Eigencomm EC616/EC616S SoC supports Cat-NB2 cellular IoT

EigenComm EC616

Eigencomm EC616/EC616S are Cortex-M3 microcontrollers supporting the 3GPP R13/R14 NB-IoT standard, with 3GPP R14 notably introducing the newer LTE Cat-NB2 standard allowing higher bitrates up to 127 kbps downlink, and up to 159 kbps uplink, and OTDOA and E-CID positioning methods. Both EC616 and EC616S are virtually identical, but the EC616S comes with fewer GPIOs and is designed for the lowest possible BoM cost for modules as small as 10×10 mm. Both target similar IoT applications such as wireless meter reading, smoke detection, smart street lights, smart logistics, asset tracking, smart fire monitoring, smart parking, smart home, wearable devices, industry 4.0, smart agriculture, and others. Eigencomm EC616/EC616S specifications: MCU core – Arm Cortex-M3 @ up to 204 MHz Frequency band – 663 MHz to 2200 MHz Protocol version – 3GPP R13/R14 Built-in PA output power – 23dBm Receiver sensitivity – EC616: -118 dBm, EC616S: -117 dBm Peripherals EC616 – 2x […]

Conexio Stratus – An nRF9160 board with solar energy harvesting capability (Crowdfunding)

Conexio Stratus Shield

Conexio Stratus board is equipped with Nordic Semi nRF9160 System in Package (SiP) with LTE-M (eMTC) & NB-IoT cellular IoT connectivity as well as GPS support through a pair of u.FL connectors for antennas, together with 500MB of mobile data valid for ten years. Designed for battery operation, the devkit comes with built-in battery charging, monitoring, and energy-harvesting circuitry, plus an accelerometer and a temperature and humidity sensor that makes it ideal for prototyping cellular IoT systems such as asset-tracking applications, environmental monitoring, and smart-meter monitoring, among others. Conexio Stratus board   Conexio Stratus specifications: SiP – Nordic Semi nRF9160 system-in-package with Arm Cortex M33 MCU, 1 MB Flash, 256 kB RAM, cellular IoT modem, and GPS. Cellular Connectivity 3GPP LTE release 13 Category M1 and NB1 compliant 3GPP release 14 NB2 compliant RF Transceiver for global coverage supporting bands: Cat-M1: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B8, B12, B13, B14, […]

ANAVI Gardening uHAT adds soil and other sensors to Raspberry Pi (Crowdfunding)

ANAVI Gardening uHAT

We’ve been covering and reviewing ANAVI open-source hardware boards for several years now, either standalone boards based on ESP8266, or add-on boards for Raspberry Pi. The  ANAVI Gardening uHAT is the latest board from Leon Anavi. It is a micro HAT designed for Raspberry Pi Zero to Raspberry Pi 4 SBCs that offers interfaces for soil sensors and other environmental sensors allowing measurements of soil moisture, atmospheric pressure and humidity, temperature with a waterproof sensor, and light intensity for gardening applications. ANAVI Gardening uHAT key features and specifications: Compatibility – Any Raspberry Pi board with a 40-pin GPIO header Storage – EEPROM for uHAT compliance 2x 3-pin headers for capacitive soil moisture sensors connected to Microchip MCP3002 ADC chip 3-pin One-wire terminal block for a waterproof temperature sensor 2x 4-pin I²C headers for additional sensors 10-header with GPIO pins for controlling irrigation systems and peripherals Misc – 2x user LEDs,  […]

Gateworks GW16146 is an 802.11ah WiFi HaLow Mini PCIe module

GW16146v3 802.11ah WiFi Halow mPCIe module

Gateworks GW16146 is an 802.11ah WiFi HaLow Mini PCIe card designed to provide long-range wireless to IoT applications utilizing the company’s Venice and Newport single board computers. We first noticed 802.11ah WiFI LPWAN standard operating at 900 MHz for the Internet of Things in 2014, followed by Newracom NRC6101 chip in 2015, and the following year the Wi-Fi  Alliance decided to call the new standard “Wi-Fi HaLow“. I was expecting it to compete with the likes of LoRa and NB-IoT, but I have not heard much about it, and when I asked a WiFi module and board supplier earlier this year, they seemed surprised I would even be interested in this type of hardware and, obviously, did not have any… So it’s good to see some new hardware coming out. Gateworks GW16146 specifications: 802.11ah Halow connectivity Silex SX-NEWAH 802.11ah Module based on Newracom NRC7292 System-on-Chip (US only) Compliant with IEEE […]

MiniLink IIoT Node – An Arduino compatible RS485 to LoRaWAN node with wireless expansion

