CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

August 18, 2021August 18, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

$4 Lolin S2 Mini ESP32-S2 WiFi IoT board works with Wemos D1 Mini shields

If you liked Wemos D1 mini ESP8266 board with stackable add-on boards, you’ll probably love Wemos/Lolin S2 Mini board with the same factor, but fitted with an ESP32-S2 single-core WIFi processor, and offering twice the number of I/Os. The board comes with 4MB flash, 2MB PSRAM, a USB-C port for power and programming, as well as two 16 pin headers for GPIOs, ADC, DAC, and more. Lolin S2 Mini V1.0.0 specifications: SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S2FN4R2 Xtensa single-core 32-bit LX7 microprocessor up to 240 MHz with 320 KB SRAM, 4MB Flash, 2MB PSRAM Expansion headers – 2x 16-pin headers with 27x IO, ADC, DAC, I2C, SPI, UART, USB OTG USB – 1x Type-C USB for 5V power and programming Misc – Reset button and button 0 also used to enter Device Firmware Upgrade (DFU) Dimensions – 34.3 x 25.4 mm Weight – 2.4 grams The board is compatible with Lolin/Wemos […]

August 17, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Raspberry Pi 4 gets IEEE1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) with Real-Time HAT

Raspberrry Pi 4 PTP protocol with the real-time HAT

InnoRoute Real-Time HAT adds IEEE1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) to Raspberry Pi 4/3 via a Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA and three Gigabit Ethernet ports. The Precision Time Protocol (PTP) is used to very accurately synchronize clocks throughout a computer network to enable measurement and control systems. It is often found in embedded microcontrollers or processors from Texas Instruments, STMicro, and more recently, in Intel Elkhart Lake & Tiger Lake H processors. It can notably be used for Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) and Audio Video Bridging (AVB). InnoRoute Real-time HAT specifications & key features: FPGA- Xilinx Artik-7 FPGA Some RAM Networking Gigabit Ethernet port 0 with IEEE1588/TSN signaling Gigabit Ethernet port 1 with input from Raspberry Pi 4 Gigabit Ethernet port 2 with PoE, without TSN Host interface – 40-pin Raspberry Pi header mostly for SPI and I2C interfaces used for configuration. Misc – 3x LEDs, JTAG and PMod connectors, EEPROM (for Raspberry […]

ArmSoM CM5 - Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative with Rockchip RK3576 SoC

August 17, 2021August 17, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Offline speech recognition MCU module comes with speaker, microphone, and UART connectors

We found out about Unisound US516P6 RISC microcontroller inside an offline voice assistant module last May. The module offers offline speech recognition for just $2 to $4, with good performance, and excellent privacy since no cloud service nor Internet connection is needed. That module requires some soldering, but if you’d prefer something easier to connect the “SU-10A” offline speech recognition MCU module comes with connectors for a speaker, a microphone, as well as UART connectivity to a host MCU if needed. “SU-10A” module specifications: MCU – Unisound US516P6 RISC microcontroller @ 240 MHz with FPU, DSP instruction, FFT accelerator, 242KB SRAM, 2MB flash Audio Built-in 3W mono Class AB power amplifier. 2mm pitch connector for speaker (4 Ohms up to 2.9W, 8 Ohms up to 1.8W) 2mm pitch connector for electret microphone Debugging/programming – UART port for serial console (5V or 3.3V supported) Host interface – 2mm pitch 4-pin connector […]

August 17, 2021September 20, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

ZiGate-Ethernet – An ESP32 Ethernet, WiFi, and BLE Gateway with optional Zigbee connectivity

ZiGate Ethernet Raspberry Pi 4 enclosure

Frédéric Dubois, aka fairecasoimeme, has recently released ZiGate-Ethernet, an home automation gateway based on Espressif Systems ESP32 wireless SoC with Ethernet, WiFi, and Bluetooth LE connectivity. The gateway can also take an optional PiZiGate+ Zigbee module for support for a wider range of home automation gizmos, and everything is designed to fit in the official Raspberry Pi 4 enclosure. ZiGate-Ethernet specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-WROOM-32E with ESP32 dual-core processor, 16MB flash, PCB antenna Connectivity 10/100M Ethernet RJ45 port implemented through LAN8720 as on several other ESP32 Ethernet boards 2.4GHz WiFI 4 Bluetooth LE 4.2/5.x Zigbee through PiZiGate+ module with PCB antenna or optional external antenna USB – Micro USB port for power and programming Expansion – 16-pin GPIO header with up to 10x GPIO, 7x ADC, UART, 5V, 3.3V, and GND Misc- Reset and Flash button, ESP32/FTDI UART selection switch, Power Supply – 5V/500mA via micro USB port Dimensions – […]

