Radxa Taco – A Raspberry Pi CM4 carrier board made for NAS with 5x SATA ports

Radxa Taco Raspberry Pi CM4 NAS Carrier Board

The Radxa Taco is a carrier board for Raspberry Pi CM4 and compatible system-on-modules that is designed for NAS applications with five SATA ports for 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch drives, 2.5GbE and GbE networking, M.2 sockets for expansion, and more. The new board is the successor of the Rock Pi SATA HAT designed for the Raspberry Pi 4 SBC or Raxda Rock Pi 4 single board computers and supports more SATA drives, M.2 NVMe storage, optional WiFi 6, built-in RTC support, and so on. Radxa Taco specifications: Supported SoMs Raspberry Pi CM4 or CM4 Lite Radxa CM3 based on Rockchip RK3566 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor Maybe others Storage 5x SATA interfaces for 2.5-inch HDD or SSD up to 15mm thick, support for 3.5-inch drive via cables, software RAID 0/1/5 1x M.2 M Key 2280  socket for NVMe SSD MicroSD card slot Networking 2.5GbE RJ45 port Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port Optional WiFi 6 […]

Raspberry Pi RP2040 development board doubles as a magnetic rotary encoder

Raspberry Pi RP2040 rotary encoder board

PICO DEV M3 is a round-shaped development board based on a Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core microcontroller and serves as a magnetic rotary encoder with a few 3D printed parts. Designed by Ahmsville Labs, the board comes with 2MB QSPI flash, various through holes for GPIOs, a USB-C port, and the magnetic rotary encoder supports up to 36,000 steps per revolution and comes with 18 individually addressable LEDs. PICO DEV M3 development board specifications: Microcontroller – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ MCU at 133 MHz with 264kB on-chip SRAM Storage – 2MB QSPI flash USB – 1x USB 1.1 Type-C host/device port Encoder Base resolution of 36 steps, extending up to 36,000 steps per revolution. Ring of 18x individually addressable LEDs Encoder button Ball bearing for a smoother feel compared to traditional rotary encoders Customizable 3D printed encoder Expansion – Through holes placed on the edge of the board for: […]

TinyLlama x86 retro computer uses the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W as a MIDI synthesizer

TinyLlama x86 retro computer

The TinyLlama x86 retro computer board is designed to run DOS games on a DM&P Vortex86EX 32-bit x86 processor and integrates a MIDI synthesizer based on Raspberry Pi Zero 2 running MT32-Pi firmware. Growing up playing games on 386/486-era computers, Eivind Bohler looked for similar recent hardware to play DOS games and after discovering the 86Duino x86 Arduino-compatible board, he decided to use the SOM-128-EX module powering the board to create the TinyLlama board with a Sound Blaster Pro-compatible Crystal CS4237B sound chip and a MIDI synthesizer. TinyLlama specifications: D&MP SOM-128-EX system-on-module with Processor – DM&P Vortex86EX 32-bit x86 processor @ 60 to 500 MHz System Memory – 128MB DDR3 Storage – 8MB SPI flash Storage – MicroSD card socket Video Output – VGA up to 1024×768 @ 60 Hz using the Vortex86VGA module running off an x1 PCI-e lane Audio Crystal CS4237B all-in-one audio chip MIDI synthesizer with Raspberry Pi […]

EsPiFF board combines ESP32 module with RP2040 MCU in the Raspberry Pi 4 form factor (Crowdfunding)

Raspberry Pi 4 SBC ESP32 RP2040 MCU

The EsPiFF board may look like a Raspberry Pi 4 Linux SBC but it is equipped with an ESP32-WROVER WiFi and Bluetooth module together with a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller that acts as a co-processor. The goal here is to provide a Raspberry Pi 4 replacement for applications that require higher reliability and even 24/7 operation without necessarily needing the processing power and multimedia capabilities of the Broadcom BCM2711 Arm processor found in the Pi or the versatility of a Linux operating system. EsPiFF board specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-WROVER module with dual-core ESP32-D0WDQ6 microcontroller with 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth, 8 MB PSRAM and 16 MB flash Co-processor – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ up to 133 MHz with 16MB flash used to emulate the Raspberry Pi’s GPIOs on the 40-pin header Additional storage 2 KB of fast FRAM for permanent storage of process data. (faster […]

