stem News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

March 14, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

UNIHIKER K10 low-cost TinyML education platform supports image detection and voice recognition

UNIHIKER K10 is a low-cost STEM education platform for TinyML applications that leverages the ESP32-S3 wireless microcontroller with vector extensions for workloads such as image detection or voice recognition. The UNIHIKER K10 also features a built-in 2.8-inch color display, a camera, a speaker, a 2-microphone array, a few sensors, a microSD card, and a BBC Micro:bit-like edge connector for power signals and GPIOs. It’s a cost-optimized version of its Linux-based big brother – the UNIHIKER M10 – first unveiled in 2022. Arnon also reviewed the UNIHIKER in 2023, showing how to configure it, use the SIoT platform with MQTT message, and program it with Jupyter Notebook, Python, or Visual Studio Code. Let’s have a closer look at the new ESP32-S3 variant. UNIHIKER K10 specifications: Core module – ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 MCU – ESP32-S3N16R8 dual-core Tensilica LX7 up to 240 MHz with 512KB SRAM, 8MB PSRAM, 16MB flash Wireless – WiFi 4 and […]

January 13, 2025January 16, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Review of SMARTHON Smart City IoT Starter Kit for BBC Micro:bit

Smarthon Smart City IoT Starter Kit review

SMARTHON Smart City IoT Starter Kit for micro:bit is an educational kit for 10+ years old teaching basic projects from turning an LED to more complex projects with multiple sensors, IFTTT integration, and mobile app development. The company sent us a sample of the Start Kit along with a BBC Micro:bit board for review, and we’ll report our experience with the kit in this review. Unboxing of SMARTHON Smart City IoT Starter Kit for micro:bit The package I received includes the SMARTHON Smart City IoT Starter Kit for Micro:bit and a BBC Micro:bit V2 board since it’s not included in the starter kit. The bottom side of the package lists the main components and features a QR code pointing to the product page. The package includes cardboard and wooden models, various cables, a 180° servo, a screw set, a city map, the Smarthon IoT:bit carrier board for the BBC Micro:bit, […]

January 7, 2025January 6, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

FOSDEM 2025 schedule – Embedded, Open Hardware, RISC-V, Edge AI, and more

FOSDEM 2025 will take place on February 1-2 with over 8000 developers meeting in Brussels to discuss open-source software & hardware projects. The free-to-attend (and participate) “Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting” grows every year, and in 2025 there will be 968 speakers, 930 events, and 74 tracks. Like every year since FOSDEM 2015 which had (only) 551 events, I’ll create a virtual schedule with sessions most relevant to the topics covered on CNX Software from the “Embedded, Mobile and Automotive” and “Open Hardware and CAD/CAM” devrooms, but also other devrooms including “RISC-V”, “FOSS Mobile Devices”, “Low-level AI Engineering and Hacking”, among others. FOSDEM 2025 Day 1 – Saturday 1 10:30 – 11:10 – RISC-V Hardware – Where are we? by Emil Renner Berthing I’ll talk about the current landscape of available RISC-V hardware powerful enough to run Linux and hopefully give a better overview of what to […]

November 27, 2024November 26, 2024 by Debashis Das - No Comments

LILYGO T-Bao tiny AI robot combines ESP32 and Kendryte K210 RISC-V chip, features camera and display

The T-Bao AI robot is a compact embedded device/robot that combines an ESP32 and a K210 RISC-V microcontroller and can perform face recognition and robotics applications. This compact device features a 1.54-inch 240×240 capacitive touch screen, a 2MP OV2640 camera, a MAX98357A I2S audio amplifier, a DRV8833 motor driver, an MPU6050 6-axis motion sensor, and an AXP202 PMU for power management. Additionally, it supports USB charging, offers LEGO blocks compatibility, and can move around with integrated caster wheels. These features make it usable for educational projects, robotics, IoT applications, and embedded systems prototyping. LILYGO T-Bao specifications SoCs Kendryte K210 dual-core 64-bit RISC-V processor @ 400 MHz with 8MB on-chip RAM, various low-power AI accelerators delivering up to 0.5 TOPS ESP32-D0WDQ6-V3 dual-core Xtensa LX6 processor, 240 MHz, 16MB Flash, 8MB PSRAM Display – 1.54-inch capacitive touch LCD (240×240) Camera – 2MP OV2640 with rolling shutter, UXGA (1600 x 1200) resolution, 180-degree […]

