sensors News - Page 16 of 19 - CNX Software

July 1, 2022July 1, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Wirelessly powered sensor evaluation kit comes 1W power transmitter, two battery-free sensors

Energous WattUp wireless power technology delivers power at various ranges (up to a few meters), and so far, we’ve seen it in wearables like garments, as well as smart glasses and earbuds development kits. The company has now launched a wirelessly powered sensor evaluation kit for the Internet-of-Things (IoT) based on the 1W WattUp PowerBridge transmitter with Bluetooth LE 5.0, plus two battery-free sensor nodes based on Atmosic ATM3202 Bluetooth LE 5.0 Cortex-M0 microcontroller with energy-harvesting capabilities. Wirelessly powered sensor evaluation kit content & features: 1W WattUp PowerBridge transmitter Bluetooth LE microcontroller Energous EN4100 transmitter IC Energous EN3210 power amplifier 2x Atmosic battery-free sensors MCU – Atmosic ATM3202 Cortex-M0 microcontroller @ 16 MHz with integrated RF energy-harvesting using MPPT (maximum power point tracking) algorithm to maximize harvesting performance Sensors – Temperature & humidity sensor, 3-axis accelerator Power consumption – A 1/4th of the power consumption of a typical BLE beacon […]

June 20, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Hybrid Time-of-Flight (ToF) 3D range image sensor offers up to 30-meter range

We’ve written about STMicro Time-of-Flight ranging sensors several times over the year, including the latest VL53L8 which offers a range of up to 4 meters. But if your application would benefit from a more extended range, Toppan and Brookman Technology have designed a three-dimensional range image sensor (3D sensor) capable of measuring distances from one to 30 meters. using a hybrid Time-of-Flight (ToF) method. That method, proposed by Professor Shoji Kawahito of Shizuoka University, is a new sensing technology combining the indirect ToF method of measuring distance by phase difference and the direct ToF methodology for measurement based on time differences. The hybrid method is said to be more tolerant to ambient light noise than the conventional indirect ToF method, especially outdoors. Highlights of the hybrid ToF sensor: Measurement of distances up to 30 meters, or over 5x further than conventional models Noise-canceling function to facilitate outdoor measurement. Each pixel […]

June 20, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Iono RP D16 industrial IO module features Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU

Iono RP D16 industrial IO module Raspberry Pi RP2040

Sfera Labs has launched another Raspberry Pi RP2040-based hardware platform with the Iono RP D16 industrial IO module following the Exo Sense RP multi-sensor module we covered last month. The Iono RP D16 module provides sixteen digital 24V I/O lines, an RS-485 serial interface, a wide range 12-28V power supply input, and its DIN-rail case enables installation in electrical cabinets and automation control systems. Iono RP D16 specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 133MHz with 264kB on-chip SRAM Storage – 16MB SPI flash Inputs/Outputs via terminal blocks Up to 16x 24V 640mA outputs driven by high-side switches that can also be configured as push-pull drivers for high-speed switching (via MAX14912 chips) Up to 16x 24V IEC 61131-2 compliant current-sinking inputs (via MAX22190 chips) 4x TTL level I/Os (1-Wire, I2C, Wiegand support) Serial – RS-485 interface to the RP2040 serial lines via terminal block with electrostatic […]

June 15, 2022June 20, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Nordic Thingy:53 is a dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 platform for IoT prototyping

As one should have expected after Nordic Thingy:52 and Thingy:91 IoT devkits were introduced in 2017 and 2019 respectively, the Norwegian company has now launched the Thingy:53 platform based on Nordic Semi nRF5340 dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 SoC for IoT prototyping with Bluetooth Low Energy, Thread, Matter, Zigbee, IEEE 802.15.4, NFC, and Bluetooth mesh RF protocols. The development kit also incorporates the nPM1100 PMIC and nRF21540 Front End Module (FEM), a power amplifier/low noise amplifier (PA/LNA) range extender, as well as multiple motion and environmental sensors, as well as a rechargeable 1350 mAh Li-Po battery for power. Nordic Thingy:53 specifications: SoC – Nordic Semi nRF5340 SoC with 128 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 Application core with 1 MB Flash + 512 KB RAM, and a 64 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 Network core with 256 KB Flash + 64 KB RAM Wireless connectivity RF front-end nRF21540 FEM Protocols – Bluetooth LE, Bluetooth Mesh, NFC, Thread/Zigbee, […]

