BPS is a GPS alternative working over ATSC 3.0 digital TV signals

BPS Broadcasting Positioning System

Broadcast Positioning System (BPS) is an alternative to GPS designed for timing and positioning over ATSC 3.0 digital TV signals, and mainly designed as a backup solution for national security. GPS is critical in providing not only location data, but also timing data for critical infrastructure such as power grid, telecommunication networks, and so on. However, GPS signals can be spoofed, and/or satellites could potentially be damaged or even taken down. That’s where BPS comes in as an alternative with a much broader network of base stations, and both GPS and BPS signals can be compared, meaning it can be used to detect spoofing as well. It works by adding a preamble with timing data and a Data PLP (Physical Layer Pipe) with tower information and location. One tower is enough for timing data, and positioning will also be possible with four towers within range. Time accuracy is 100ns (95% […]

Topaz Tz170b FPGA devkit features hardened LPDDR4 controller, hardened MIPI D-PHY up to 2 Gbps per lane

Topaz Tz170 J484 Development Kit

The Topaz Tz170b FPGA devkit from Efinix is a compact FPGA evaluation platform built around the Efinix Tz170 FPGA. This FPGA is built around a low-power, high-density 16 nm Quantum fabric and comes in a compact 484-ball FineLine BGA package. The company mentions that the board supports hardware-level MIPI D-PHY with data rates of up to 2 Gbps per lane and hardware-level LPDDR4 memory controller, making it ideal for high-speed embedded systems, vision processing, and custom SoC designs. Additionally, it includes 256 Mbit of LPDDR4 memory, dual SPI NOR flash memories, and high-speed QSE connectors for Efinix or custom daughter cards. Expansion is further enabled by a low-pin-count FMC connector, a microSD slot, user LEDs, and push buttons. Clock options include 33.33, 50, and 74.25 MHz oscillators, and a full range of onboard regulated power sources for stable operations. These features make this device useful for applications like edge AI, […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM

Radxa Dual 2.5G Router HAT adds 2.5GbE networking and M.2 NVMe storage support to Raspberry Pi 5-compatible SBCs

Radxa Dual 2.5G Router HAT

The Radxa Dual 2.5G Router HAT is an expansion board adding 2.5GbE networking and an M.2 PCIe x1 socket for NVMe SSD storage to the Raspberry Pi 5 and compatible SBCs with a PCIe FFC connector. We had previously seen Raspberry Pi 5 HATs with 2.5GbE such as the Pineberry HatNET! 2.5G, or even one with 2.5GbE and NVMe SSD (52Pi W01 U2500 HAT), but the Radxa Dual 2.5G Router HAT is the first to implement two 2.5 Gbps Ethernet ports to enable routing, and also features an NVMe SSD as a bonus. Radxa Dual 2.5G Router HAT specifications: Supported SBCs – Raspberry Pi 5, Radxa ROCK 2F, Radxa ROCK 2A, Radxa ROCK 5C, the upcoming Radxa 4D (RK3576), and potentially others PCIe Switch – ASM2806 PCIe 3.0 switch chip with PCIe Gen3 x2 upstream and four PCIe 3.1 lanes downstream up to 8GT/s Storage – 1x M.2 M-Key socket […]

Mono Gateway – A 10GbE nano-ITX router board powered by NXP Layerscape LS1046A

Mono Gateway 10GbE Nano ITX router board

The Mono Gateway is a nano-ITX router board powered by an NXP LayerScape LS1046A quad-core processor and equipped with two 10GbE SFP+ cages, three gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports, and M.2 sockets for wireless WiFi 6 and/or tri-band WiFi 5, Bluetooth, and Thread modules. Tomaž Zaman’s YouTube channel description reads “I hate routers”, and that’s exactly why the “Gateway” came to life. He wanted a router that meets his expectations and runs open-source software. The NXP Layerscape LS1046A was selected thanks to its ability to support 10 Gbps Ethernet with up to 26 Gbps line-rate throughput for VLANs, PPPoE, and NAT. Let’s have a look. Mono Gateway specifications: SoC – NXP Layerscape LS1046A quad-core Cortex-A72 processor @ 1.6 GHz System Memory – 8 GB ECC RAM  @ 2100 MT/s Storage 32 GB eMMC flash for the OS 64 MB NOR flash for the bootloader Networking 2x SFP+ 10 Gbps Ethernet cages […]

