CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

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

Using Pico:ed V2 board as a replacement for BBC Micro:bit

We’ve received a sample of the Pico:ed V2 board developed by ELECFREAKS and will show how to use it as a replacement for the BBC micro:bit in a project using CircuitPython. We’ve already covered the board in detail with specifications, block diagram, and pinout diagram before, and it’s basically a Raspberry Pi Pico RP2040 board with BBC Micro:bit form factor including a 17×7 Dot Matrix LED display, some buttons, a buzzer, but no wireless connectivity, relying only on USB instead. CircuitPython firmware installation on the Pico:ed V2 board The board supports C/C++, MicroPython, and CircuitPython programming languages, and for this review, we’ve decided to download the CircuitPython UF2 firmware. Press and hold the BOOTSEL button after having downloaded the firmware file… … and connect the board to your computer using a USB cable before releasing the BOOSEL button on the Pico:ed V2 board, which should then show up as the […]

April 14, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Embedded Open Source Summit 2023 schedule – Zephyr OS, Security, IoT, Embedded Linux, and more

The Linux Foundation has just announced the full schedule for the Embedded Open Source Summit, which will take place on June 27-30, 2023 in Prague, Czech Republic, as well as virtually starting on June 26. Over 175 sessions, birds of a feather (BoF) tracks, and workshops related to embedded and open-source innovation will be presented at the event itself comprised of six micro conferences: Automotive Linux Summit Europe, Embedded IoT Summit, Embedded Linux Conference, LF Energy Embedded Summit, Safety-Critical Software Summit, and Zephyr Project Developer Summit. Even though I’m not going to attend personally, I’ve gone through the schedule to create my own little virtual schedule with some sessions relevant that should be interesting to me and hopefully to CNX Software readers. Monday, June 26 (Virtual sessions) The first day of the event will have a Yocto Dev training in the morning, and a bunch of virtual sessions that are […]

ArmSoM CM5 Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

April 13, 2023April 14, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Challenger RP2040 board gets DWM3000 UWB module for indoor positioning, up to 10 Mbps data transfers

The Challenger RP2040 UWB board features a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller combined with a DWM300 UWB (Ultra-Wide Band) module in the Adafruit Feather form factor and is designed for indoor positioning and ranging applications with an up to 10-centimeter accuracy, and data transfers up to 10 Mbps. The first Challenger RP2040 board was introduced in 2021 with an ESP8285 WiFi chip, iLabs (Invector Labs) shortly followed up with the Challenger RP2040 LoRa with an RFM95W LoRa module, and they also made models with NFC and cellular connectivity. The Swedish company has now just introduced their latest Challenger board with the Challenger RP2040 UWB leveraging UWB technology. Challenger RP2040 LoRa board preliminary specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ MCU @ 133MHz with 264KB SRAM Storage – 8MB flash Wireless module – Qorvo DWM3000 UWB module connected via SPI Chip – Qorvo DW3110 ultra-wideband (UWB) transceiver IC, compliant with IEEE […]

April 13, 2023April 13, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

$7 DongshanPI-PicoW is a small Arm Linux board with SSW101B USB WiFi chip, four 12-pin headers

Based on its name, the DongshanPI-PicoW board/module aims to be an Arm Linux alternative to the Raspberry Pi Pico W with a SigmaStar SSD210 dual-core Cortex-A7 processor with 64MB RAM, an SSW101B USB WiFi 4 chip, plus a good amount of I/Os thanks to four 12-pin headers. The module also comes with a 128MB SPI flash to run Linux, takes 5V power input, and offers a display interface up to 1280×800, USB 2.0, audio interfaces, and more in a small 31×31 mm form factor with 48 through and castellated holes that should be easy to integrate into compact devices. DongshanPI-PicoW specifications: SoC – SigmaStar SSD210 dual-core Arm Cortex-A7 at up to 1.0GHz with FPU, NEON, MMU, DMA, 2D graphics accelerator, 64MB on-chip DDR2 RAM Storage – 128MB SPI NAND flash (Winbond W25N010) Connectivity – Sigmastart SSW101B 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz 1T1R WiFi 4 module + u.FL antenna connector USB switch – Onsemi […]

