open source

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on Home Assistant Yellow – A Raspberry Pi CM4 based automation gateway (Crowdfunding)

Home Assistant Yellow – A Raspberry Pi CM4 based automation gateway (Crowdfunding)

Home Assistant Amber

The team behind the popular Home Assistant open-source home automation framework has just launched their second hardware with Home Assistant Yellow automation gateway based on Raspberry Pi CM4 module. This follows last year’s ODROID-N2+ based Home Assistant Blue which was a limited edition and has now been discontinued, albeit still supported. The carrier board for Home Assistant Amber is designed from scratch and notably includes Silicon Labs MGM210P Mighty Gecko Module with support for Zigbee 3.0, OpenThread, and Matter (Soon), as well as M.2 socket that can take an NVMe SSD, or an AI accelerator card. Home Assistant Yellow specifications: Supported SoM – Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 (CM4) with Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 processor @ 1.5 GHz, up to 8GB RAM, up to 32GB storage. (Note: optional WiFI 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity not covered by regulatory approval) Storage – Support for NVMe SSD via M.2 socket, bootable for […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on OpenSSL 3.0 released with pending FIPS 140-2 validation

OpenSSL 3.0 released with pending FIPS 140-2 validation

OpenSSL 3.0

OpenSSL 3.0 has just been released after three years of development, and over 7,500 commits and contributions from over 350 different authors with a new FIPS module that awaits FIPS 140-2 validation by the end of the year, improved documentation, and a change to an Apache License 2.0. OpenSSL’s reputation took a serious hit in 2014 with the Hearbleed bug that allowed attackers to steal the information protected by the SSL/TLS encryption used for most secure Internet communication. The bug was introduced in 2012, and it took almost two years to be fixed. Yet, despite the fix, many projects switched to other SSL libraries like LibreSSL, WolfSSL, or mbedTLS. But it’s good the project is still very much active, and OpenSSL 3.0 succeeds OpenSSL 1.1.1 released in September 2018. Who knows what OpenSSL 2.0… One of the main changes is support for the Provider concept, and OpenSSL 3.0 comes with […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on OpenRemote fully open-source IoT platform targets OEMs and DIY projects

OpenRemote fully open-source IoT platform targets OEMs and DIY projects

OpenRemote Architecture

OpenRemote claims to be a 100% open-source IoT platform suitable for DIYs as well as OEMs. The asset management platform can help with the tracking of vehicle fleets, energy systems, or crowds, help to build smart cities, smart buildings, smart airports, and more. While most cloud IoT platforms rely on open-source tools, the software hosted on the providers’ servers is usually closed-source as we’ve seen in our comparison between Microsoft Azure IoT, Balena, and Particle, but OpenRemote is different will the full stack being released under an AGPLv3 open source license. OpenRemote 3.0 software is comprised of four main blocks: The Frontend is comprised of Consoles (native iOS and Android apps), Web components and Templates, as well as a System Administration interface used to create dashboards and control panels. Manager – headless Java application to capture the current asset states and includes Asset Management, State & Historical Data, Event Processing […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on MutantC V4 – DIY Raspberry Pi Handheld PC adds ESP32-S2 module

MutantC V4 – DIY Raspberry Pi Handheld PC adds ESP32-S2 module

Mutantc V4 DIY Raspberry Pi Handheld

Earlier this year we wrote about Mutantc V3 DIY Raspberry PI UMPC after noticing a talk about it at FOSDEM 2021 online conference. MutantC V4 is a new version of the Raspberry Pi handheld PC that is both easier to build and cheaper. The new model replaces the Arduino Pro Micro board with a more compact ESP32-S2 module and offers a Lite version with even fewer parts (notification LED, IR blaster, IMU, etc..) to make it easier to build. The new MutantC v4 shares many of the same features of the previous versions: Supported SBCs – Raspberry Pi Zero, 2, 3, 4 and compatible. Wireless module for keyboard and other controls – Ai. Thinker ESP-12K module based on ESP32-S2 single-core WiFi microcontroller @ 240 MHz with 8MB flash Display – 2.8-inch, 3.5-inch, or 4-inch “GPIO” LCD such as AdaFruit PiTFT 480×320 display Keyboard – 56-key customizable keyboard with 2x shoulder […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Leverage ESP32-S3 AI capabilities with the ESP-DL library

Leverage ESP32-S3 AI capabilities with the ESP-DL library

ESP32-S3 AI ESP-DL library

ESP32-S3 is the first Espressif wireless processor with AI instructions, and ESP-DL library for ESP-IDF allows you to easily leverage those AI instructions using boards such as the ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1. The ESP-DL library provides APIs for Neural Network (NN) Inference, Image Processing, Math Operations, and Deep Learning Models that make full use of ESP32-S3’s AI instructions with a 16-bit face recognition model running 6.25 faster, while the 8-bit model is 2.5 times faster than without acceleration. The ESP-DL library can be used as a project component. For instance, it can be used as a submodule of ESP-WHO computer vision framework, by simply copying it to the esp-who/components/ directory. The Model Zoo contains several pre-trained models for (human) face detection & recognition, and cat face detection, with more being developed including color detection and hand-pose detection. Espressif Systems also provides tools to use your own models, and a convention tool allowing you […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on BioAmp EXG Pill board enables ECG, EMG, EOG, and EEG biosensing (Crowdfunding)

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

BioAmp EXG Pill biosensing

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 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 23 Comments on PineNote is a community supported 10.3-inch e-Reader based on Rockchip RK3566 SoC

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

PineNote

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 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments on Debian 11 “BullsEye” released with Panfrost & Lima GPU drivers, exFAT support, driverless printing

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

Debian 11

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 […]