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PicoQuake USB vibration sensor is based on the RP2040 MCU and the ICM-42688-P vibration sensor

The PicoQuake is a USB vibration sensor with a MEMS accelerometer covering a wide range of vibrations. It is capable of capturing vibrations in the low-frequency range (tall buildings, bridges) to the high-frequency range (motors, industrial machinery). It can operate as a standalone device and connect to a computer via a USB cable. Furthermore, it is based on the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller and uses a low-noise MEMS inertial measurement unit, the TDK InvenSense ICM-42688-P, which combines a 3-axis gyroscope and a 3-axis accelerometer. The low-noise IMU sensor used enables the PicoQuake to profile vibrations of very low magnitude. The PicoQuake sensor is a product from Slovenian maker, PLab, just like the FOCn driver module we took a look at recently. Potential use cases for the PicoQuake include optimizing brushless DC motor vibrations (important in small mobility products such as electric bikes and scooters), tracking trackpad clicks, smart home automation, […]

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picoLLM is a cross-platform, on-device LLM inference engine

Large Language Models (LLMs) can run locally on mini PCs or single board computers like the Raspberry Pi 5 but with limited performance due to high memory usage and bandwidth requirements. That’s why Picovoice has developed the picoLLM Inference Engine cross-platform SDK optimized for running compressed large language models on systems running Linux (x86_64), macOS (arm64, x86_64), and Windows (x86_64), Raspberry Pi OS on Pi 5 and 4, Android and iOS mobile operating systems, as well as web browsers such as Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Firefox. Alireza Kenarsari, Picovoice CEO, told CNX Software that “picoLLM is a joint effort of Picovoice deep learning researchers who developed the X-bit quantization algorithm and engineers who built the cross-platform LLM inference engine to bring any LLM to any device and control back to enterprises”. The company says picoLLM delivers better accuracy than GPTQ when using Llama-3.8B MMLU (Massive Multitask Language Understanding) as a […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
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HealthyPi Move is an open-source nRF5340-powered biometric monitor worn like a watch (Crowdfunding)

The HealthyPi Move is the latest biometric monitor in the HealthyPi series from ProtoCentral. It is the first to come in a wearable form factor and can measure up to eight vital signs. It is powered by a Nordic Semiconductor nRF5340 dual-core SoC, with a Cortex-M33 application processor and a Cortex-M33 network processor. It features 128MB of flash memory connected through a high-speed QSPI interface that can store up to 10 days of processed data. It is capable of measuring galvanic skin response (EDA/GSR), electrocardiogram (ECG) signals, and photoplethysmogram (PPG) signals for determining blood oxygen level (SPO2), blood pressure, and heart rate variability. It also includes a body temperature sensor and inertial measurement unit (IMU) with a 6-axis accelerometer and gyroscope. HealthyPi Move targets medical and biotech applications, including personal health tracking, building healthcare devices, and even clinical research with approval from the FDA or IRB. We have previously covered […]

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Tiny XIAO ESP32C6 WiFi, BLE, and 802.15.4 IoT board offers up to 16 GPIO pins

Seeed Studio has added yet another member to their XIAO board family with the XIAO ESP32C6 powered by an ESP32-C6 WiFi 6, Bluetooth LE 5, and 802.15.4 (Thread/Zigbee) RISC-V microcontroller and offering up to 16 GPIOs (headers + pads) in a tiny 21 x 17.5 mm form factor that’s smaller than a typical stamp and makes it one of the smallest ESP32-C6 boards around. The company started the XIAO family with the Seeeduino XIAO (Microchip SAMD21G18) in 2020, and since then they’ve made several other variants with different processors including the XIAO RP2040, XIAO ESP32C3, and XIAO ESP32S3. The XIAO ESP32C6 is the latest (10th) iteration of the board and the first to support WiFi 6, BLE, and 802.15.4 wireless connectivity. XIAO ESP32C6 specifications: Wireless MCU –  Espressif Systems ESP32-C6 CPU Single-core 32-bit RISC-V clocked up to 160 MHz Low-power RISC-V core @ up to 20 MHz Memory – 512KB […]