April 13, 2023April 13, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Nordic Semi nRF54H20 Cortex-M33 + RISC-V wireless SoC supports Bluetooth 5.4, LE Audio, Bluetooth mesh, Thread, Matter, and more

Nordic Semi nRF54H20 is a 320 MHz multiprotocol wireless SoC with several Arm Cortex-M33 and RISC-V cores, support for Bluetooth 5.4 and greater with features like LE Audio and Bluetooth mesh, as well as Thread, Matter, and so on. It is the first part of the fourth generation nRF54 family manufactured with a 22nm process, and its application processor doubles the processing power (2x CoreMark) of the Arm Cortex-M33 application core in the nRF5340 SoC and embeds up to 2MB flash, 1MB SRAM. nRF54H20 preliminary specifications and highlights: CPU Application core – Arm Cortex-M33 @ up to 320 MHz with 2 MB Flash + 1MB SRAM Network core – Arm Cortex-M33 Several RISC-V cores (for low power?) Wireless Bluetooth 5.4 LE with direction-finding, Bluetooth mesh, LE audio, etc… 802.15.4 radio for Thread, Matter -100 dBm RX sensitivity @ 1 Mbps for Bluetooth LE Up to 10 dBm TX power New […]

April 12, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

T-Display-S3 AMOLED – An ESP32-S3 board with a 1.9-inch AMOLED Display

There are plenty of ESP32 series boards with display usually TFT or E-Ink, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one with an AMOLED display and that’s what Lilygo is offering with the “T-Display-S3 AMOLED” board equipped with an ESP32-S3 WiFi and Bluetooth microcontroller and a 1.9-inch AMOLED display. The new board is almost the same as the T-Display-S3 board introduced last year, except for a display with higher resolution, more vibrant colors, and a wider viewing angle, plus a 3D antenna, and a few extra I/Os. T-Display-S3 AMOLED specifications: Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3R8 dual-core Tensilica LX7 @ up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration, 512KB RAM, 8MB PSRAM, wireless connectivity Storage – 16MB flash Connectivity via ESP32-S3 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi 4 with 40 MHz bandwidth support Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 5.0 connectivity with long-range support, up to 2Mbps data rate. 3D antenna […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs abd SoMs

April 12, 2023April 12, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Cool Pi CM5 evaluation board features Rockchip RK3588/RK3588J system-on-module

Cool Pi CM5 is a system-on-module based on Rockchip RK3588 or RK3588J (industrial temperature range) octa-core Arm Cortex-A76/A55 processor with up to 32GB RAM, 256GB eMMC flash, offered with a development board with dual GbE, two 8K HDMI 2.1 ports, a PCIe 3.0 x2 slot, M.2 NVMe and SATA storage, and more… At the end of last year, we wrote about the Cool Pi 4 as a much faster alternative to Raspberry Pi 4 SBC, and the company has now launched a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 and Radxa CM5 alternative with the Cool Pi CM5 MXM 3.0 system-on-module that they offer along with a feature-rich evaluation board (EVB). Cool Pi CM5 EVB specifications: System-on-Module SoC – Rockchip RK3588(J) octa-core processor with 4x Cortex‑A76 cores @ up to 2.4GHz, 4x Cortex‑A55 core @ 1.8GHz Arm Mali-G610 MP4 “Odin” GPU Video decoder – 8Kp60 H.265, VP9, AVS2, 8Kp30 H.264 AVC/MVC, 4Kp60 […]

April 12, 2023April 11, 2023 by Paisit Wongsongsarn - 8 Comments

SONOFF iHost Review – A future-proof Smart Home Hub for local control

ITEAD has sent us a Sonoff iHost Smart Home Hub for review, and this device seems to be what many SONOFF fans have been waiting for, especially in terms of local control. meaning it can work without an Internet connection. SONOFF is known for its durable devices and good interoperability, but they are still catching up with other companies in terms of local control. Finally, the iHost Smart Home Hub fills the gap. In addition to local control, it also comes with privacy features as data stay local. SONOFF plans to expand its ecosystem by including devices from other brands compliant with standards such as Zigbee 3.0. Furthermore, the iHost Smart Home Hub is more like a platform than just a product, as it has add-ons to add more capability over time. In the future, it can be expanded to support the new “Matter” standard, similar to Home Assistant. The […]