August 16, 2021August 16, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

BioAmp EXG Pill board enables ECG, EMG, EOG, and EEG biosensing (Crowdfunding)

BioAmp EXG Pill is a small Analog Front End (AFE) biopotential signal-acquisition board designed to be interfaced to any 5V MCU board with an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) such as most Arduino boards, or through a dedicated 5V ADC like the Texas Instruments ADS1115. The board can record biopotential signals like ECG (electrocardiogram), EMG (electromyography), EOG (electrooculography), and EEG (electroencephalogram), or in more simple terms, biosignals from the heart, muscles, eyes, or brain activity. BioAmp EXG Pill key features and specifications: Compatible with any 5V MCU with an ADC Biopotentials: ECG, EOG, EMG, and EEG (configurable) No. of channels: 1 Electrodes: 2 or 3 (configurable) Input Voltage – 5 – 40 V Input Impedance: > 35 MΩ Dimensions – 25.4 x 10 mm OSHWA certifications – IN000026 The board is open-source hardware and you’ll find KiCAD hardware design files like schematics and Gerber files on Github where you’ll also find several […]

August 16, 2021April 8, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

5G compatible Arm Pico-ITX SBC is expandable through multi-function I/O board

IBASE IBR215 SBC plus IO expansion board

IBASE IBR215 is a 2.5-inch Pico-ITX SBC powered by NXP i.MX 8M Plus quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 AI processor that supports 5G cellular connectivity via an M.2 3052 socket, and can be extended with an I/O expansion board with support for WiFi/BT, 4G/LTE, LCD, camera, NFC & QR-code functions. Equipped with up to 4GB RAM and 128GB flash storage, the single board computer has a ruggedized and fanless design that makes it suitable for industrial automation, smart home and buildings, smart cities and factories, retail environment, machine learning, and other industrial IoT applications. IBASE IBR215 specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Plus quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with 512KB ECC cache, Arm Cortex-M7 @ up to 800 MHz, Vivante GC7000UL 3D GPU, Vivante GC520L 2D GPU, HiFi 4 DSP, 2.3 TOPS Neural Processing Unit (NPU) System Memory – 3GB DDR4 (optional 1/2/4GB) Storage 16GB eMMC flash (optional […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

August 16, 2021September 26, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 23 Comments

PineNote is a community supported 10.3-inch e-Reader based on Rockchip RK3566 SoC

We’ve covered several e-readers in the past, but the PineNote 10.3-inch e-reader will be a bit different, as the hardware & software will be entirely developed by the community like other Pine64 platforms such as Pinebook Pro, PineCone, Rock64 single board computer, etc… Based on the Rockchip RK3566 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor, PineNote will be one of the fastest e-readers on the market, and leverage the code already written for Quartz64 single board computer, including mainline Linux support. PineNote (preliminary) specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3566 quad-core A55 processor with Mali-G52 EE GPU, 0.8 TOPS NPU (AI accelerator) System Memory – 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM Storage – 128GB eMMC flash Display – 10.3-inch panel with 1404×1872 resolution (227 DPI), 16 levels of grayscale, front light with cool (white) to warm (amber) light adjustment, capacitive glass layer for finger touch-based input, and a Wacom electromagnetic resonance layer (EMR) for EMR pen input. There’s […]

August 15, 2021August 19, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Debian 11 “BullsEye” released with Panfrost & Lima GPU drivers, exFAT support, driverless printing

Debian 11 “BullsEye” has been released with Panfrost & Lima open-source drivers for Arm GPUs, in-kernel exFAT file system, driverless printing, and many more updates, plus a 5-year support window. Debian’s release is significant as the Linux operating system serves as the base for Ubuntu and derivatives, Raspberry Pi OS, and together with Ubuntu, is one of the operating systems supported by Armbian which offers images for a range of Arm-based single board computers. Arm Mali GPU support in Debian 11 I remember a few years ago 3D graphics acceleration on Arm boards was news, as it was quite a challenge to get it working due to binary blobs. But Debian 11 now comes with Mesa 20.3 framework which includes Panfrost and Lima open-source Mali GPU drivers by default, as well as the Vulkan 1.0 conformant V3DV driver for Raspberry Pi 4. As noted in the documentation that means the […]