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AAEON RICO-3568 is a Pico-ITX Plus board powered by a Rockchip RK3568 SoC

AAEON RICO-3568 is a Pico-ITX Plus single board computer powered by a Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Cortex-A55 AI SoC, up to 8GB LPDDR4, 16GB eMMC flash, four display interfaces (HDMI, LVDS, eDP, MIPI DSI), gigabit Ethernet, and various expansion headers for industrial applications. Most have already heard about the Pico-ITX form factor, but it’s the first time I’ve ever come across a Pico-ITX Plus board. It looks like it’s an AAEON-specific “standard” right now, with the Pico-ITX Plus boards (100x80mm) being slightly wider than Pico-ITX SBCs (100x72mm). AAEON RICO-3568 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3568 CPU – Quad-core Cortex A55 processor at up to 2.0 GHz GPU – Mali G52 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.1 VPU 4Kp60 H.264, H.265, VP9, 1080p60 MPEG-4/-2/-1, VP8, and VC1 video decoder 1080p60 H.264/H.265 video encoder AI accelerator – 0.8 TOPS NPU System Memory – 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB LPDDR4 Storage […]

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Easily build a robot car with the Car Base Board for the STM32F411 “Black Pill” board

The Car Base Board from Applying Microcontroller Solutions is a modular platform for building robot car projects powered by the WeAct Studio Black Pill development board. The Black Pill board is an upgrade to the “Blue Pill 2” board and features the STM32F411CEU6 microcontroller running at 100MHz with 512 KB of flash memory, 128 KB SRAM, and a USB Type-C port for power and programming. The Care Base Board printed circuit board is a base controller that takes hardware expansions such as wireless modules, servos, and sensors to monitor and control a robot car. The onboard headers provide a straightforward way to wire these connections and help prevent a tangled mess (rat’s nest) of wires. The PCB’s design makes it easy to use widely-available, “generic” devices and boards in development and to power all of them with batteries. It also allows the developer to select their favorite wireless communication device. […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs
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ESP32-S3-Matrix board features 64 LEDs, GPIO pins, 9-axis “attitude” sensor for robotics and motion control applications

The Waveshare ESP32-S3-Matrix is a microcontroller development board designed for AIoT applications, featuring a larger 8×8 RGB LED matrix (64 LEDs) compared to the 5×5 RGB LED matrix (25 LEDs) on the ESP32-C3/ESP32 based “C3FH4 RGB” / “PICO D4 RGB” board. In addition to that the Waveshare board features two 10-headers for GPIOs, UART, and power signals, along with an integrated QMI8658C attitude sensor (9-axis IMU sensor), making it ideal for robotics and motion control projects. Recently we have seen Waveshare introduce affordable products that are perfect for embedded development like the $15 1.69-inch IPS touch LCD module, the $6.99 ESP32-C6-Pico Board, the $4.99 ESP32-S3-Tiny board and much more feel free to check those out if you are interested in those. Waveshare ESP32-S3-Matrix dev board specifications: MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3FH4R2 CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 @ up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration Memory – 512KB RAM, […]

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SBC Case Builder v3.0 can create thousands of cases for popular SBCs and standard motherboards (mini-ITX, Pico-ITX, NUC…)

SBC Case Builder V3.0 case design utility has just been released with the ability to create over 1,000 standard cases – not including customization – for popular SBCs from Raspberry Pi, Hardkernel, Orange Pi, Radxa, and others, as well as standard motherboards following Mini-ITX, Pico-ITX, NUC, Nano-ITX, etc.., and SBC adapters following these standards, meaning you could install a Raspberry Pi 5 into a mini-ITX case if needed. SBC Case Builder started as a command line utility for designing DIY case for SBCs relying on OpenSDAD in April 2022, but Edward Kisiel (hominoids) quickly released version 2 with a GUI in October or the same, and has now further improved the utility with the release of SBC Case Builder v3.0. Version 3.0 comes with many improvements but the main focus was to reuse existing and new PC standard form factor cases by creating SBC adapters and custom I/O Shields since […]

Boardcon Rockchip and Allwinner SoM and SBC products