seeed studio News - Page 17 of 17 - CNX Software

September 18, 2014September 18, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Getting Started with WRTnode OpenWRT Development Board

Seeed Studio sent me two nice little boards that can be used for IoT development: WRTNode and LinkIt ONE. Today, I’ll show pictures of WRTNode and accessories, and go through the “starting guide“, and will test LinkIt ONE board a few days later. WRTnode Unboxing I’ve received WRTnode by Fedex, and the board is stored in a plastic box. Inside the box, you’ll find the board, a “special” USB used to power the board and as an OTG adapter, a piece of paper with useful links (Wiki), and some WRTnode stickers. Any micro USB to USB cable can be used to power the board, but this cable is useless to connect USB devices such as flash drives, webcams (OpenCV is supported), Bluetooth dongles, and so on. You could even connect a USB hub to connect multiple USB devices as shown below. I’ve also taken a picture of both sides of […]

August 28, 2014November 23, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

ESP8266 WiFi Serial Module Costs Just $5

Wi-Fi is great because it’s ubiquitous, and rather fast for a wireless standard. However, it drains batteries fast, and Wi-Fi modules are usually much more expensive than Bluetooth modules for instance. There’s not much that can be done with regards to power consumption, but thanks to ESP8266 module, it’s now feasible to add Wi-Fi to your Arduino board, or others, for just $5 including shipping on Aliexpress, but SeeedStudio also have it for $6.95. If you buy 1,000 pieces, it goes down to about $3 per unit. As reported by Hackaday, this module embeds ESP8266 SoC which takes care off all IP stacks, a bit like Texas Instruments CC3000 SoC, but it’s just much cheaper. Here are some of the specifications of the module (and processor): SoC – Espressif Systems ESP8266 32-bit RISC processor with 802.11 b/g/n support(32-pin QFN package), Interfaces: SDIO 2.0, SPI, UART, I2S Wi-Fi – 802.112 b/g/n […]

July 12, 2014July 12, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

More Details on Mediatek MT2502 Aster SoC and Linkit Platform for Wearables (Video)

Last month, Mediatek announced their Mediatek MT2502 SoC for wearables, codenamed Aster, as well as the Linkit development platform targeting the developer’s community. But at the time they did show the actual hardware, and thanks to Charbax we know have more interesting details about Aster and Linkit. First they compare a design based on Aster to Samsung Galaxy Fit wearable band, and show why it uses less space, will cost less, and they claim over twice the battery life. Simple and smaller design (~36% reduction in size) Aster solution – MT2504 (6.2 x 5.4 mm) plus all required resistors, capacitors and inductors require 89.97 mm2 Galaxy Fit – MCU. Bluetooth Transceiver, external memory, a linear charger, and all required resistors, capacitors and inductors require 140.97 mm2 Battery life – Samsung Galaxy Fit is supposed to last between 1 and 1.5 days on a charge, whereas devices based on Aster should last about […]

September 9, 2013September 9, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Free Shenzhen Map to Shop for Electronics in Huaqiangbei

Huaqiangbei is the place in Shenzhen, China, to shop for electronics components and devices. There are several multi-story buildings with lots of different electronics fares, and if you look for some specific components it’s more than likely to be found there. However it may take some time to find what you need there, but it may just have become a little easier, as Seeed Studio has published a map that you can buy for $5, or simply download for free (PDF). The map has 2 main sections: Some general information about Shenzhen such as transportation (border crossing, station), leisure, main locations of factories, and a bit more. Huaqiangbei map with short descriptions of what you can buy in the different buildings, as well as places to eat, and stay. Seeed Studio will also setup a wiki, so that makers can add interesting places they went shopping in Shenzhen. Jean-Luc Aufranc […]

February 4, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Crazyflie Nano Quadcopter Open Source Development Kit

If you can’t wait until 2014 to get the MeCam, Seeedstudio has something for you: The Crazyflie Nano Quadcopter, which looks similar to the MeCam, but does not feature a camera, its control board is powered by STM32F103CB MCU @ 72 MHz with 128kb flash and 20kb RAM (so, no it won’t run Linux), and at $173 the price is significantly higher. Here are Crazyflie key features: Small and lightweight, around 19g and about 90mm motor to motor Flight time up to 7 minutes with standard 170mAh Li-Po battery Standard micro-USB connector for charging which takes ~20min for the stock 170mAh Li-Po battery On-board low-energy radio@1mW based on the nRF24L01+ chip. Up to 80m range (environment dependent) when using the Crazyradio 2.4 GHz USB dongle Radio bootloader which enabled wireless update of the firmware 32 bit Cortex M3 MCU: STM32F103CB @ 72 MHz (128kb flash, 20kb RAM) 3-axis high-performance MEMs […]

May 10, 2012May 10, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

199 USD Seeed Studio DSO Quad Open Source Oscilloscope

The DSO (Digital Storage Oscilloscope) Quad is a pocket size 4 channel digital oscilloscope for common electronic engineering tasks based on STM32F103VCT6 ARM cortex M3 MCU with a 3″ display. It can provide 72MS/s sampling rate with integrated FPGA and high speed ADC and an internal 2MB USB disk can be used to store waveform captures, user applications and to upgrade firmware. SeeedStudio DSO Quad is not exactly a new product (June 2011), but I was not aware of this type of low cost oscilloscopes until I come across a review today. Here are the key features of this tiny oscilloscope: Pocket size and light weight Two 72MS/s analog channels, plus two digital channels Signal Generator Auto Measurement Various Triggering Option Easy waveform storage Firmware upgrade User applications Open source and technical specifications: 2x Analog channel: [CH A] [CH B] 2x Digital channel : [CH C] [CH D] Vertical […]