Posted on by Tomisin Olujinmi - 4 Comments on Raspberry Breadstick – A RP2040-based development board in a quirky form factor

Raspberry Breadstick – A RP2040-based development board in a quirky form factor

Raspberry Breadstick on a breadboard

The Raspberry Breadstick is a breadstick-shaped development board that is designed for ease of use. Unlike other development boards, the Breadstick is built to fit directly on your breadboard and interface with the other electronic components in your project without the need for lengthy jumper wires. It serves to deliver a prototype that is neat, straightforward, and easy to troubleshoot. It is based on Raspberry Pi’s debut microcontroller, the RP2040, which is the same MCU chip that powers the Raspberry Pi Pico and several other boards. We recently covered the Waveshare RP2040-PiZero that comes in the Pi Zero’s form factor. The RP2040 is cheap and supports C/C++, MicroPython, and CircuitPython. The Breadstick has other interesting features such as a lineup of 24 addressable RGB LEDs with fast refresh rates, a 6-axis inertial measurement unit for collecting acceleration and rotation data, as well as 16MB of external flash storage for your […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on iKOOLCORE R2 (Core i3-N300) system review – Part2: Proxmox VE, Ubuntu 22.04, pfSense

iKOOLCORE R2 (Core i3-N300) system review – Part2: Proxmox VE, Ubuntu 22.04, pfSense

iKOOLCORE R2 Ubuntu Promox VE dual display

In the first part of iKOOLCORE R2 mini PC & router review, I had a look at the hardware with an unboxing and a teardown of the Intel Core i3-N300 Alder Lake-N computer and also noticed the device booted to a UEFI shell. So for the second part of the review, I will report my experience installing Proxmox VE on the iKOOLCORE R2 and setting up and using Ubuntu 22.04, pfSense 2.7.2, and OpenWrt 23.05 virtual machines, making sure I can still use a physical display, keyboard, and mouse with Ubuntu while pfSense firewall is running. As a side note, the previous generation iKOOLCORE R1 mini PC that was sent to Ian for review with Proxmox VE and various virtual machines preinstalled OpenWrt, Debian 11, and Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC set to Chinese language by default. As I understand it, iKOOLCORE still does that for the Chinese market, but not […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
Posted on by Supachai Vorapojpisut - 9 Comments on Seeed Studio mmWave sensor kit – Part 1: unboxing and first impression with ESPHome and Home Assistant

Seeed Studio mmWave sensor kit – Part 1: unboxing and first impression with ESPHome and Home Assistant

mmWave Human Detection Sensor Kit Review Home Assistant

Excited to share my first review, written for CNX Software! This time, we’re diving into the Seeed Studio mmWave Human Detection Sensor Kit, which harnesses the power of mmWave radar. The technology I’m particularly interested in for its smart home potential. Therefore, I jumped at the chance when CNX Software offered a product review opportunity. The kit arrived promptly at my doorstep just one week after accepting CNX Software’s offer. Here are my initial findings of the product and its capabilities to replace existing motion detection products.  Unboxing the mmWave sensor kit I opened the DHL box and found the neatly bubble-wrapped mmWave Human Detection Sensor Kit. Alongside the kit, I discovered a bonus: the MR60FDA1 60GHz mmWave Sensor – Fall Detection Module Pro. This higher-frequency module boasts better resolution and even adds a fall detection feature compared to the kit’s included module, the MR24HPC1. However, the MR24HPC1 24GHz mmWave Sensor […]

Posted on by Debashis Das - 1 Comment on Renesas’ RX23E-B MCU offers a low-drift 24-bit A/D converter with a 125 kSPS sampling rate

Renesas’ RX23E-B MCU offers a low-drift 24-bit A/D converter with a 125 kSPS sampling rate

Renesas' new RX23E-B MUC offers a low-drift 24-bit delta-sigma A/D converter with up to 125 kS/S Sampling Rate - That is eight times faster than its predecessor.

Renesas’ new RX23E-B MCU offers a low-drift 24-bit delta-sigma A/D converter with up to 125 kS/S Sampling Rate – That is eight times faster than its predecessor. This controller is clocked at 32-MHz and offers up to 256 KB Flash memory rail-to-rail programmable gain instrumentation amplifiers, ±10 V input pins, a low-drift voltage reference, and on-chip excitation current sources. This year Renesas introduced a range of new products including, the RZ/T2L Arm Cortex-R52 with an EtherCAT controller, and the RA4E2 and RA6E2 Arm Cortex-M33 MCUs for wearables and appliances. Renecus also released its first 32-bit RISC-V CPU  this year, you can check those out if interested. Features of Renesas’ RX23E-B MCU: CPU: 32 MHz 32-bit RXv2 core Includes FPU/DSP instructions Memory: 256 KB code Flash 8 KB data Flash 32 KB SRAM 24-bit Delta-Sigma ADC with PGA: High data rate: max 125 kSPS Ultra-low noise: 190 nVRMS at 977 SPS/gain=64 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on T-Keyboard-S3 4-key USB mechanical keyboard features keycaps with 0.85-inch color display