June 10, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Light sensors add “lift and learn” feature to digital signage player

Light sensors with digital signage lift and learn

Light sensors are used to turn on/off lights, adjust the brightness of displays, and more. But I’ve come across a use case I never thought of: object presence detection. In the digital signage work, such features if called “lift and learn”, and light sensors are used to detect when an object is present and play a video or display information about the product. That concept came to my attention when I saw a photo of Mekotronics R29 digital signage player with several cables coming out of the device and attached to what looked like white hockey pucks and turned out to be light sensors. Apart from the light sensors, Mekotronics R29 specifications are pretty standard: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor with 2x Cortex-A72 cores, 4x Cortex-A53 cores, Arm Mali-T860MP4 GPU, 4K VP9, H.264, H.265, and 1080p60 VC-1, MPEG-1/2/4, VP6/8 video decoder System Memory – 4GB DDR Storage – 64GB […]

June 10, 2022January 3, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

STMicro VL53L8 multi-zone direct Time-of-Flight (dToF) sensor improves range and efficiency

STMicro VL53L8 multi-zone direct Time-of-Flight (dToF) sensor doubles the ranging performance of VL53L5 sensor – up to 4 meters – or reduces the power consumption by half when operating in common conditions. STMicro ToF sensors are some of the most popular devices to accurately measure distance in real-time, and the earlier VL53L0X and VL53L1X sensors integrated a single photon avalanche diode. STMicro VL53L5 changed that with multi-zone support (up to 64 zones), and VL53L8 FlightSense sensor builds on the solution with improvements in terms of range and efficiency. STMicro VL53L8 ToF sensor specifications: Low-power 32-bit microcontroller running the firmware 940 nm invisible Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) and integrated analog driver 61° diagonal square system field of view (FoV) using diffractive optical elements (DOE) on both transmitter and receiver Receiving array of single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) Parallel multi-zone output – Either 4×4 (16 zones @ 60 fps) or 8×8 […]

June 8, 2022June 8, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

u-blox XPLR-IOT-1 explorer kit embeds cellular IoT, Wi-Fi, BLE, GNSS, and sensors for IoT evaluation

u-blox XPLR-IOT-1 explorer kit is an all-in-one IoT evaluation platform with cellular IoT, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, and GNSS, plus some sensors to evaluate various IoT products and enable proofs of concepts such as logistics container trackers, industrial automation, sensor-to-cloud applications, and fleet management solutions. The device’s main module is the u-blox NORA-B106 with a dual-core Arm Cortex M33 microcontroller and Bluetooth LE 5.2 radio that host the application software and control the other modules, namely the SARA-R510S module for LTE-M and NB-IoT cellular connectivity, NINA-W156 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi module, and the MAX-M10S GNNS module. The XPLR-IOT-1 platform is also equipped with an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, and temperature, humidity, pressure, and ambient light sensors. u-blox XPLR-IOT-1 specifications: Main MCU – Nordic Semi nRF5340 dual-core Arm Cortex M33 @ 128/64 MHz with 512 + 64 kB RAM memory and 1024 + 256 kB flash (found in NORA-B106 module) Wireless […]

June 1, 2022June 1, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

How to use a ToF laser ranging sensor with Arduino and Wisblock

Laser ranging has many applications in production and life, such as ranging, positioning, obstacle avoidance, and so on. Time-of-Flight (ToF) ranging, as a type of laser ranging technology, is often used for real-time object detection in robots, autonomous vehicles, and traffic management because of its accuracy, fast response, and low power consumption. The face detection function of mobile phones also uses this technology. This article will introduce the WisBlock RAK12014 ToF laser ranging sensor module, and use the WisBlock development board to demonstrate how the module works. What is a ToF laser ranging sensor module? A ToF laser ranging sensor module uses laser pulses to measure the distance between itself and a target object. The WisBlock RAK12014 ToF laser ranging sensor module is based on STMicro VL53L0X, the smallest ToF ranging sensor in the world. The WisBlock RAK12014 provides accurate distance measurement and can measure distances up to 2 meters. […]