Samsung Artik IoT Boards and Devkits with WiFi, Bluetooth LE, and Zigbee Available, Partners Announced

Samsung Artik IoT boards will finally start selling on February 22 via Digikey. With the many fascinating developments in the IoT space over the year, you’d be forgiven if you completely forgot about Samsung Artik boards. So let’s have a quick recap. The Korean company previously announced three boards all supporting Bluetooth LE: Artik 1 – Ineda Systems Dual Core microAptiv MIPS32 processor with 1MB on-chip RAM, no GPU, and 4MB SPI flash Artik 5 – Dual core Exynos ARM processor @ 1GHz with ARM Mali 400 MP2 GPU, 512MB RAM and 4GB eMMC flash (both on-chip), with WiFi & Zigbee/Thread connectivity Artik 10 – Octa core Exynos processor with 4x ARM Cortex A15 @ 1.3GHz, 4x ARM Cortex A7 @ 1.0 GHz with ARM Mali-T628 GPU, 2GB LPDDR3 (on-chip), 16GB eMMC flash, and WiFi & Zigbee/Thread connectivity Samsung also partnered with multiple companies working on: Operating Systems – Tizen, […]

CYCLONE F100 Tegra K1 Fanless Embedded Computer Supports up to 8GB RAM, SATA, and Various Networking Options

Calao Systems has added a new member to the their rugged embedded computers family with Cyclone F100 powered by Nvidia Tegra K1 quad core Cortex A15 processor with up to 8GB RAM, optional industrial grade SATA Nandrive, and mSATA, dual Gigabit Ethernet, and mPCIe connectivity options for IoT and M2M with LoRA, WiFi, RF radios, etc… Target applications include surveillance, identification, transport, robotic, graphic enhanced digital signage, and medical equipment. Cyclone F100 specifications: SoC – Nvidia Tegra K1 quad-core ARM Cortex A15 processor @ 2.3 GHz with 192-core Kepler GPU supporting OpenGL 4.4, OpenGL ES 3.1 and CUDA/GPGPU System Memory – 2 GB DDR3L (Options for 4 and 8GB on request) Storage – 8 GB eMMC, 8 MB SPI flash and  micro SD card slot. Optional: Industrial grade SATA Nandrive, mSATA socket Video Output – HDMI, options: LVDS and DisplayPort Audio I/O – HDMI, optical S/PDIF out, Mic In / […]

Samsung Introduces $250 SmartThings Home Monitoring Kit

Samsung has recently launched SmartThings Home Monitoring Kit including a SmartThings hub, a motions sensor, two multi-pupose sensors to detect when windows or doors are opened, and a smart outlet for home automation and monitoring via mobile devices. Some of SmartThings Hub technical specifications: Ethernet for connection to router Communication Protocol – ZigBee, Z-Wave, IP Range – 15 to 40 meters Power Supply – In-wall power adapter with about 10 hours of backup power from 4 included AA batteries Dimensions – 10.67 x 12.45 x 3.3 cm Weight – 218 grams Operating Temperature: 5 to 35°C (Indoor use only) They’ve decided not to include WiFi, or omitted in the product page, so it would have to be close to your router. The multi-purpose sensors, and motion sensor are powered by a pre-installed CR-2450 battery, while the smart outlet takes 100 to 220V (12A @ 120V max). All three devices communicate […]

Freescale Kinetis KW41Z Wireless MCU Supports Bluetooth 4.2, Zigbee, and Thread

Freescale has unveiled a new wireless micro-controller part of their Kinetis MCU family with Kinetis KW41Z, based on an ARM Cortex M0+ core, and supporting both the latest Bluetooth 4.2 specifications, as well as a 802.15.4 radio allowing support for Zigbee and Thread. Kinetis KW41Z main features and specifications: ARM Cortex-M0+ core @ 48 MHz, with up to 512 KB Flash memory, up to 128 KB SRAM, and an integrated balun Multi Protocol Radio 2.4 GHz radio, Bluetooth Low Energy 4.2 compliant IEEE 802.15.4-2011 standard compliant radio Receiver Sensitivity (Typ.) –  BLE: -96 dBm;  802.15.4:  -102 dBm Programmable Transmitter Output Power up to +4 dBm I/Os – 2x I2C, 2x SPI, LPUART, TSI, CMT and GPIOs with interrupt capabilities Analog modules – 16-bit ADC, 12-bit DAC, 6-bit High Speed Analog Comparator (CMP) Security – AES-128 Accelerator (AESA), True Random Number Generator (TRNG) Operating Voltage Ranges Bypass Voltage: 1.71V to 3.6V […]

