Mixtile GENA is a Wearables Development Kit Inspired by Pebble Watch

The first Pebble watch with a black and white e-Ink display and Bluetooth for smartphone connection launched in 2012 via Kickstarter, and it  became one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns so far. The watch can now be purchased for $100, but Focalcrest, a startup based in Shenzhen, designed Mixtil GENA development kit with similar features and user interface, although with different electronics components, that goes for $34 on Tindie. Mixtile GENA specifications: Processors Mediatek MT6260 ARM7EJ-S processor @ 364 MHz with 8MB RAM and 16MB Flash Nordic Semiconductor nRF51822 ARM Cortex M0 Bluetooth Smart SoC External Storage – micro SD card slot (Up to 8GB) Display – “Energy-saving” reflective LCD Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.0 LE USB – micro USB 2.0 port Sensor – Gravity sensor Misc – Up, Down, Enter and Power/Return buttons Battery – 270 mAh/3.7V Lithium-ion battery (4 to 5 days on a charge for typical usage) […]

Ascella USB 3.0 Camera Reference Design Kit Supports 4K Recording at 30 fps

Cypress Semiconductor and THine Electronics have recently introduced Ascella USB 3.0 camera reference design kit based on Cypress EZ-USB CX3 USB 3.0 camera controller and THIne THP7312 ISP that supports 13-megapixel resolution at 21 frames per second, and 3840x2160p recording at 30 fps using MJPEG compression. The kit is composed of 5 boards with an OV13850 13MP camera board, an LED board, the ISP board, Cypress CX3 board, and a debug board with USB 3.0 and a debug interfaces. Main specifications and features:   Cypress EZ-USB CX3 ARM9 based Programmable MIPI CSI-2 to USB 3.0 Camera Controller THine THP7312 image signal processor based on a 32-bit RISC CPU OmniVision OV13850 Image sensor interfaced through a four-lane MIPI CSI-2 interface High Intensity LED Board for Low light environment SPI Flash for firmware storage Supports auto-focus, auto-exposure, auto-white-balance and the ability to select from 20 picture resolutions Support for streaming of live […]

LightBlue Bean+ Bluetooth LE Board is Programmed Wirelessly, Lasts One Year on a Charge (Crowdfunding)

Punch Through launched a crowdfunding campaign back in 2013 for LightBlue Cortado an innovative Arduino compatible BLE board that can only be programmed wirelessly over Bluetooth Smart. The board has since then been renamed to LightBlue Bean, and the company allegedly delivered rewards to backers on time, a rarity in the crowdfunding world. LightBlue Bean+, the second version of the board, is larger with solderless headers, supports more Bluetooth LE capabilities such as MIDI, and includes a battery. The project launched on Kickstarter yesterday, and already raised over $40,000, surpassing the $30,000 funding target set by the team. LightBlue Bean+ board specifications: MCU – Info N/A (Bean has an Atmel ATmega328P @ 8MHz with 32KB Flash, 1KB EEPROM, 2KB SRAM) Bluetooth Bluetooth LE with support for 5 new capabilities: beacon, MIDI, HID, ANCS and observer role. Hardware module undisclosed (Bean has an LBM313 Module with Texas Instruments CC2540) Up to 400 […]

Atmel SAM S70 and SAM E70 Cortex M7 MCUs, SAM V71 Xplained Board Are Now Shipping

ARM Introduced Cortex M7 IP in September, and ST Micro simultaneously announced its STM32F7 Cortex M7 MCU clocked up to 200 MHz, and boards are now available, including some running Linux. But two other companies have licenses Cortex M7, Freescale with its Kinetis KV5x micro-controllers which are yet to be mass-produced, and Atmel which has recently announced their SAM S70 and E70 micro-controllers are now in mass production. SAM E70 and S70 have similar features, but E70 offers some extra interface like CAN and Fast Ethernet: ARM Cortex-M7 core running at up to 300MHz (1500 CoreMark) Up to 2MB Flash and 384kByte SRAM Floating point unit (FPU) for high-precision computing and accelerated data processing High-performance internal memory architecture with user configurable Tightly Couples Memories and System memory, and 16kB I and D-cache High Speed USB Host and Device with on-chip high-speed PHY CMOS image sensor interface AES hardware encryption engines, […]