T-Pico-2350 is a fully integrated devkit with Raspberry Pi RP2350, ESP32-C6, 2.33-inch color touchscreen display, and HDMI video output

T-Pico-RP2350

LILYGO T-Pico-2350, also called the T-Pico2, is a fully enclosed devkit based on Raspberry Pi RP2350 MCU, an ESP32-C6 SoC for wireless connectivity, a 2.33-inch capacitive color touchscreen display, and an HDMI (DVI) video output port. The design is an update to the T-PicoC3 introduced in 2022 with the case design of the T-Display S3 Pro, and the devkit also features a microSD card slot, a USB-C port for power and programming, two GPIO headers, a 13-pin GPIO FPC connector, two Qwiic I2C/UART connectors, and a PMU for battery management. T-Pico-2350 specifications: Microcontroller – Raspberry Pi RP2350A CPU Dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 @ 150 MHz with Arm Trustzone, Secure boot OR Dual-core RISC-V Hazard3 @ 150 MHz Up to two cores can be used in any combination Memory – 520 KB on-chip SRAM Storage 16MB SPI flash connected to RP2350 MicroSD card slot Display – 2.33-inch color IPS LCD (ST7796S SPI […]

PiEEG kit – A Raspberry Pi 5-based bioscience lab in a suitcase (Crowdfunding)

PIEEG Kit Bioscience Lab Raspberry Pi 5

Yesterday we wrote about using quantum sensors for brain-computer interfaces (BCI) and other biomedical applications. But that’s the future, and if you want to experiment with brain-computer interface technology and bioscience, the PiEEG kit has everything you need to get started, with all components fitting in a suitcase easy to carry around between your home and university or school. The bioscience home lab is based on the PIEEG Shield for Raspberry Pi introduced in 2023, and features a Raspberry Pi 5 8GB, a 9-inch display, a sensor board, EEG electrodes and cables for brainwave measurement, and electrodes for EMG (muscles), EKG (heart), and EOG (eye) signal recording. The PiEEG kit is comprised of the two main custom boards with the following specifications/features: PiEEG Shield on top of the Raspberry Pi 5 ADC – Texas Instruments ADS1299 Analog-to-Digital Converter for biopotential measurements Host interface – 40-pin GPIO header with SPI protocol […]

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

Raspberry Pi CM4-powered CODESYS industrial controller supports EtherCAT, Modbus, up to 32 I/O modules

EDATEC ED-PLC2010

EDATEC ED-PLC2010 is an industrial controller powered by a Raspberry Pi CM4, supporting EtherCAT and Modbus interfaces, up to 32 I/O modules, and preloaded with CODESYS runtime for real-time core and visualization capabilities. DIN Rain-mountable Raspberry Pi CM4 industrial controllers are not exactly new, with products such as Modberry 500 CM4 and Edgebox-RPI4 announced shortly after the launch of the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 in 2020. More recently (2024), Seeed Studio introduced the reComputer R1113-10 IoT gateway, and Sfera Labs launched the Strato Pi Max. TECHBASE also upgraded the Modberry 500 with a more powerful CM5 module. EDATEC ED-PL2010 mostly differentiates itself by shipping with a licensed version of CODESYS runtime for industrial automation. It’s also possible with other vendors, but the license might need to be purchased separatly. EDATEC ED-PLC2010 specifications: SoM – Raspberry Pi CM4 SoC – Broadcom BCM2711 CPU – Quad-core Cortex-A72 SoC @ 1.5GHz GPU […]

Altech DO-1 Modbus monitor connects to up to 128 Modbus RTU/TCP devices

Altech DO-1 Modbus monitor

US-based Altech Corp has recently announced the DO-1 universal monitor for Modbus devices to enable companies to easily monitor, collect, and analyze their equipment and process data such as temperature, humidity, pressure, vibration, and energy usage without any subscription fees or licenses. The DO-1 is a vendor-agnostic solution that connects to up to 128 RTU-TCP Modbus devices, features 5GB of internal data storage expandable up to 128GB with a microSD card, dual Ethernet, and optional WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. The device also implements dual power input with a 12V/24V DC input via a terminal block, and 5V via micro USB as power backup. Altech DO-1 specifications: Storage 5GB for data storage (I assume from 8GB eMMC flash) MicroSD card slot up to 128GB Networking 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet RJ45 port (LAN1) Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port (LAN2) LAN1 and LAN2 can be configured in switch or 2-port mode Optional WiFi 802.11 b/g/n […]

Boardcon CM3588 Rockchip RK3588 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications