Nordic Semiconductor recently announced the availability of the nRF9161 system in package (SiP) and pre-certified Development Kit designed to power both cellular IoT and non-cellular 5G technologies. This new device can connect to LTE-M, NB-IoT, and DECT NR+ networks while maintaining long battery life, better location tracking, and strong connectivity. Additionally, Nordic offers support through their nRF Connect SDK and the Nordic Developer Academy. The nRF9161 SiP is an improved version of the nRF9160 SiP, which has been the basis for various projects like the Actinius Icarus SoM DK, Conexio Stratus, nRF9160 Feather LTE IoT and GPS Board, Ruuvi Node, and many other projects. Feel free to check those out if interested. The press release mentions that this new chip is an update of the nRF9160 and includes features like an Arm Cortex-M33 processor, 1 MB flash, 256 KB RAM, along with SPI, I2C, UART, PWM, and a 12-bit ADC […]
Zigbee Home is an ESPHome-like firmware project for Zigbee devices
Zigbee Home firmware project aims to provide similar functionality to ESPHome open-source firmware, but for Zigbee devices based on Nordic Semi nRF52 wireless microcontrollers, and later on the newer nRF53 MCUs.
The firmware relies on Nordic Semi ZBOSS for Zigbee 3.0 stack and should eventually enable a range of Zigbee devices to be flashed with open-source firmware and facilitate integration with Home Assistant open-source home automation framework through ZHA integration, and support for Zigbee2MQTT is also being worked on.
nRF7002 Expansion Board adds WiFi 6 to Nordic Thingy:53 devkit
Nordic Semi keeps adding more nRF7002 WiFi 6 boards with the launch of the nRF7002 Expansion Board adding WiFi 6 connectivity to the Thingy:53 IoT prototyping platform and transforming it into an all-in-one wireless devkit with Matter, Bluetooth Low Energy, Thread, and WiFi 6 support. The new “nRF7002 EB” board follows the nRF7002 DK development kit combining the nRF7002 WiFi 6 with nRF5340 multiprotocol wireless SoCs, and the nRF7002 EK evaluation kit in Arduino UNO shield form factor adding WiFi 6 to existing Nordic development kits. nRF7002 Expansion Board specifications: Chipset – nRF7002 Wi-Fi Companion IC with support for features such as OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access), Beamforming, Target Wake Time, and SSID-based locationing Antenna – 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz ceramic antenna I/Os Castellations for all pins on nRF7002 Thingy:53 expansion connector with SPI and a 3-wire coexistence interface to allow seamless coexistence with other wireless protocols Misc […]
Nordic introduces nRF7002 EK WiFi 6 Arduino Shield, nRF7000 SSID-based Wi-Fi locationing chip
Nordic Semi has launched the nRF7002 EK based on the company’s nRF7002 dual-band WiFi 6 IoT chip and in the form of an Arduino shield that works with other Nordic development kits such as the nRF52840 DK, nRF5340 DK, and nRF9160 DK, and separately, the company launched the nRF7000 SSID-based Wi-Fi locationing chip. nRF7002 EK Earlier this year, the company launched the nRF7002 DK, a complete development kit with the nRF7002 WiFi 6 chip and the nRF5340 dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 wireless microcontroller, but for developers who already own nRF devkits, they’ve now introduced the nRF7002 EK Arduino Shield. nRF7002 EK specifications: Wireless chip – Nordic Semi nRF7002 Dual-band Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) WiFi station mode Target Wake Time (TWT) 20 MHz channel bandwidth Antenna – 2.4 and 5 GHz antenna for WiFi SWF port for RF measurement Host interface – SPI or QSPI interfaces Dimensions – Arduino shield form factor The […]
Nordic nRF54L15 Cortex-M33 wireless MCU halves Rx power consumption over nRF52 chips