November 22, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Mercury X1 wheeled humanoid robot combines NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX AI controller and ESP32 motor control boards

Elephant Robotics Mercury X1 is a 1.2-meter high wheeled humanoid robot with two robotic arms using an NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX as its main controller and ESP32 microcontrollers for motor control and suitable for research, education, service, entertainment, and remote operation. The robot offers 19 degrees of freedom, can lift payloads of up to 1kg, work up to 8 hours on a charge, and travel at up to 1.2m/s or about 4.3km/h. It’s based on the company’s Mercury B1 dual-arm robot and a high-performance mobile base. Mercury X1 specifications: Main controller – NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX CPU – 6-core NVIDIA Carmel ARM v8.2 64-bit CPU with 6MB L2 + 4MB L3 caches GPU – 384-core NVIDIA Volta GPU with 48 Tensor Cores AI accelerators – 2x NVDLA deep learning accelerators delivering up to 21 TOPS at 15 Watts System Memory – 8 GB 128-bit LPDDR4x @ 51.2GB/s Storage – 16 […]

November 15, 2024November 15, 2024 by Tomisin Olujinmi - No Comments

CYOBot v2 ESP32-S3-based open-source modular robotics platform supports up to 16 servos (Crowdfunding)

CYOBot v2 ESP32-S3 modular robotics platform

Create Your Own Bot (CYOBot) v2 is an open-source, modular robotics platform for students, educators, hobbyists, and future engineers based on the ESP32-S3 microcontroller and featuring up to 16 servo motors for complex control. The CYOBot v2 is a follow-up to the previous quadrupedal robotic platform from the same company. It adds new features such as a modular design, an upgrade to the ESP32-S3 chip, more motor channels, and an expansion block with more peripherals. It also supports integrating AI systems, such as ChatGPT, for added functionality. The CYOBot supports up to three configurations via the CYOBrain — which powers the robotics platform and controls the servo motors — and separate 3D-printed components. The CYOBot Crawler is a four-legged robot powered by eight 180-degree servo motors. The CYOBot Wheeler form factor features four 360-degree motors linked to wheels at the end of each leg and is essentially a hybrid between […]

August 9, 2024August 19, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Cytron MOTION 2350 Pro – A Raspberry Pi RP2350 board for robotics and motor control

As mentioned in the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 article, third-party RP2350 boards are already available, and one of them is the MOTION 2350 Pro board from Cytron designed for robotics and motor control. The board features a DC motor driver capable of controlling up to 4 brushed DC motors with voltage ratings from 3.6V to 16V. It also features eight 5V servo ports, eight GPIO ports, and three Maker ports for sensor or actuator modules. Each I/O is matched with its own LED which makes the board ideal for the education market and also simplifies debugging. Finally, a USB 1.1 host port is present to connect peripherals such as the RF dongle for a joystick or a keyboard. Cytron MOTION 2350 Pro specifications: Microcontroller – Raspberry Pi RP2350 CPU – Dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 processor @ 150MHz (RISC-V cores are not mentioned, so they are likely not used at all) Memory […]

August 2, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

M5Stamp Fly ESP32-S3 WiFi drone is controlled by the M5Atom WiFi joystick controller using ESPNOW

M5Stack M5Stamp Fly is a tiny ESP32-S3 WiFi drone based on the company’s M5Stamp S3 WiFi 4 and BLE IoT module, equipped with four motors and several sensors. and controllable the M5Atom WiFi joystick controller also based on ESP32-S3 WiSoC. We have recently seen some tiny ESP32 or ESP8266 WiFi drones with a low-cost ESP32 DIY drone and the PiWings 2.0 drone, but the M5Stamp Fly is more advanced with a total of six sensors including a barometer, two time-of-flight distance sensors, a 6-axis IMU, a 3-axis magnetometer, and an optical flow detection sensors, plus two Grove connector for additional sensors or modules. M5Stamp Fly (K138) specifications: Main controller – M5Stamp S3 module WiSoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3FN8 dual-core 32-bit Xtensa LX7 microcontroller with AI vector instructions up to 240MHz, RISC-V ULP co-processor, 512KB SRAM, 2.4GHz WiFi 4 (802.11b/g/n), Bluetooth 5.0 BLE + Mesh, 8MB flash Connectivity 2.4 GHz WiFi […]