCs, respectively. This enables them to provide IoT devices with sufficient processing power for edge computing and machine learning without the need for external components. u-blox claims that the ALMA-B1 module provides “more than twice the processing power of previous Bluetooth LE modules” and can replace general-purpose microcontrollers in compact solutions. Also, the NORA-B2 reportedly “consumes up to 50% less current compared to previous generations of Bluetooth LE modules,” leading to longer battery life or smaller batteries in end products. Both modules are classified as open CPU […]

March 26, 2024 by Tomisin Olujinmi - 6 Comments

Arduino Nano Matter board specifications and price announced

The Arduino Nano Matter is the product of a collaboration between Arduino and Silicon Labs. The Nano Matter board was announced in January and is powered by SiLabs’ MGM240S chip. It offers multiple wireless connectivity options such as Matter, OpenThread, and Bluetooth Low Energy. Support for the Matter standard is the Nano Matter board’s key offering. Matter is an open-source, connectivity protocol that lets smart home devices from different manufacturers interoperate seamlessly. The 45mm x 18mm board leverages dual-mode connectivity, with IEEE 802.15.4 (Thread) for mesh networking and Bluetooth Low Energy for short-range communication. It is targeted at the Internet of Things, home automation, professional automation, environmental monitoring, and climate control applications. Prospective industrial applications include machine-to-machine interoperability, machine status monitoring, and worker status optimization. Arduino Nano Matter specs: MPU – SiLabs MGM240SD22VNA MCU core – 32-bit Arm Cortex-M33 with DSP (digital signal processing) instruction and FPU (floating-point unit) @ […]

March 26, 2024March 25, 2024 by Debashis Das - 3 Comments

$6.99 Waveshare’s ESP32-C6-Pico Board resembles Raspberry Pi Pico board

Waveshare ESP32 C6 Pico Devlopment Board

Waveshare’s ESP32-C6-Pico and ESP32-C6-Pico-M development boards are equipped with the ESP32-C6-MINI-1 module supporting Wi-Fi 6(802.11ax), Bluetooth 5, Zigbee 3.0, and Thread 1.3, and inspired by the Raspberry Pi Pico form factor. They can be powered either through USB Type-C or an external 5V DC supply connected to the pins. Previously we have written about similar ESP32-C6-based boards like the SparkFun Thing Plus, ePulse Feather C6, and WeAct ESP32-C6 dev board. However, these boards are priced way over the $6.99 that Waveshare is offering. One exception is the DFRobot’s FireBeetle 2 ESP32-C6 board, which cuts costs by using the IC directly instead of the fully shielded ESP32-C6-MINI-1 module. Waveshare’s ESP32-C6-Pico board specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-C6-MINI-1 SoC – ESP32-C6H4 32-bit RISC-V microprocessor up to 160 MHz with 320KB ROM, 512KB HP SRAM, 16KB LP SRAM, 4MB flash Wireless – 2.4 GHz WiFi 6 with Target Wake Time (TWT) support, Bluetooth 5.3 LE and […]