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MT87 Digital Clamp Multimeter Hands On

When you want to measure power/current on electrical device, a kill-a-watt is the easiest method, but it’s not always possible for items like air conditioner, water pumps, etc… because they may simply be no plug to disconnect. Luckily, current clamps are made just for this purpose, where you simply place one of the two wires in a clamp / loop, and it magically measures the current.  You can’t put both wires inside the loop or measurement will not work at all. The good news is that such devices are very inexpensive, and I bought MT87 digital clamp multimeter, which is also a multimeter adding voltage and resistance measurement capability, for just $11.33 on DealExtreme. MT87 comes with measurement leads (voltage/resistance only), and a user’s manual. The linked user’s manual is not exactly the same document, but very similar, and also refers to MT87C model which adds temperature measurement. There are […]

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Nordic nRF52840-based True Wireless Valve is a USB or battery powered valve for home water management (Crowdfunding)

True Wireless Valve from Uhome Systems is a battery-powered, smart valve that is easy to install and integrate into your smart home setup. It is based on the Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840, a multiprotocol Bluetooth 5.4 SoC with support for Bluetooth Low Energy, Bluetooth mesh, Thread, NFC, and Zigbee. True Wireless Valve can run on four AAA batteries for up to two years and can also be powered via a USB Type-C power supply. It offers a completely wireless experience with the option for battery power which removes the need for additional wiring and makes installation easier and safer. It seamlessly integrates with Home Assistant and other smart home platforms via ZHA and Zigbee2MQTT. It can be paired with a leak detector such as the AquaPing and used to respond automatically to potential leaks in the home. True Wireless Valve specifications: SoC –  Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 CPU – 32-bit Cortex-M4 core […]

ArmSoM CM5 - Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC
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SparkFun launches ESP32-based “Arduino IoT Weather Station” with Arduino IoT Cloud integration

SparkFun’s Arduino IoT Weather Station is a complete weather station kit leveraging the company’s MicroMod ecosystem with an ESP32 Processor Board and various sensors and developed in collaboration with Arduino for integration into their IoT Cloud service. Most people will check the weather on the Internet or watch the weather forecast on TV, but if you live in a remote area with a micro-climate or just want to have fun building your own weather station, the latest SparkFun kit will allow you to monitor temperature, air and soil humidity, wind speed and direction, lightning, and rainfall data at home and monitor the data from anywhere using a web browser. Arduino IoT Weather Station kit content: MicroMod ESP32 Processor module MicroMod Weather Carrier Board with a BME280 temperature, pressure, and humidity sensor and an AS3935 lightning detector only. The optional VEML6075 UV sensor is NOT included. The Weather Meter Kit with […]

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Review of CrowView 14-inch portable monitor with laptops and mini PCs

I received an early sample of the CrowView 14-inch laptop monitor for review a few weeks ago, and regular readers may have seen me already use it in some mini PC reviews, but I’ve yet to review the monitor itself, so I’ll report my experience using both laptops and mini PCs running Windows 11 and Ubuntu 22.04. CrowView laptop monitor unboxing The display ships in a retail package highlighting the main features of the display such as its Full HD resolution, compatibility with 13 to 16.5-inch laptop displays, 160° viewing angle, and its mechanical clamping mechanism. The CrowView display ships with a 12V/2A power supply, USB-A to USB-C and USB-C to USB-C cables, an HDMI to mini HDMI cable, a velcro tie, some stickers, and a user manual in English. The clamping mechanism can be found on the back of the display. There are also four buttons on the bottom […]

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CrowView adds a 14-inch portable monitor to your laptop for $115 and up (Crowdfunding)

Elecrow CrowView is a lightweight 14-inch portable monitor designed to be attached to your laptop adding a secondary monitor to it through a clamping structure that works with laptops having a 13-inch to 16.5-inch display. We’ve seen this type of laptop monitor extension for years, and you’ll find various models on Amazon. But the Elecrow is now offering the CrowView at a significantly lower price than competitors especially if you pledge $114.90 for the super early bird reward on Kickstarter. The regular price ($179) can still be interesting as in this price range you’d usually get an 11-inch or 12-inch display. CrowView specifications: 14-inch IPS display with 1920×1080 resolution, 60 Hz refresh rate, 400 nit brightness Compatible with 13-inch to 16.5-inch laptops with 4 to 8mm thick displays thanks to a telescopic snap 230° hinge enabling face-to-face mode. Ports Mini HDMI port for video input 2x full-featured USB Type-C port […]

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Yahboom DOFBOT 6 DoF AI Vision robotic arm for Jetson Nano sells for $289 and up

Robotic arms can be expensive especially if you want one with AI Vision support, but Yahboom DOFBOT robotic arm designed for NVIDIA Jetson Nano offers a lower cost alternative as the 6 DoF robot arm sells for about $289 with a VGA camera, or $481 with the Jetson Nano SBC included. We previously published a review of the myCobot 280 Pi robotic arm from Elephant Robotics, and while it’s working well, supports computer vision through the Raspberry Pi, and is nicely packaged, it sells for around $800 and up depending on the accessories, and one reader complained the “price tag is still way too high for exploration“. The DOFBOT robotic arm is looking more like a DIY build, but its price may make it more suitable for education and hobbyists. DOFBOT robotic arm main components and specifications: SBC – NVIDIA Jetson Nano B01 developer kit recommended, but Raspberry Pi, Arduino, […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs
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Atezr V35 review – A 35W laser engraver

Karl here. Today let’s look at the Atezr V35 35W diode laser engraver. Atezr is new to the market, at least I am just becoming aware of them, and they asked for a review of one of their machines. This fell in line with the laser power meter project I have been working on, so I accepted, hoping to further along that progress. My goal is to validate the 35W power spec. First, this is 35W optical power….not just the power consumed. You have to be very careful today when shopping for laser engravers. I hate this trend where manufacturers are highlighting total power consumption in marketing materials. This spec is prominently shown in an attempt to trick the consumer into thinking the laser is more powerful than they are. Until starting this review I thought the optical power limit for a single diode laser was 5.5W. I asked Atezr […]

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AMD Radeon PCIe graphics card tested with a Rockchip RK3588 SBC (Radxa Rock 5B)

When Rockchip first introduced the Rockchip RK3399 processor with a PCIe interface people initially hoped they could connect graphics card, but those hopes were quickly squashed due to a 32MB addressing limit. However, the PCIe implementation on the newer Rockchip RK3588 processor does not have such a limitation, and last November, Radxa teased a demo with an AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 PCIe graphics card connected to the Rock 5B SBC running the glxgears demo on the Radeon GPU. I couldn’t find any instructions to reproduce this setup, but this got Jasbir interested, and he tried to do a test of his own with the Radxa Rock 5B connected to an AMD Radeon R7 520 (XFX R7 250 low-profile) through an “M.2 Key M Extender Cable to PCIE x16 Graphics Card Riser Adapter” ($14 plus taxes on Aliexpress) and powered by an LR1007 120W 12VDC ATX board. The experiment was […]

Boardcon Rockchip and Allwinner SoM and SBC products