CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

September 22, 2024September 23, 2024 by Debashis Das - 4 Comments

Waveshare 4-inch E-ink Spectra 6 full-color e-paper display is designed for the Raspberry Pi

Waveshare 4 inch, spectra 6 color e paper display

Waveshare recently launched the 4-inch e-Paper HAT+(E), a E-Ink Spectra 6 full-color e-paper module designed to work with the Raspberry Pi using the HAT+ standard. This 600×400 pixel display includes E-Ink Spectra 6 technology and doesn’t have a backlight. The Spectra 6 allows for high contrast and color saturation whereas no backlight means the display consumes very low power. The device communicates using SPI and is compatible with various controller boards like Raspberry Pi and Arduino. These features make this device useful for places like supermarkets, unmanned stores, shelf levels, hospital wards, and more. Waveshare has launched various e-paper displays in the past including the EINK-DISP-103 E-paper HDMI Display, the 4.2″ and 7.5″ Waveshare NFC-powered e-Paper display, and most interestingly the 7-Color e-Paper Display. Feel free to check those out if you are looking for high-quality displays. Waveshare 4-inch spectra 6 color e-paper display specification Display – E-Ink Spectra 6 […]

September 21, 2024September 21, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

M5Stack ESP32-S3-Pico-based devkits: ATOMS3R with 0.85-inch color display, and ATOMS3R Cam with VGA camera

M5Stack ATOMS3R and ATOMS3R Cam are two tiny devkits based on ESP32-S3-Pico system-in-package and a similar design but the first one features a 0.85-inch color color IPS display, while the other is equipped with a GC0308 VGA camera. Both modules measure just 24x24mm with a thickness of around 13mm, integrate BMM150 and BMI270 motion sensors, offer GPIO expansion through female headers and a grove connector, and feature an infrared transmitter and a USB Type-C port for power and programming. Those are the second devkits based on the ESP32-S3-Pico SiP after we covered the tiny OMGS3 module earlier this week. M5Stack ATOMS3R with display ATOMS3R specifications: SiP – Espressif ESP32-S3-PICO-1-N8R8 SoC ESP32-S3 dual-core Tensilica LX7 up to 240 MHz with 512KB SRAM, 16 KB RTC SRAM Wireless – WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5 LE + Mesh Memory – 8MB QSPI PSRAM Storage – 8MB QSPI flash Display – 0.85-inch color IPS screen […]

September 21, 2024September 21, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

LiteWing DIY ESP32 drone costs about $12 to make

Circuit Digest’s LiteWing is a low-cost DIY drone controlled by an ESP32 module, based on a custom PCB and off-the-shelf parts that costs around 1000 Rupees to make, or $12 at today’s exchange rate. The DIY ESP32 drone was designed as a low-cost alternative to more expensive DIY drones that typically cost close to $70. The result is a WiFi drone that fits in the palm and controlled over WiFi using a smartphone. Interestingly it does not include any 3D printed parts as the PCB forms the chassis of the device. DIY ESP32 drone key features and components Wireless module – ESP32-WROOM-32 for WiFi control using a smartphone. Storage – MicroSD card slot Sensors – MPU6050 IMU for stability control. Propulsion 4x 720 coreless motors 2x 55mm propeller type A(CW) 2x 55mm propeller type B(CCW) USB – 1x USB-C port for charging and programming (via CP2102N) Power Management 1300mAh Li-Ion […]

September 20, 2024September 20, 2024 by Sayantan Nandy - No Comments

$15 Makerdiary iMX RT1011 Nano Kit runs Zephyr RTOS on 500 MHz NXP iMX RT1011 crossover MCU

Makerdiary’s iMX RT1011 Nano Kit is a prototyping board featuring the NXP iMX RT1011 Cortex-M7 Crossover MCU running Zephyr RTOS. It offers 128 KB of on-chip RAM, configurable as TCM or general-purpose memory, and supports high-speed USB, UART, SPI, I2C, SAI, PWM, GPIO, and ADC, making it suitable for a variety of embedded applications. The board also includes a 128 Mbit external QSPI flash with XIP support, flexible power management, a programmable LED and Button, and a USB-C connector. It features a dual-row 40-pin layout (DIP/SMT) with up to 33 multi-function GPIO pins, 15 of which can be used as ADC inputs, along with a Serial Wire Debug (SWD) port. Optional pre-soldered headers are available for added flexibility. We previously covered other iMX RT1011-based development boards, such as the Olimex RT1010-Py running MicroPython and Adafruit Metro M7 with CircuitPython firmware. Be sure to check them out if you’re interested. Makerdiary’s […]

