CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 11, 2023April 25, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

ESPi Ethernet & info display board comes with ESP32-S3 module or Raspberry Pi Pico W board (Crowdfunding)

ESPi board ESP32 S3 Ethernet Display Joystick

SB Components’ ESPi is a WiFi-enabled Ethernet board with a 1.14-inch information color display either coming with an ESP32-S3 WiFi and Bluetooth module or designed as a carrier board for the Raspberry Pi Pico W board. I have no idea who needs this, but the ESPi board looks cute and can be used as a 10/100Mbps Ethernet to WiFi (or BLE) gateway with a small TFT display, and there’s also a small joystick on the board to control a potential menu or user interface rendered in the display. ESPi board specifications: Module/Board (one or the other) ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 module with ESP32-S3 dual-core LX7 microprocessor @ up to 240 MHz with Vector extension for machine learning, up to 16MB flash, up to 8MB PSRAM, WiFi 4, and Bluetooth 5 with LE/Mesh Raspberry Pi Pico W board with Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 133 Mhz with 264KB RAM, 8MB SPI flash, […]

April 11, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

ST87M01 NB-IoT & GNSS module targets global cellular IoT deployments, asset tracking applications

STMicro ST87M01 is a compact, low-power, programmable LTE Cat NB2 (NB-IoT) industrial cellular module with GNSS geo-location capability for “massive IoT” deployments and asset tracking applications. STMicro already had several LPWAN solutions such as the STM32WL LoRa SoC, a Wi-SUN transceiver, a few SigFox chips, and a bunch of proprietary sub-GHz chips, but no cellular IoT solutions of their own although the STM32 microcontroller can be found in many third-party solutions. The ST87M01 NB-IoT and GNSS module changes that, so let’s have a closer look. ST87M01 NB-IoT module specifications: Cellular LTE, Category NB2, Release 15 Worldwide regional bands coverage Single-tone / Multi-tone / Extended TBS and 2 HARQ Up to DL: 127 kbps, UL: 159 kbps eDRX and PSM support Up to +23 dBm power output Optional ST4SIM embedded SIM (eSIM) GSMA compliant with an additional Secure Element GNSS capability Expansion – Multiple I/F and GPIO Host communication – standardized […]

ArmSoM CM5 Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

April 11, 2023April 14, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Firefly Station P3D is a modular Rockchip RK3588 mini PC with swappable cards

Powered by the Rockchip RK3588 processor, Firefly Station P3D modular AI mini PC comes with two swappable layers, namely the top one with the main board and default ports such as two HDMI output ports, one HDMI input, Gigabit Ethernet, two USB 3.1 ports, etc…, and the bottom layer that can be configured with various ports depending on your specific application. The top layer is basically the new Station P3 mini PC with RK3588 octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor, up to 32B RAM, 256GB eMMC flash, an M.2 2280 NVMe SSD socket, and dual-band WiFi 6 & Bluetooth 5.0 plus all the ports mentioned above. Fire Station P3D specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3588 octa-core processor with CPU – 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, four Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 1.8 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G610 MP4 quad-core GPU with OpenGL ES3.2 / OpenCL 2.2 / Vulkan1.1 support AI accelerator […]

April 10, 2023April 10, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Adafruit Feather RP2040 with RFM95 LoRa Radio launched for low power long range IoT communication

Adafruit Feather RP2040 RFM95 LoRa Radio

Adafruit has designed a new variant of the Feather RP2040 board with the “Adafruit Feather RP2040 with RFM95 LoRa Radio” featuring a 900 MHz RFM95 “RadioFruit” module and following the “Adafruit Feather RP2040 with DVI Output Port” that we covered last week. The board ships with 8 MB of QSPI flash, supports USB-C or LiPo battery power, is offered in the familiar Feather form factor, and the built-in RFM95 module supports 433 MHz, 868MHz, and 915MHz frequencies, selectable by firmware, for global coverage. Adafruit Feather RP2040 with RFM95 LoRa Radio specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Arm Cortex M0+ microcontroller @ 133 MHz with 264 KB RAM Storage – 8MB SPI flash RFM95 LoRa wireless module Semtech SX127x LoRa transceiver Frequency bands – License-free ISM bands: ITU “Europe” @ 433MHz and ITU “Americas” @ 900MHz. (CNXSoft: it looks 900 MHz here means 868 MHz (EU) and 915 MHz (US), […]

April 10, 2023March 13, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

IP67-rated CM4 AI camera uses Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 for computer vision applications

EDATEC ED-AIC2020 is an IP67-rated, Raspberry Pi CM4-based industrial AI camera equipped with a fixed or liquid lens and LED illumination that leverages the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 to run computer vision applications using OpenCV, Python, And Qt. We’ve previously written about Raspberry Pi Compute Module-based smart cameras such as the Q-Wave Systems EagleEye camera (CM3+) working with OpenCV and LabVIEW NI Vision and the StereoPi v2 (CM4) with stereo vision. But the EDATEC ED-AIC2000 is the first ready-to-deploy Raspberry Pi CM4 AI camera we’ve covered so far. EDATEC “CM4 AI camera” (ED-AIC2020) specifications: SoM – Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 up to 8GB RAM, up to 32GB eMMC flash Camera 2.0MP global shutter or 5.0MP rolling shutter Acquisition rate – Up to 70 FPS Aiming point – Red cross laser Built-in LED illumination (optional) Scanning field Electronic liquid lens Fixed focal length lens Networking Gigabit Ethernet M12 port Communication protocols – Ethernet/IP, PROFINET, Modbus […]

April 10, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Wokwi – An Arduino, Raspberry Pi Pico, and ESP32 board simulator

WOKWI Arduino Raspberry Pi Pico ESP32 simulator

Wokwi is an online simulator for Arduino, Raspberry Pi Pico, and ESP32 boards, or even your own custom microcontroller board designed to learn programming without the actual hardware. My girlfriend’s daughter has just attended a free 5-day online course about AI, IoT, ESP32, MicroPython, and more organized by King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL) and IMAKE Innovation, a STEM education company in Thailand. I was told they had some homework for ESP32 as part of the course, so I asked her whether she wanted an ESP32 board. But she said no need. So then I asked how to program the ESP32 without the board, or do they have a simulator? And indeed I was sent the screenshot below along with a blurry video showing the LED display updated as the program runs in the web browser. Considering ESP32 boards are so cheap and external modules or a breadboard are […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs abd SoMs

April 9, 2023April 11, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Cytron CM4 Maker Board review – Part 2: NVMe SSD, RTC, Buzzer, Grove modules, ChatGPT…

We’ve already checked out Cytron’s CM4 Maker Board kit with a Raspberry Pi CM4 system-on-module and booted the system with the included 32GB “MAKERDISK” Class 10 microSD card preloaded Raspberry Pi OS in the first part of the review. For the second part of the CM4 Maker review, I’ve mostly used the 128GB NVMe SSD provided by the company and played with other features of the board including the RTC, the buzzer, some Seeed Studio grove modules, and even got help from ChatGPT for one of the Python programs I used. Booting Cytron CM4 Maker Board with the “MAKERDISK” NVMe SSD I connected several Grove modules with GPIO and I2C interfaces, a Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3, an Ethernet cable, two RF dongles for a wireless keyboard and mouse, an HDMI cable to a monitor, and finally inserted the provided 5V/3.5A USB-C power adapter. The MAKERDISK SSD comes with Raspberry […]

April 9, 2023April 12, 2023 by Sponsored Post - No Comments

Easter Promotion – GEEKOM Mini IT11 mini PC with Intel Core i7-11390H CPU offered for $549 (Sponsored)

GEEKOM has launched an Easter promotion for its Mini IT11 Tiger Lake mini PC powered by a 5 GHz Intel Core i7-11390H processor and equipped with 16GB RAM and 512 GB NVMe SSD storage. The promotion runs until April 25 on the GEEKOM website, where you can purchase the GEEKOM Mini IT11 i7-11390H 16+512 for $549 instead of the usual $779 recommended price. Additionally, there’s also a “special event” where anyone who spends over $399 will receive one of the following free gifts, each worth $40: Carrying Case Additional RAM 10-in-1 USB Hub Splitter Keyboard and mouse combo GEEKOM Mini IT11 specifications: SoC – Intel Core i7-11390H quad-core/8-thread Tiger Lake processor @ up 2.9 GHz / 5.0 GHz (Turbo) with 12MB cache, 96EU Intel Iris Xe graphics @ 1.40 GHz; TDP: 28W/35W System Memory – 16GB DDR4 SO-DIMM dual-channel memory, upgradeable up to 64GB Storage 512GB SSD (2280 M.2 PCIe), […]