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May 5, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

PicoVNA 5 software for vector network analyzers supports Windows, Linux, MacOS, and Raspberry Pi

Pico Technology has released PicoVNA 5 control software for their vector network analyzers for Windows x86 64-bit, Mac, Linux x86 64-bit, and Raspberry Pi 3 and greater single board computers, superseding the Windows-only PicoVNA 3 software. As a Ubuntu user, I hate it when some hardware tool forces me to install software on Windows when there’s no Linux alternative, so any company that provides cross-platform tools is making the right move. I’m also not quite sure what a “vector network analyzer” (VNA) is, so I’ll first look into the PicoVNA 106 and PicoVNA 108 6/8.5 GHz VNAs from the company. PicoVNA 106/108 vector network analyzers highlights and specifications: Frequency ranges PicoVNA 106 – 300 kHz to 6 GHz PicoVNA 108 – 300 kHz to 8.5 GHz Up to 5500 dual-port S-parameters per second > 10 000 S11 + S21 per second Quad RX four-receiver architecture Up to 124 dB dynamic […]

April 5, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Add Z-Wave LR (Long Range) to Raspberry Pi or Home Assistant Yellow with Zooz 800 Series USB stick or GPIO Module

Z-Wave Long Range Raspberry Pi Home Assistant Yellow

We wrote about the new Z-Wave Long Range (LR) standard aka “Z-Wave Plus LR” promising four times the range and 10-year battery life in September 2020 but hadn’t heard much about it since then, at least until now, as Zooz has launched the ZST39 LR USB Stick and ZAC93 LR GPIO module based on a Z-Wave 800 Series chip, with the GPIO module compatible with Home Assistant Yellow and Raspberry Pi SBCs. Zooz 800 Series Z-Wave Long Range GPIO Module ZAC93 LR ZAC93 LR specifications: Z-Wave Frequency – 908.42 MHz (US, CA, MX) / 921.4 MHz (AU, NZ) / 868.42 MHz (EU) Wireless Range – Up to 1 mile/1.6 km in open space with Long Range enabled (up to 300 meters in open space, up to 76 meters indoors in traditional mesh networks) Support for up to 200 devices in a single network Host interface – 10-pin header to Raspberry […]

March 23, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Half-size mini PCIe card adds up to 4 CAN FD interfaces to embedded systems

esd electronics CAN-PCIeMiniHS/402 is a half-size mini PCIe card with four CAN FD Interfaces designed for embedded systems with one model adding extended temperature range support from -40C to 85°C. The company also introduced the CAN-Mini/402-4-DSUB9-150mm adapter to more easily connect the four CAN network interfaces via DSUB9 connectors. It comes with four individual small adapter boards, each equipped with a DSUB9 plug and a jumper for selectable onboard CAN termination, as well as 150 mm long wires. CAN-PCIeMiniHS/402 highlights: 4x CAN FD interfaces according to ISO 11898-2, no galvanic isolation, bit rates from 10 Kbit/s up to 8 Mbit/s Bus mastering and local data management by FPGA (Intel Cyclone IV EP4CGX) PCIe Mini interface according to Mini Card Electromechanical Spec. R1.2 Supports MSI (Message Signaled Interrupts) HW-Timestamp capable Dimensions – 30 mm x 27 mm (Half-size mini PCIe form factor) Temperature Range Standard – 0°C … +75°C Extended range: […]

February 14, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

KiCad 7.0.0 release – Custom fonts, text boxes, SpaceMouse, crash reporting, and much more

KiCad 7.0.0 open-source EDA software has just been released with a range of new features from custom fonts to 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse integration to opt-in Sentry crash reporting, and many more. It took over three years between KiCad 5.0.0 and KiCad 6.0.0 announcements, but only a little over a year for the release of KiCad 7.0.0. Did KiCad developers acquire superhuman abilities or did AI get involved in the development somehow? Most probably not, and instead they change the release schedule to a yearly one, so we should get annual releases of the open-source EDA suite going forward, with KiCad 8.0.0 to be released in Q1 2024. Some notable changes to KiCad 7.0 include: Custom Fonts support is now available in the schematic, PCB, and worksheet editors to allow the use of any system font. Text box support was added in both the schematic and PCB editors. 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse support in […]

February 7, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

ESP32 MPY-Jama is a MicroPython IDE for ESP32 boards

ESP32 MPY-Jama is a cross-platform MicroPython IDE specifically designed for ESP32 boards with a file manager, a REPL terminal, real-time dashboards, and various ESP32-specific features. The IDE is an open-source Python program using pyWebView and pySerial plus some JavaScript for the user interface, and the developer of the program, Jean-Christophe Bos, provides binaries for Windows 64-bit and macOS 64-bit Arm or x86. It’s also possible to use it in Linux but needs to be built from source. Some of the key features of the ESP32 MPY-Jama IDE include: MicroPython code editor with syntax highlighting REPL interface Access to information dashboards with real-time data about WiFi and Bluetooth connections, system info with GPIO status, CPU frequency, memory and SPI flash details Easy 2-click methods to connect to WiFi and create an access point Graphical interface to install a new firmware through esptool Ability to create, import, and run “Jama Funcs” mini-applications […]

September 18, 2022February 15, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Luxonis OAK-D series 2 USB and PoE cameras integrate 3D depth and AI for robotics applications

Luxonis OAK-D Series 2 are the second-generation of USB or PoE cameras with 3D depth and a built-in AI accelerator mostly used for computer vision in robotics applications. We first wrote about Luxonis’ DepthAI module for Raspberry Pi based on the Intel Myriad X AI accelerator in 2019, and later found the module integrated into OpenCV AI Kit Lite, aka OAK-D Lite camera. The second-generation OAK-D cameras replace the module with a Robotics Vision Core 2 (RVC2) “chip-down design” equipped an SoC and Myriad X AI accelerator for up to 4 TOPS of processing power, including 1.4 TOPS for AI inference. Luxonis OAK-D Series 2 specifications and features: Robotics Vision Core 2 based on Myriad X AI accelerator 4 TOPS of processing power (1.4 TOPS for AI) Video encoding – H.264, H.265, MJPEG @ 4Kp3, 1080p60 Computer vision – Warp/dewarp, resize, crop via ImageManip node, edge detection, feature tracking, custom […]

September 14, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

Arduino IDE 2.0 is now officially released

The first stable release of Arduino IDE 2.0 is now out. Based on the Eclipse Theia framework, the new IDE provides a more modern and user-friendly user interface, faster compilation time, and more features we’ll discuss in this post. Arduino initially introduced the Arduino IDE 2.0 beta in March 2021 with a live debugger with breakpoints support, a revamped user interface with features such as autocompletion of variables and functions. After 18 months of debugging with the help of members of the community such as Paul Stoffregen (the maker of the Teensy boards), the Arduino IDE 2.0 is not an experimental software anymore, and it’s the first version you’d see in the download page. The Arduino IDE 2.0 is available for Windows 10 64-bit and newer, Linux X86-64, and macOS 10.14 “Mojave” or newer. If you’ve already installed Arduino 1.x, it will inform you of updates for your installed libraries […]

September 14, 2022October 21, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Mini-ITX motherboard combines AMD Ryzen Embedded R2314 SoC with two InferX X1 AI accelerators

InferX Hawk Mini-ITX motherboard AMD AI accelerators

Flex Logix has just announced the InferX Hawk mini-ITX motherboard equipped with an AMD Ryzen Embedded R2314 SoC and two InferX X1 AI accelerators from the company in order to help customers customize, build and deploy edge and embedded AI systems easily and quickly. The motherboard features up to 32GB RAM, supports SATA and M.2 MVMe/SATA storage, provides dual Gigabit Ethernet and optional WiFi/4F LTE connectivity, plus the usual USB 3.2, DisplayPort, and serial interfaces, and is meant to compete directly against solutions based on NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier. InferX Hawk specifications: SoC – AMD Ryzen Embedded R2314 quad-core processor @ 2.1/3.5 GHz (Turbo) with hexa-core Radeon Vega graphics; TDP: 12 to 35W AI accelerators – 2x InferX X1 accelerators System Memory – 2x DDR4 SO-DIMM up to 32GB capacity Storage M.2 M Key socket for NVMe or SATA SSD SATA 3.0 connector Video Output – 2x DisplayPort Networking […]