September 20, 2024September 20, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

ASUS Tinker Board 3 – A credit-card sized Rockchip RK3566 SBC with 12V to 19V DC input

ASUS Tinker Board 3 is a credit card-sized SBC based on Rockchip RK3566 SoC with an HDMI port, a 3.5mm audio jack, gigabit Ethernet, an M.2 socket for WiFi and Bluetooth, four USB ports, and a 40-pin GPIO header with a layout similar to the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. When I first wrote about the Tinker Board 3 in 2023, it was a larger (100 x 100 mm) SBC based on Rockchip RK3568 SoC that was later renamed to Tinker Board 3N, now also available as a complete rugged system (more about that in a subsequent post). The new Tinker Board 3 (2024) is a completely different design that competes against Radxa ROCK 3C and Orange Pi 3B boards also based on RK3566 and offered in a business card/credit card form factor similar to the Raspberry Pi 3B. Tinker Board 3 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3566 CPU – Quad-core […]

September 20, 2024September 19, 2024 by Debashis Das - No Comments

NXP Trimension SR250 short-range UWB radar supports secure ranging for Smart Homes and Industrial IoT

NXP Semiconductors has recently introduced Trimension SR250 UWB radar, which NXP is calling the industry’s first single-chip solution that combines on-chip processing with short-range ultra-wideband (UWB) radar and secure UWB ranging. Operating at 6-8.5 GHz, the SR250 supports features like 3D angle-of-arrival (AoA), time difference of arrival (TDOA), and time of flight (ToF) measurements accurate to within ±5 cm. The integrated on-chip radar processing reduces power consumption, which increases efficiency and it can work with AI/ML algorithms on host processors like NXP’s i.MX, RW61x, and MCX families. The SR250 is supported by firmware, middleware, and sample applications, simplifying development and deployment. Applications for this device include smart home automation (e.g., turning devices on/off based on presence), secure access, and safety monitoring, as well as industrial uses such as worker tracking, collision avoidance, and danger zone detection. Trimension SR250 UWB radar specification 3D secure ranging Fully interoperable with IEEE 802.15.4z HRP […]

Rockchip RK3568/RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs

September 19, 2024September 19, 2024 by Tomisin Olujinmi - 1 Comment

SparkFun’s $125 “Indoor Air Quality Combo Sensor” combines the SCD41 and SEN55 environmental sensors

SparkFun has released a new air quality multi-sensor board, the Indoor Air Quality Combo Sensor, which integrates the SCD41 and SEN55 sensors from Sensirion for measuring carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particulate matter, relative humidity, and temperature. The air quality multi-sensor board simplifies power management for the two sensors via onboard DC voltage conversion and allows a single Qwiic connection for power and communication. It features two Qwiic connectors and a 0.1”-space through-hole header for I2C and power. The board is not a complete solution for indoor air quality monitoring. It has to be connected to a Qwiic-enabled microcontroller such as SparkFun Thing Plus Matter, DataLogger IoT, and the ESP32 Qwiic Pro Mini. Users can install the required Arduino libraries — the Arduino Core library, Sensirion I2C SEN5x, and SparkFun SCD4x — either via the Arduino library manager or directly from SparkFun. The device is open-source, with hardware files, […]

September 19, 2024 by Debashis Das - 1 Comment

AAEON GENE-ASL6 – A 3.5-inch industrial Amston Lake SBC with triple display interfaces and triple 2.5GbE

AAEON GENE-ASL6 is an Intel Atom x7000RE-series Amston Lake powered 3.5-inch single board computer (SBC) featuring three 2.5GbE RJ45 ports and three independent display outputs via HDMI, LVDS, and VGA. The GENE-ASL6 can be configured with up to 16GB of LPDDR5 memory and supports a variety of storage options including SATA, mSATA, and M.2 NVMe SSD options. There is also an M.2 2230 E-Key slot for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity and the other M.2 3052 B-Key slot can be used for storage or to connect 4G or 5G modules. Other than that, this board features a variety of connectivity options including USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, serial ports, GPIO, SMBus/I2C, optional audio header, and much more. AAEON GENE-ASL6 3.5-inch industrial SBC specification Amston Lake SoC (one or the other) Intel Atom x7213RE dual-core processor @ 2.0 to 3.4 GHz with 6MB cache, 16EU Intel UHD graphics; 9W TDP Intel Atom x7433RE […]