Nordic Semiconductor has recently unveiled the 128 MHz nRF54L15 Cortex-M33 multi-protocol wireless microcontroller, the first from the nRF54L Series, and the second from the wider nRF54 family after the more powerful 320 MHz nRF54H20 dual-core Cortex-M33 MCU was introduced last Spring. While the nRF54H20 was designed to enable new types of IoT devices with a leap in performance and lots of resources with up to 2 MB flash and 1MB SRAM, the new nRF54L15 aims to be an upgrade to the nRF52 series with twice the performance and much better power efficiency, with for instance, half the Rx power consumption over its predecessor. Nordic Semi nRF54L15 key features and specifications: CPU Arm Cortex-M33 @ up to 128 MHz with up to 1.5 MB Flash + 256 KB SRAM RISC-V coprocessor for “software-defined peripheral” Wireless Bluetooth 5.4 LE with direction-finding, Bluetooth mesh, etc… Ready for future Bluetooth releases 802.15.4 radio for […]
Nordic Semi nRF7001 is a 2.4GHz WiFi 6 companion IC for nRF52, nRF53, and nRF91 wireless chips
Nordic Semi nRF7001 is the second nRF70 Series WiFi 6 companion IC. It is designed to add 2.4 GHz WiFi 6 connectivity to Nordic Semi nRF52 and nRF53 wireless SoCs and nRF91 cellular IoT system-in-package and support both client and access point mode. The nRF7001 follows the introduction of the nRF7002 dual-band (2.4GHz/5GHz) WiFi 6 companion IC last year, and target power or cost-optimized use cases where 5 GHz WiFi 6 may not be required or even suitable. Nordic Semi nRF7001 key features specifications: Complies with 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax 2.4 GHz band Wi-Fi 6 Station (STA) 1x Spatial Stream (SS) 20 MHz channel bandwidth 64 QAM (MCS7), 86 Mbps PHY throughput OFDMA (Downlink and Uplink) BSS coloring Co-existence interfaces, including Bluetooth LE Low-power and secure Wi-Fi for the IoT Target Wake Time (TWT) Security – WPA3 Host interface – SPI / QSPI Package – 6×6 mm QFN Since the nRF7001 is based […]
zigpy-zboss library makes Nordic Semi nRF52840 Zigbee dongles compatible with Home Assistant
zigpy-zboss is a Python library that adds support for Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 modules to zigpy open-source Python Zigbee stack project, as well as other Network Co-Processor radios that run firmware based on ZBOSS Open Initiative (ZOI). This enables integration with compatible Zigbee gateway implementations such as Home Assistant’s ZHA integration component and allows users to directly control Zigbee devices from a wide range of manufacturers such as IKEA, Philips Hue, SmartSung SmartThings, ITEAD SONOFF, Xiaomi Aqara, and others. Home Assistant’s ZHA integration already worked with Zigbee dongles based on Silicon Labs Mighty Gecko EFR32MG21 or Texas Instruments CC2652P microcontrollers, but now it’s possible to use nRF52840 dongles and development as Zigbee Coordinators thanks to the zigpy-zboss library. The zigpy-zboss ZBOSS radio library for zigpy source code and resources can be found on GitHub, but note that this is still an unofficial and experimental port, so testers need to manually […]
Embedded Open Source Summit 2023 schedule – Zephyr OS, Security, IoT, Embedded Linux, and more
The Linux Foundation has just announced the full schedule for the Embedded Open Source Summit, which will take place on June 27-30, 2023 in Prague, Czech Republic, as well as virtually starting on June 26. Over 175 sessions, birds of a feather (BoF) tracks, and workshops related to embedded and open-source innovation will be presented at the event itself comprised of six micro conferences: Automotive Linux Summit Europe, Embedded IoT Summit, Embedded Linux Conference, LF Energy Embedded Summit, Safety-Critical Software Summit, and Zephyr Project Developer Summit. Even though I’m not going to attend personally, I’ve gone through the schedule to create my own little virtual schedule with some sessions relevant that should be interesting to me and hopefully to CNX Software readers. Monday, June 26 (Virtual sessions) The first day of the event will have a Yocto Dev training in the morning, and a bunch of virtual sessions that are […]