Develop USB Host and Device applications with ESP32-S3-USB-OTG board

ESP32-S3-USB-OTG board

ESP32-S series chips like ESP32-S2 and ESP32-S3 come with a USB OTG interface, and Espressif unveiled the ESP32-S3-USB-OTG board last September in a post entitled “ESP-USB: Espressif’s Wireless Communication Solution“, where they mostly focused on USB code samples with documentation in Chinese only and provided few details about the board itself. But I browsed the company’s official Aliexpress store earlier this week, and I noticed ESP32-S3-USB-OTG board was up for sale for $35 plus shipping, with additional information now available, so let’s have a closer look. ESP32-S3-USB-OTG board specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-S3-MINI-1-N8 module with ESP32-S3 dual-core Xtensa LX7 processor with WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, 8MB QSPI flash Storage – MicroSD card socket Display – 1.3-inch color LCD USB 1x Full-speed USB host port 1x Full-speed USB slave port 1x Micro USB port for debugging (UART console) Expansion – 14 pads with 6x GPIO, JTAG, 3.3V and GND […]

LoRa expansion boards work with Raspberry Pi SBC and Raspberry Pi Pico board (Crowdfunding)

LoRa Expansion for Pico

We’ve covered a number of LoRa solutions based on Raspberry Pi boards, and SB Components is now offering another with the LoRa HAT for Raspberry Pi equipped with an Ebyte E22 LoRa module operating in either the 433 MHz, or 868 and 915 MHz bands. The company also offers a LoRa expansion for Pico based on the same E22 module, adding a small 1.14-inch LCD for information display, and designed for the Raspberry Pi Pico board with the RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller. LoRa HAT for Raspberry Pi specifications: LoRa connectivity LoRa Module (one or the other) Ebyte E22-900T22S based on SX1262, operating in the 850 MHz to 930 MHz band Ebyte E22-400T22S based on SX1268, operating in the 410 MHz to 493MHz band Supported frequencies – 433 MHz, 868 MHz, 915 MHz Range – Up to 5 km line-of-sight Antenna – SMA antenna connector USB – 1x Micro USB port […]

SolidRun unveils Sitara AM6442 SoM, HummingBoard-T AM64x carrier boards

HummingBoard-T AM64x carrier board

When we first wrote about Texas Instruments AM64x 7-core processor for PLCs, motor drives, industrial robots, we noted SolidRun, TQ Embedded, and PHYTEC were working on system-on-modules based on the processor with availability scheduled for Q4 2021 or Q1 2022. SolidRun has now formally announced two TI Sitara AM6442 systems-on-module – Sitara AM6442R SOM and Sitara AM6442A SOM – as well as HummingBoard-T AM64x Base and Pro carrier boards for evaluation and development. SolidRun Sitara AM6442 SOM Both variants of the module share most of the same specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM6442 7-core processor with 2x Cortex A53 application cores @ 1.0 GHz, 4x Cortex R5 real-time cores @ 800 MHz, 1x Cortex M4 isolated core @ 400 MHz System Memory – 1GB DDR4 with inline ECC Storage 8GB eMMC AM6442A only – Optional QSPI flash Networking AM6442R 1x 10/100/1000 Mbps (PRU ICSSG, Supporting: TSN, EtherCAT, PROFINET, EtherNET/IP) […]

Seeed XIAO BLE – A tiny nRF52840 Bluetooth 5.0 board with (optional) IMU sensor and microphone

Seeed XIAO BLE Sense

Seeed Studio has just introduced two new members to their XIAO board family with the Seeed XIAO BLE and XIAO BLE Sense boards equipped with Nordic Semi nRF52840 Bluetooth 5.0 microcontroller, as well as an IMU sensor and microphone on the “Sense” model. Just like the earlier XIAO RP2040 board, the tiny Seed XIAO BLE board can be programmed with Arduino, MicroPython, and CircuityPython, and offers two headers with 7-pin each for GPIOs. What’s really new is the wireless connectivity, the sensors, and a battery charging circuitry. Seeed XIAO BLE specifications: Wireless MCU –  Nordic nRF52840 Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller @ up to 64 MHz with  1 MB flash, 256 KB SRAM, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, Zigbee connectivity Storage – 2 MB QSPI flash Expansion I/Os 2x 7-pin headers with 1x UART, 1x I2C, 1x SPI, 1x NFC, 1x SWD, 11x GPIO (PWM), 6x ADC 3.3V I/O voltage (not 5V tolerant) Sensors […]

HLK-W801 board features Alibaba Xuantie XT804 based MCU with WiFi 4, Bluetooth LE 4.2

WinnerMicro W801 wireless MCU board

Earlier this month, we wrote about the 240 MHz WinnerMicro W806 Alibaba Xuantie XT804 C-Sky microcontroller with 1MB flash, 288KB SRAM found in the $2 HLK-W806 development board. But the company has a nearly identical WinnerMicro W801 microcontroller that bumps the internal flash to 2MB, and more importantly adds a 2.4 GHz radio with WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE 4.2 connectivity, and HiLink also released the HLK-W801 board that’s nearly identical to HLK-W806, except for some extra LEDs, a USB-C port instead of a Micro USB port, and a longer form factor to make space for the PCB antenna. HLK-W801 board specifications: MCU – WinnerMicro W801 32-bit Alibaba XT804 microcontroller @ 240 MHz with 2MB Flash, 288KB RAM, FPU, DSP, crypto engine, 2.4 GHz radio Connectivity 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 up to 150 Mbps supporting station, soft AP and station+soft AP modes, WPA2 security Bluetooth 4.2 Expansion – 2x 24-pin headers […]

Arduino UNO Mini Limited Edition launched to celebrate 10 million Arduino UNO milestone

Arduino Uno Mini Limited Edition

Ten million Arduino UNO boards have been shipped since its launch in 2010, and the Arduino team has designed the Arduino UNO Mini Limited Edition to celebrate the impressive milestone. The Arduino UNO Mini has basically all the same features as the original Arduino UNO but uses a quarter of the area, and features a USB Type-C port for programming the board with the Arduino IDE.   Arduino UNO Mini Limited Edition specifications: Microcontroller – Microchip ATmega328P 8-bit AVR microcontroller @ 16 MHz with 2KB SRAM, 32KB flash, 1 KB EEPROM USB – 1x USB Type-C port Expansion via female headers and castellated holes 14x digital I/O pins (GPIO, I2C, SPI, UART) 6x PWM I/O pins 6x analog input pins Misc – Button, Some LEDs Input Voltage – 6-20V via VIN/GND pins or 5V via USB-C port Operating Voltage –  5V Dimensions – 34.2 x 26.7 x 8mm Weight – […]

Arrow launches PSA Certified PSoC 64 IoT Security Workshop Development Kit

PSA-Certified PSoC 64 IoT Security-Workshop Development Kit

In 2019, we wrote that Cypress PSoC 64 microcontrollers for Secure IoT applications was one of the first microcontrollers compliant with Arm’s Platform Security Architecture (PSA) designed to secure the Internet of Things. Arrow has now launched the PSoC 64 IoT Security Workshop Development Kit, its first PSA Certified platform, which happens to be based on Cypress PSoC 64, and developed in collaboration with Infineon who purchased Cypress Semiconductor last year. Designed to help developers quickly create PSA Certified solutions, the development kit includes the Infineon PSoC 64 Secure AWS IoT Pioneer Kit, Arrow PSoC 6 IoT Sensor Shield, Shield2Go kits, and AWS cloud enablement with certified functional APIs and integrated dashboard for monitoring and visualization. There are three levels for PSA certification: level 1 for device manufacturers involves the evaluation of an IoT device to assess whether it adheres to security best practice, level 2 with a laboratory evaluation […]

WinnerMicro W806 240 MHz MCU finds it way into a $2 development board

W806 MCU development board

I’ve just been notified about an inexpensive board (HLK-W806) based on WinnerMicro W806 32-bit XT804 (XuanTie E804) microcontroller clocked at up to 240 MHz and equipped with 1MB flash and 288KB RAM. XuanTie is the microcontroller family from Alibaba’s subsidiary T-Head Semiconductor, notably XuanTie RISC-V cores, but I’ve just learned not all XuanTie cores are based on the RISC-V architecture, and as we’ll see below, Xuantie E804 core appears to be based on the C-Sky architecture. It may still be interesting, as it’s in the STM32 board price range (pre-2020), but with a much higher frequency, so let’s have a look. HLK-W806 development board specifications: MCU – WinnerMicro W806 32-bit XT804 microcontroller @ 240 MHz with 1MB Flash, 288KB RAM, FPU, DSP, crtypto engine Expansion – 2x 24-pin headers with (based on MCU specs) 1x SDIO host with support for SDIO 2.0, SDHC, MMC 4.2 1x SDIO device up to […]