T-Keyboard-S3 4-key USB mechanical keyboard features keycaps with 0.85-inch color display

T-Keyboard-S3

LILYGO T-Keyboard-S3 is an ESP32-S3 powered USB mechanical keyboard with four keys each equipped with a keycap featuring a 0.85-inch 128×128 color display to show different icons or characters. We have already covered several programmable small mechanical keyboards/keypads or macropads, so the first time I saw the T-Keyboard-S3 I did not think much of it until I read the $65 price tag on Aliexpress which I found excessive for this type of device. That’s only until I realized that each resin keycap has its own color display that the price made sense, and it makes quite a versatile macropad as you could easily program multiple layouts depending on the use case. T-Keyboard-S3 specifications: Wireless module ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 MCU – ESP32-S3R8 dual-core LX7 microprocessor @ up to 240 MHz with Vector extension for machine learning Memory – 8MB PSRAM Storage – 16MB SPI flash Connectivity – WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5 with LE/Mesh […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments on Review of GEEKOM Mini Air12 mini PC with Windows 11 Pro (Part 2)

Review of GEEKOM Mini Air12 mini PC with Windows 11 Pro (Part 2)

GEEKOM Mini Air12 dual display

We’ve already done an unboxing and teardown of the GEEKOM Mini Air12 mini PC in the first part of the review and we’ve now had time to test Windows 11 Pro on the Intel Processor N100 mini PC equipped with 16GB SO-DIMM DDR5 and a 512GB M.2 SSD. Despite the low-end processor, the mini PC boots quite fast and it’s perfectly usable to browse the web, play YouTube videos, and perform other tasks like office work and photo editing. In part 2 of the review, we’ll test Windows 11 Pro thoroughly with a software overview, features testing, benchmarks, storage and network performance tests, thermal performance, fan noise, and power consumption of GEEKOM Mini Air12. Software overview and features testing Going to System->About in the Windows settings confirms we have a Mini Air12 mini PC powered by an 800 MHz (based frequency) Intel Processor N100 CPU, with 16GB of RAM, and […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs
Posted on by Debashis Das - No Comments on Congatec conga-TC675r – A COM Express Type 6 module with soldered RAM, 13th Gen Intel Core CPU

Congatec conga-TC675r – A COM Express Type 6 module with soldered RAM, 13th Gen Intel Core CPU

Congatec has recently announced Six new COM Express Type 6 Computer-on-Modules based on 13th Gen Intel Core(Raptor Lake) processors. The module comes with up to 14(6P+8E) cores and 20-thread, ultra-fast LPDDR5x memory, all within a total TDP of 45W.

We’ve noticed a surge in the popularity of COM Express modules and Congatec has recently announced six new conga-TC675r COM Express Type 6 Computer-on-Modules based on 13th Gen Intel Core (Raptor Lake) processors that happen to come with soldered RAM instead of the usual SO-DIMM memory slots found in this form factor. The modules come with up to 14(6P+8E) cores and 20-thread, ultra-fast LPDDR5x memory, all within a total TDP of 45W. According to Congatec, this device is designed to work under extreme temperatures (-40°C to +85°C), and is built to withstand the highest standards for shock and vibrations notably thanks to the user of soldered onboard RAM, making this device suitable for off-road vehicles for mining, construction, agriculture, forestry, and other demanding mobility applications. Previously we have seen manufacturers like ADLINK announce COM Express modules based on the 13th Gen architecture, and both ADLINK and Congatec have also just […]

Posted on by Debashis Das - No Comments on Infineon launches PSoC Edge Cortex-M55/M33 microcontrollers for enhanced AI and ML applications

Infineon launches PSoC Edge Cortex-M55/M33 microcontrollers for enhanced AI and ML applications

The PSoC Edge microcontrollers integrate the Arm Cortex-M55 core with Helium DSP and the Ethos U55 NPU unit for advanced AI tasks. It also includes a power-efficient Arm Cortex-M33 core paired with an NNLite(DSP/NPU) for simpler AI tasks.

Infineon’s new PSoC Edge series of microcontrollers integrates the Arm Cortex-M55 core with Helium DSP and the Ethos U55 NPU unit for advanced AI tasks. It also includes a power-efficient Arm Cortex-M33 core paired with an NNLite(DSP/NPU) for simpler AI tasks. This setup allows the device to be more efficient in varying load conditions. Infineon’s PSoC lineup is a configurable microcontroller powered by Arm Cortex-M4, Cortex-M3, or Cortex-M0+ cores. The main USP (Unique Selling Point) of this lineup is its configurable digital and analog components. This feature makes them somewhat similar to an FPGA, but an FPGA is far more difficult to program than these microcontrollers and they are also very power-hungry. The device is equipped with advanced HMI and “Always-on” capability. “Always-on” is a feature of this device to constantly monitors and responds to signals automatically, making it suitable for smart homes, security, wearables, robotics, and many more. Key […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC