CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

March 10, 2022March 10, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

TIMI-130 – A breadboard color display with hundreds of pre-designed user interfaces

Tiny I2C, UART, or SPI displays are usually not difficult to connect to a breadboard with a few jumper cables, but Breadboard Mates TIMI-130 display makes that neater with a design made specifically for the breadboard, plus hundreds of pre-designed user interfaces/pages to simulate buttons, LED matrices, gauges, and other widgets. TIMI stands for Tiny Intelligent Modular Instrument, and TIMI-130 comes with a 1.3-inch color TFT IPS LCD, plus two 5-pin headers to power and connect the display to the breadboard through UART or I2C and update the widgets and values with simple commands. TIMI-130 specifications: Display driver – 4D Labs Pixxi-28 graphics processor with 14KB SRAM, 32KB flash Storage – 32MB flash Memory. Display – 240×240 pixel resolution TFT IPS LCD (non-touch). 2x 5-pin 2.54mm pitch headers with 3.3V (5V tolerant) serial UART interface (300 to 2187500 Baud). Master I2C (3.3V level) interface bus. 3x GPIO (3.3V level): 2x […]

March 10, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Picovoice on-device speech-to-text engines slash the requirements and cost of transcription

Picovoice Leopard and Cheetah offline, on-device speech-to-text engines are said to achieve cloud-level accuracy, rely on tiny Speech-to-Text models, and slash the cost of automatic transcription by up to 10 times. Leopard is an on-device speech-to-text engine, while Cheetah is an on-device streaming speech-to-text engine, and both are cross-platform with support for Linux x86_64, macOS (x86_64, arm64), Windows x86_64, Android, iOS, Raspberry Pi 3/4, and NVIDIA Jetson Nano. Looking at the cost is always tricky since companies have different pricing structures, and the table above basically shows the best scenario, where Picovoice is 6 to 20 times more cost-effective than solutions from Microsoft Azure or Google STT. Picovoice Leopard/Cheetah is free for the first 100 hours, and customers can pay a monthly $999 fee for up to 10,000 hours hence the $0.1 per hour cost with PicoVoice. If you were to use only 1000 hours out of your plan that […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM

March 10, 2022October 11, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

ECS Liva Z3 Celeron N4500 Jasper Lake mini PC becomes available for $195

ECS Liva Z3 mini PC is now available with an Intel Celeron N4500 dual-core Jasper Lake processor, 4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC flash, and HDMI and mini DisplayPort 4K video output for $194.88 on Amazon. Both the Liva Z3 and Z3E mini PCs were introduced in December 2021 with a choice of Intel Pentium Silver N6000, or Celeron N5100/N4500 from the 11th generation Jasper Lake family, with the Liva Z3E adding space for a 2.5-inch SATA drive and two RS-232 COM ports, but at this time, we could only find Liva Z3 with a Celeron N4500 for sale. ECS Liva Z3 specifications (for the model available on Amazon): SoC – Intel Celeron N4500 dual-core processor @ 1.1GHz / 2.8GHz (Burst frequency) with Intel UHD graphics; 6W TDP System Memory – 4GB DDR4 upgradable to up to 16GB via 2x SO-DIMM DDR4 socket Storage 64 GB eMMC 5.1 flash Support M.2 NVMe […]

March 9, 2022 by Sponsored Post - No Comments

Ai-Thinker Hi-series WiFi modules support HarmonyOS (Sponsored)

Ai-Thinker Hi-series WiFi modules feature Hisilicon Hi3861/Hi3861L 32-bit RISC-V microcontroller with 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 and support for HarmonyOS for IoT projects. The new Hi-12F module even got certification for HarmonyOS “S identification” meaning the Hi-12F module supports HarmonyOS Connect for the Smart Home which used to be called “Works With HUAWEI HiLink” or “Powered by HarmonyOS”. Some of the highlights for Ai-Thinker Hi-series WiFi module include: Integrated high-performance 32-bit RISC-V microprocessor (Hi3861V100/Hi3861LV100) with 352KB SRAM, 288KB ROM, and 2MB Flash IEEE 802.11 b/g/n WiFi 4 up to 72.2Mbps @ HT20 MCS7 with STA and AP modes (Up to 6 clients in AP mode). Baseband and RF circuits with power amplifier PA, low noise amplifier LNA, RF balun, antenna switch, power supply management Multiple Security Capabilities with a built-in eFUSE, support for secure storage, and hardware ID Rich peripheral interfaces with UART, SPI, I2C, GPIO, ADC, PWM, I2S, SDIO, etc… […]

March 9, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

SparkFun Raspberry Pi RP2040 & MicroMod boards take mikroBUS Click expansion boards

We’ve previously written articles about boards featuring the mikroBUS interface supporting thousands of Click expansion boards from Mikroelectronika, and now the company has collaborated with Sparkfun who launched MicroMod and Raspberry Pi RP2040-based boards with a mikroBUS socket, plus Qwicc connectors. Raspberry Pi RP2040 is the well-known dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller found in Raspberry Pi Pico and a range of third-party boards, while Sparkfun MicroMod‘s are M.2 MCU modules with chips from Microchip, Nordic Semi, Ambiq, Espressif Systems, and NXP. Sparkfun RP2040 mikroBUS development board specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex M0+ microcontroller up to 133 MHz with 264 KB SRAM Storage – 16MB QSPI flash, MicroSD card socket (on the bottom side) USB – USB Type-C port Expansion mikroBUS Socket 2x Qwiic connectors Thing Plus (or Feather) pin form factor with 18 GPIO pins including up to 4x 12-bit ADC, up to 8x 2-channel PWM, up to […]

March 9, 2022March 10, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Arduino Nicla Vision – A tiny STM32H7 board with 2MP camera, WiFi & Bluetooth LE, sensors

Arduino Nicla Vision is an ultra-compact (~2.3×2.3 cm) board powered by an STMicro STM32H7 dual-core Cortex-M7/M4 microcontroller, and equipped with a 2MP camera, a WiFi & Bluetooth LE module, and a few sensors. Those features make the board suitable for machine vision and edge computing applications such as asset tracking, image detection, object recognition, and predictive maintenance. For instance, image detection, facial recognition, automated optical inspection, vehicle plate reading, or gesture recognition can be added to projects, either using Nicla Vision as a standalone board or in combination with Portenta or MKR boards. Arduino Nicla Vision specifications: Microcontrollers – STMicro STM32H757AII6 dual-core MCU with Arm Cortex M7 @ 480MHz, Cortex-M4 @ 240MHz, 2 MB flash, 1MB RAM Storage – 16MB QSPI flash Connectivity – 2.4GHz WiFi 802.11b/g/n up to 65 Mbps and Bluetooth 5.1 BR/EDR/LE via Murata 1DX module Camera – 2MP GC2145 color camera. USB – Micro USB port […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025

March 8, 2022March 10, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Renesas RZ/G2L or RZ/V2L AI development board comes with built-in LTE Cat M1 modem, 96boards form factor

Geniatech “AHAURA” RS-G2L100 / “AKITIO” RS-V2L100 is a Renesas RZ/G2L and RZ/V2L Cortex-A55/M33 development board that follows 96boards CE Extended v2.0 form factor, and is equipped with a Renesas LTE Cat M1 modem. Both RZ/G2L and RZ/V2L processors are basically the same, but the latter adds the “DRP-AI” (dynamically reconfigurable processor) AI accelerator for computer vision applications. The board also comes with up to 4GB RAM, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, a wireless WiFi and Bluetooth module, as well as Full HD HDMI video output, plus some USB ports, and the usual low-speed and high-speed expansion connectors from the 96Boards standard. Geniatech AHAURA RS-G2L100 and AKITIO RS-V2L100 specifications: SoC – Renesas RZ/G2L or RZ/V2L with dual-core Cortex-A55 processor @ 1.2 GHz, Arm Cortex-M33 core @ up to 200 MHz, Arm Mali-G31 GPU, and DRP-AI vision accelerator (RZ/V2L only) System Memory – 4GB (default) or 8GB LPDDR4 Storage – 8GB, 16GB, 64GB, […]

March 8, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdowns in Shenzhen and Hong Kong delay some projects

This may read like January or February 2020 headlines with disruption to shipping and manufacturing in China due to a “new coronavirus”, but it’s happening again, particularly in Hong Kong and Shenzhen where COVID-19 case numbers have jumped and the governments have implemented strict measures to attempt to contain it. Since Shenzhen is a hub of electronics manufacturing and Hong Kong is often the gateway to those goods, we’ve received several reports of disruption and delayed projects. First, from Source Parts saying the Popcorn Computer will be further delayed in parts due to the COVID situation in Shenzhen: …Within a short period of time after cases suddenly began to rise, we noticed that more apartment complexes were undergoing mandatory lockdown. We started to stock up early on essentials including food and water. One day, the two nearby food markets we frequent were fully stocked in the morning and empty in […]