KDDI Unveils Tiny BLE/Zigbee Development Board Running Mozilla Firefox OS

KDDI has recently announced Open Web Board, an HDMI TV stick powered by Rockchip RK3066, and running Firefox OS, just like the recently announced MatchStick. The board is however aimed at embedded and web developers who want to create apps for Firefox OS, and interface with external devices over Bluetooth Low Energy or Zigbee (optional module) communication, optionally using Gluin, a web based graphical “application development tool that enables simple linking programming between electronic devices”. Open Web Board specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3066 dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 1.6 Ghz with Mali-400 MP4 GPU System Memory – 1 GB RAM Storage – 8 GB flash Video Output – HDMI USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 1x micro USB for power Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi (AP6210 module), Bluetooth 2.1 (HFP/A2DP/AVRCP)/4.0 GATT. and optional Zigbee via external module Dimensions – Small This dongle runs Firefox OS 1.4. KDDI showcased […]

$79 STACK Box Home Automation / IoT Gateway Supports Wi-Fi, Ethernet, BLE, XBee, X10, Z-Wave and More (Crowdfunding)

Cloud Media (Syabas) is better known for their Linux based “Popcorn Hour” media players, and last year I reviewed their FreeOTT streaming media player powered by a Cavium ARM11 processor. The company is now entering the home automation market with the STACK Box (aka XuanBox) also powered by a Cavium ARM11 processor, and supporting various connectivity options to interface with popular smart “things” such as Belkin Wemo and Philips Hue, as well as a Raspberry Pi Bus (26-pin header) to support add-ons. STACK Box specifications: Processor – Cavium ARM11 processor @ 640 MHz (possibly Cavium CELESTIAL CNC1800L. TBC) System Memory – 256MB DDR3 Storage – 512 MB flash + SD card slot Connectivity 10/100M Ethernet Wi-Fi 802.11n with WPS Bluetooth LE 4.0 (included) Z-Wave (included) Dust Networks (extra module required) XBee  (extra module required) X10 (extra module required) Insteon (extra module required) RF433/315 (coming soon) EnOcean (coming soon) ZigBee(coming soon) DCLink(coming […]

Thread is a New IP-based Wireless Protocol Leveraging 6LoWPAN and 802.15.4 Standards

Wi-Fi is a neat way to connect devices to Internet, but it has two main inconveniences: relatively high cost and power consumption. Luckily there are standards that addresses the cost and power consumption issues. Radio chips based on IEEE 802.15.4, a standard which specifies the physical layer and media access control for low-rate wireless personal area networks, are common place and found in many existing devices relying on higher level wireless protocols such as ZigBee, ISA100.11a, WirelessHART, and MiWi. AFAIK, Zigbee is the most popular of the aforementioned protocols, but is hindered by the requirements of the license for commercial products (annual fee), Zigbee membership requirements conflict with many open source license such as GPL, and the standard suffers from lack of interoperability and IPv6 support, and power requirements that are too high for some applications. So a consortium of seven companies namely ARM, Big Ass Fans, Freescale, Nest, Samsung, […]

Soap is a Touchscreen Enabled Router Supporting Gigabit Ethernet and Lots of Wireless Standards (Crowdfunding)

Soap is a strange creature, and I’m not convinced there are that many use cases for such hardware, but I find it interesting that the developers decided to pack a Freescale i.MX6 Solo/Dual or Quad SoC powered Android 4.4 tablet and a router supporting five Gigabit Etherner ports, as well as WiFI 802.11ac, Wi-0Fi 802.11 b/g/n,  Zigbee, Z-wave, Bluetooth 4.0 (BLE), Insteon RF, X10, 433Mhz, NFC, and infrared into one and only device which they call an “Intelligent Home Management Hub”.  It’s also complete with an HDMI output port so that you can use it as a media player. Let’s go through the specifications for the four version this little monster (Soap Solo, Soap Dual, Soap Quad, and Soap 8.4): SoC Soap Solo – Freescale i.MX6 Solo single ARM Cortex A9 @ 1 GHz with Vivante GC880 3D GPU Soap Dual – Freescale i.MX6 Dual dual ARM Cortex A9 @ […]

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