MINILink-NB-IoT-Shield-Quectel-BC95-G

Designed by Thailand-based Saijai Tech, MiniLink IIoT Node is an Arduino compatible board based on either an ESP32 WiFi & Bluetooth SoC or an unnamed Microchip Cortex-M0+ microcontroller designed for Smart Agriculture or industrial applications (e.g. PLC controllers). The board includes an RS485 interface for sensors or actuators,  an ACER-branded LoRa module, and expansion headers to add an extra wireless module with either LoRa PtP  (P2P, Point-to-Point), NB-IoT, or 3G/4G LTE & GNSS, and some of those add an extra RS485 port. MiniLink IIoT node key features & specifications: MCU (one or the other) Espressif ESP32 dual-core processor  with 2.4 GHz WiFi and Bluetooth LE Microchip Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller (probably SAMD21) LPWAN – ACER AS923 LoRaWAN module Sensor interface – RS485 or UART via terminal block (jumper selectable) Expansion – 2x 14-pin header for expansion modules Misc – User & reset buttons, RS485/UART selection jumpers, user and power LEDs, USB/TTL […]

M5Stack Atom DTU LoRaWAN Kit also supports WiFi, RS485, Modbus communication

ESP32 WiFI, Bluetooth, LoRaWAN, and RS485 kit

M5Stack is known for its ESP32 based building blocks for the IoT with WiFi & Bluetooth wireless connectivity, I/O headers, and block-specific features like a tiny color display, a speaker, a touchscreen display, a camera, and more. The company’s latest product is the M5Stack Atom DTU LoRaWAN Kit based on ESP32 ATOM Lite, as well as ASR Micro ASR6501 LoRa module (SX1302 based) and one RS485 header that allows for industrial communication notably with the Modbus protocol. M5Stack Atom DTU LoRaWAN Kit specifications: Wireless connectivity  M5Stack ATOM Lite with ESP32 WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 4.2/5.x dual-core SoC ASR ASR6501 LoRa chip Operating frequency – 868MHz or 915 MHz Transmit power – Up to +21dBm RX sensitivity – Up to -137dBm (SF=12/BW=125KHz) Serial communication – UART 115200bps (AT command) via ESP32 Antenna – SMA antenna connector Power consumption @ 3.3V (from ASR6501 datasheet) Tx @ +21dBm – 106 mA Rx – […]

reServer 2-bay multimedia NAS is equipped with an Intel Core Tiger Lake SBC

reServer multimedia NAS

Seeed Studio has just introduced reServer dual-bay multimedia NAS based on Intel Core i3/i5/i7 Tiger Lake 11th generation processor. The networked storage device is based on ODYSSEY X86 V2 single board computer that offers an upgrade to the ODYSSEY-X86J4105 and ODYSSEY-X86J4125 Gemini Lake SBC’s. reServer comes with up to to 64GB dual-channel memory, dual 2.5GbE, support for two 3.5-inch SATA drives, HDMI and DisplayPort video output, and some USB 3.0/2.0 ports. reServer (preliminary) specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Core i3-1115G4 dual-core/quad-thread processor with 48 EU Intel UHD Graphics @ 400 – 1250MHz; 28W TDP Unnamed Intel Core i5 with 80 EU Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 @ 400-1300MHz; 28W TDP Unnamed Intel Core i7 with 96 EU Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 @ 400-1300MHz; 28W TDP Co-processor – Microchip ATSAMD21G18 32-Bit Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller System Memory – Up to 64GB dual-channel DDR4-3200 SDRAM via two SO-DIMM sockets Storage […]

Qualcomm 315 5G IoT modem announced for 5G IIoT applications

Qualcomm 5G IoT modem

Qualcomm has announced the Qualcomm 315 5G IoT modem just a couple of days after the company’s introduction of Snapdragon 778G 5G SoC and M.2 5G card reference designs based on Snapdragon X65/62 modem. Qualcomm Technologies say it is their first purpose-built Internet of Things modem solution equipped with 5G connectivity and optimized for Industrial IoT (IIoT) applications. Qualcomm 315 5G IoT modem Qualcomm 315 5G IoT modem specifications: CPU – Cortex-A7 core running Linux Cellular connectivity 5G Technology – 3GPP Rel.15 5G NR Peak speeds – Download: 1.54 Gbps; upload: 330 Mbps Modes – SA (standalone), TDD & FDD RF – Adaptive antenna tuning, power tracking Sub-6 GHz Specs – 100 MHz bandwidth, 4×4 MIMO DL, 64 QAM DL/UL 4G LTE Technology – Rel.15 Cat.13 DL, Cat.5 UL Peak speeds – Download: 400 Mbps; upload: 75 Mbps LTE Modes – TDD & FDD LTE RF – 700 MHz to […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC