wireless News - Page 8 of 9 - CNX Software

November 14, 2023December 4, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

u-blox MAYA-W3 industrial wireless module supports WiFi 6/6E and Bluetooth 5.4 with LE Audio

We’ve already covered two IoT-focused WiFi 6 and Bluetooth LE chips last week with Synaptics SYN43711 chipset and Gigadevice GD32VW553 RISC-V WiSoC, but there’s more, and u-blox has recently introduced the MAYA-W3 WiFi 6/6E and Bluetooth 5.4 module with LE Audio support and designed for industrial applications. It follows the MAYA-W2 industrial IoT module with NXP iW611/iW612 SoC introduced last year. The MAYA-W3 module offers some flexibility as it’s designed on the upcoming Infineon AIROC CYW5551x WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.4 chip family supporting 2.4 GHz only (CYW55511), 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz (CYW55512), and a 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz with the tri-band CYW55512 chipset. u-blox also provides three antenna options for each model with two U.FL connectors, two antenna pin connectors, or an embedded PCB antenna. u-Blox MAYA-W3 specifications: Chipset – Infineon AIROC CYW5551x CYW55511 for 2.4 GHz WiFi 6 CYW55512 for 2.4 and 5 GHz […]

November 8, 2023November 10, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 211 Comments

Giveaway Week 2023 – WisBlock IoT Starter Kit with LoRaWAN and LTE-M/NB-IoT or GSM connectivity

RAKwireless is joining CNX Software Giveaway Week for the third year running with the company offering a free WisBlock IoT Starter Kit with LoRaWAN and LTE-M/NB-IoT or GSM connectivity following giveaways for the WisBlock Kit 2 LoRa-based GPS Tracker with Solar Panel in 2021 and RAK Developer Kit (Air Quality Kit) in 2022. The WisBlock IoT Starter Kit enables prototyping with LoRaWAN and cellular IoT connectivity plus display modules (OLED and RGB) and plenty of sensors such as accelerometers, light sensors, VOC sensors, temperature and humidity sensors, and more. WisBlock IoT Starter Kit content: 1x RAK4631 WisBlock Core module SoC – Nordic nRF52840 Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller @ 64 MHz with 1 MB Flash, 256 KB RAM, Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0 protocol stack LoRaWAN – Semtech SX1262 LoRa Transceiver with LoRaWAN 1.0.2 protocol stack (supports Class A & C), global coverage support: RU864, IN865, EU868, US915, AU915, KR920, AS923 1x RAK11200 […]

October 16, 2023October 15, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Nordic nRF54L15 Cortex-M33 wireless MCU halves Rx power consumption over nRF52 chips

Nordic Semiconductor has recently unveiled the 128 MHz nRF54L15 Cortex-M33 multi-protocol wireless microcontroller, the first from the nRF54L Series, and the second from the wider nRF54 family after the more powerful 320 MHz nRF54H20 dual-core Cortex-M33 MCU was introduced last Spring. While the nRF54H20 was designed to enable new types of IoT devices with a leap in performance and lots of resources with up to 2 MB flash and 1MB SRAM, the new nRF54L15 aims to be an upgrade to the nRF52 series with twice the performance and much better power efficiency, with for instance, half the Rx power consumption over its predecessor. Nordic Semi nRF54L15 key features and specifications: CPU Arm Cortex-M33 @ up to 128 MHz with up to 1.5 MB Flash + 256 KB SRAM RISC-V coprocessor for “software-defined peripheral” Wireless Bluetooth 5.4 LE with direction-finding, Bluetooth mesh, etc… Ready for future Bluetooth releases 802.15.4 radio for […]

August 23, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

gr-lora_sdr – A GNU Radio SDR implementation of a LoRa transceiver

The physical layer of the LoRa (LoRa PHY) is a proprietary standard owned by Semtech and people have been trying to reverse-engineer the LoRa standard for years with projects such as GR-LoRa, and over the year various people have taken over the works and new projects have come with the latest one being the gr-lora_sdr GNU Radio software-defined radio (SDR) implementation of a LoRa transceiver. The project has been conducted in collaboration with the Telecommunication Circuits Laboratory of the EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) in Switzerland, and gr-lora_sdr is available as a module for GNU Radio 3.10 with both Tx and Rx implemented so it can be used with hardware compatible with GNU Radio that works in the ISM bands for LoRa (e.g. 433 MHz, 868 MHz, 915 MHz). Highlights of the gr-lora_sdr project: Sends and receives LoRa packets between USRP-USRP and USRP-commercial LoRa transceiver (tested with Adafruit Feather […]

August 22, 2023August 22, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Silicon Labs SG23 and SG28 SoCs are optimized for Amazon Sidewalk

Silicon Labs has launched two new Cortex-M33 SoCs optimized for Amazon Sidewalk with the EFR32SG23 (SG23) Sub-GHz wireless SoC and the EFR32SG28 (SG28) dual-band wireless SoC with Sub-GHz and Bluetooth LE. Both low-power SoCs are designed for “Internet of Things” applications in smart homes, security, lighting, building automation, and metering and come with a Matrix Vector Processor to enable AI/ML implementation for Smart End Nodes. Silicon Labs SG28 (EFR32SG28) specifications: MCU core – Arm Cortex-M33 @ 78 MHz with DSP instructions and FPU On-chip memory – Up to 256 kB RAM data memory On-chip storage – Up to 1024 kB flash program memory AI accelerator – Matrix Vector Processor for AI/ML acceleration Wireless Sub-GHz radio TX power up to +20 dBm Rx sensitivity – -98.6 dBm sensitivity @ 50 kbps 915 MHz 2GFSK 2.4 GHz BLE radio – TX power up to +10 dBm Protocol – Amazon Sidewalk Energy consumption […]

August 18, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Quansheng multiband radios’ firmware can be flashed and customized from a web browser

WebSerial Interface Flash Quansheng UV K5 multiband radio

We’ve recently written about the Quansheng UV-K5 multiband radio which supports experimental firmware to work in a wider 18 MHz – 1300 MHz frequency range than with the stock firmware so it can be used for amateur radio, air traffic control, Citizens Band (CB) radio, and other fun stuff. But flashing the firmware requires downloading the manufacturer’s Windows-only programming software and customizations are provided through multiple firmware files. But it has now become much easier to flash the firmware for Quansheng devices thanks to the work of whosmatt who developed the UVMOD web interface using WebSerial to flash the firmware and even customize it from Windows or Linux. The interface supports Quansheng UV-K5, UV-K6, UV-K5(8), and UV-5R Plus handheld radios, and you’ll need a web browser that supports the WebSerial API to flash the firmware directly from the web browser directly, which means only the desktop versions of Chrome, Edge, […]

August 17, 2023August 18, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

RTL-SDR Blog V4 dongle launched with Rafeal R828D tuner chip

RTL-SDR has just launched the RTL-SDR Blog V4 dongle for software-defined radio (SDR) enthusiasts based on the Rafael R828D tuner chip with three switchable inputs instead of the R860 chip used in RTL-DSR Blog V3 dongle. The new model still features the Realtek RTL2832U demodulator found in all previous versions of the SDR USB dongles but adds basic input filtering, integrates an improved LDO for the power circuity leading to fewer heat emissions, and improves HF reception thanks to a built-in upconverter. The main RTL-SDR Blog V4 dongle improvements include: Improved HF Reception thanks to a built-in upconverter instead of using a direct sampling circuit. Some positive consequences are that there’s no more Nyquist folding of signals around 14.4 MHz, improved sensitivity, and adjustable gain on HF. Improved filtering thanks to the three inputs of the R828D tuner chip found in the V4 dongle. Three bands (HF, VHF, and UHF) […]

August 14, 2023August 14, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

ALFA Network HaLow-U – An 802.11ah WiFi HaLow USB adapter supporting AP and STA mode

ALFA Network HaLow-U is an 802.11ah WiFi HaLow USB adapter based on the Newracom NRC7292 chipset and NXP i.MX 6 processor that works both in access point (AP) and client (STA) modes. It delivers long-range WiFi up to one kilometer in the 900 MHz frequency ISM bands and is mostly useful for IP cameras and high-end sensors. The ecosystem around WiFi HaLow (802.11ah) is expanding slowly, but surely, and we previously covered a mini PCIe card, a WiFi HaLow development board, and a gateway kit to extend the range of IP cameras, and also ALFA Network’s AHPI7292S Raspberry Pi HAT that found its way into RAKWireless WisGate Connect gateway. The new HaLow-U USB adapter adds another way to bring WiFi HaLow connectivity to more devices. HaLow-U specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX6 Arm Cortex-A9 processor System Memory – 256MB DDR3 Storage – 32MB NOR flash Connectivity 802.11ah HaLow Newracom NRC7292 chipset […]