Simblee Low Latency Bluetooth LE IoT Module Loads Its App to Your Smartphone on Demand

RF Digital launched RFDuino Bluetooth Low Energy board in 2013/2014, and the company has now developed Simblee module, whose name is derived from “Simple”  and “BLE”, and offers low latency (3ms) and integrates a user application that’s automatically and temporary loaded to your smartphone or tablet upon connection. The module is also part of an add-on board (RFD77201) for RFDuino board. Simblee RFD77101 module specifications: MCU – ARM Cortex M0 micr-controller (Nordic nRF51822???) Memory/Storage – 24KB RAM and 128KB flash for user application Bluetooth Smart / LE Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Stack Simblee interference immunity 3ms latency (for connection); 10us accuracy (jitter) -93dBm receiver sensitivity -55dBm to +4dBm TX power Physical range adjustable from a few inches to hundreds of feet Integrated antenna, integrated shield I/Os 29 GPIOs (flexible pin configuration) 6x ADC inputs 4x PWM outputs 2x SPI master/slave, 2x I2C, 1 x UART Security – Built in AES […]

Seeed Studio Introduces Automation and Wearable Kits for Intel Edison

Intel Edison is a $50 module with a dual core Atom processor @ 500Mhz and a single core Quark MCU @ 100 Mhz, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0, as well as headers for I/Os that’s destined to be used in wearables and IoT applications. Seeed Studio has now launched two kits for the Intel module for home automation and wearables. Grove Indoor Environment Kit for Intel Edison The automation kit comes in a small blue box with the following parts (Intel Edison and baseboard not included): 1x base shield v2 that plugs into Edison baseboard and allows Grove modules connections 11 grove modules –  temperature & humidity, LCD RGB backlight, relay, moisture sensor, servo, light sensor, buzzer, UV sensor, PIR motion sensor, encoder and button. 2x 26 AWG Grove Cables 9V to barrel jack adapter 1x USB cables 1x User guide Programming is done with Edison Arduino IDE as explained in […]

Espressif WROOM WiFi ESP8266 Modules are FCC and CE Certified

Espressif, the company behind ESP8266 (EX) Wi-Fi chip for IoT applications, has now opened store on Taobao, where they sell WROOM-02 and WROOM-02 modules based on ESP8266EX with FCC, CE, TELEC, and SRRC certifications. WROOM-01 has some soldered headers that make it easier to use for hobbyists and prototyping, while WROOM-02 is more compact, and should be more suitable to include in your own products. But otherwise, they share about the same specifications: SoC – Espressif Systems ESP8266EX 32-bit RISC processor @ 80 MHz with integrated WiFi Wi-Fi – 802.11 b/g/n with STA/AP/STA+AP operation modes Header – 2x 18-pin headers with SDIO 2.0, GPIOs, SPI, UART, GND and 3.3V pins Dimensions – 11.5mm x 11.5mm Temperature Range – -40C ~ 125C Certifications – FCC, CE, TELEC, and SRRC The company can also provide “hardware reference design, antenna design, and SDK for secondary development”, but you’re likely to find most of […]

Rockchip RKNanoD is a Dual Core Cortex M3 MCU for IoT and Audio Applications

Rockchip is better known for their application processor like RK3188 or RK3288 found in tablets and mini PCs, but the company is also making lower power SoCs such as RKNanoC Cortex M3 micro-controller used in wireless audio applications, and more recently Rockchip demonstrated RKNanoD, a dual core Cortex M3 micro-controller for IoT and high-definition audio applications. Some key specifications and features of RKNanoD MCU: Cores ARM Cortex M3 @ 150 MHz with 64KB SRAM, 16KB RAM, 320KB iRAM, 256KB DRAM for system. ARM Cortex M3 @ 300 MHz with 128KB iRAM, 256 KB DRAM, and an audio H/W accelerator for compute tasks like audio decoding. Storage I/F – Flash, SDMMC, SDIO, SFC Display I/F – LCD, E-Ink Audio – 2x I2S, 24-bit / 192 KHz audio codec USB – USB 2.0 OTG Other I/Os – GPIO, 6x UART, 2x SPI, 3x I2C, 5x PWM, 8x SARADC 8x DMA, 2x Timers […]