Radxa E25 modular 2.5GbE router supports WiFi 6 and 4G/5G cellular connectivity

Radxa E25 router

Radxa E25 is a modular router with two 2.5GbE ports based on the Radxa CM3 Industrial (CM3I) system-on-module equipped with a Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor, and optional support for WiFi 6 and 4G or 5G cellular connectivity. I got an early sample of the Radxa E25 carrier board in January, but the company has now refined the design with version 1.4 of the board and will launch the Radxa E25 as a complete router with an enclosure similar to NanoPi R5S and LinkStar H68K we’ve covered previously. Radxa E25 specifications: SoM – Radxa CM3I with Rockchip RK3568 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ 2.0 GHz with Arm Mali-G52, up to 8GB RAM, up to 128GB eMMC flash (250MB/s max), optional WiFi and Bluetooth Storage – MicroSD card socket, M.2 SATA 2242 SSD (multiplexed with 4G) Networking 2x 2.5GbE ports via Realtek RTL8125B 2.5 Gbps Ethernet transceiver (Tested by Radxa at 2.2 […]

Elephant Robotics Black Friday 2022 Sales (Sponsored)

MarsCat Discount

Elephants Robotics is selling some of its educational robotic kits and toys as part of the company’s Black Friday Sales event taking place until November 25, 2022. You can get various discounts depending on the total amount of the order: Save $50 On Orders Over $400 Save $100 On Orders Over $800 Save $200 On Orders Over $1500 Save $250 On Orders Over $2500 The company also offers product-specific discounts with the metaCat robotic plush toy / smart cat going for $129 – its lowest price ever – instead of the original price of $219, and the Raspberry Pi 3-powered MarsCat selling for $999, or $400 less than the original price tag of $1,399. Elephants Robotics is also having a Black Friday Sale on Amazon that includes a 10% discount for the myCobot 280 robotic arm that we reviewed last month with a Raspberry Pi 4 and a 30% discount […]

Starfish PnP machine control board combines Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU with TMC2209 motor drivers

StarFish Raspberry Pi RP2040 PnP control board

We’ve already seen the Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU in a 3D printer controller board, so it should come as no surprise that the dual-core microcontroller also found its way into a Pick-and-Place (PnP) machine control board. Designed by Thea Flowers, the Starfish board leverages the RP2040 MCU capabilities to control three Trinamic TMC2209 motor drivers, MOSFET drivers to control DC vacuum pumps, two vacuum sensors, and offer RS485 and I2C connectivity for feeders and peripherals respectively. Starfish specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex M0+ microcontroller at up to 133 MHz with 264 kB of embedded SRAM Storage – QSPI flash Motor drivers – 3x TMC2209 drivers for X, Y1, and Y2 MOSFETs – 2x MOSFETs to control the 2x vacuum pumps Valve drivers – 2x TI DRV120 single-channel relay, solenoid, and valve drivers to control two pneumatic solenoid valves Sensors – 2x CFSensor XGZP6857D I2C pressure sensor modules […]

Giveaway Week – RAK Developer Kit (Air Quality Kit)

RAK Developer Kit Air Quality Kit

RAKwireless joined CNX Software’s Giveaway Week last year with the WisBlock Kit 2 LoRa-based GPS Tracker with Solar Panel, and the company is back for Giveaway Week 2022 with the RAK Developer Kit (Air Quality Kit) with LoRaWAN connectivity. The kit includes everything to get started to build an indoor air quality monitor and send the air quality information over LoRaWAN to the cloud/LoRaWAN server. It notably comes with a WisGate gateway and a Wisblock Node with an indoor enclosure. The kit contents and main specifications are as follows: RAK7246 WisGate Developer D0 with: Raspberry Pi Zero W board with Broadcom BCM2835 ARM11 processor @ 1GHz, 512MB RAM Storage – 16GB MicroSD card Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 via Cypress CYW43438 module found on RPi Zero W board RAK2246 Pi HAT LoRaWAN concentrator module with SX1308 baseband processor Frequency bands – RU864, IN865, EU868, US915, AU915, KR920, AS923 […]