CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

July 13, 2026July 13, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Ambient Scientific GPX10 Pro MCU delivers years of always-on AI on a coin-cell battery

Ambient Scientific GPX10 Pro Cortex M4 MCU always on embedded AI

Ambient Scientific GPX10 Pro is a processor/microcontroller for always-on embedded AI applications on power-constrained edge devices. With a consumption of under <100μW, it can deliver years of always-on AI on one coin-cell battery. The SoC features ten software-programmable MX8 AI cores leveraging the company’s DigAn technology, ultra-low power ADC, an 8-bit DVP camera interface, 2048 KB SRAM, support for numerous peripherals, and an Arm Cortex-M4F core for non-AI workloads. GPX10 Pro key features and specifications: MCU core – Arm Cortex-M4F core clocked at 100 KHz to 100 MHz Memory 2048 KB system SRAM 64KB retention SRAM in “Always On” block Storage – External SPI or QSPI flash 10x MX8 programmable AI Cores for ultra-low power deep learning applications Based on the DigAn AI engine, which can change behavior between being a master and a slave. Up to 2,560 MAC operations per clock cycle (256 MAC per cycle per core) Peak […]

July 13, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

WisMesh Station Review – Telemetry, MQTT, and Grafana tested on a Raspberry Pi 4-based Meshtastic gateway

RAKwireless has sent us a sample of the WisMesh Station, a Meshtastic gateway and base station based on a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, a WisMesh Pi HAT RAK6421 expansion board, a LoRa module, a GNSS module, all housed in a compact metal enclosure. It comes with meshtasticd preinstalled, making it ready to use right out of the box. Just unbox it, plug it in, and start using Meshtastic immediately. We’ll also use software packages for communication, data storage, and visualization, such as MQTT, Node-RED, InfluxDB, and Grafana, mostly following RAKwireless’s user guide WisMesh Station is available in 2 models according to transmit power: the standard RAK8622 model that uses the RAK13300 LoRa module (Semtech SX1262 with 22 dBm transmit power), suitable for urban networks where nodes are close to each other, and the high-power RAK8623 (HP) model that uses the RAK13302 module (SX1262 + SKY66122 amplifier circuit with 30 […]

Raspberry Pi gets 10BASE-T1S/T1L Single Pair Ethernet (SPE) HAT+ board

Germany-based Brechel Electronic has launched two new Single Pair Ethernet (SPE) expansion boards for Raspberry Pi platforms: the BE-IIS-HPP-T1S and the BE-IIS-HPP-T1L. Designed for technology evaluation, industrial network prototyping, and educational laboratory use, these boards add 10 Mbit/s Ethernet communication over a single twisted pair to standard Raspberry Pi SBCs. The BE-IIS-HPP-T1S is based on the Microchip LAN8651 10BASE-T1S MAC-PHY and supports IEEE 802.3cg Single Pair Ethernet over multidrop networks with up to 8 nodes, enabling distances up to 25 meters on a shared bus. For longer-reach point-to-point links, the company offers the BE-IIS-HPP-T1L, built around Analog Devices ADIN1110 MAC-PHY. Both boards are part of the BE-IIS HAT++ ecosystem, which allows multiple industrial communication HATs to be stacked on a single Raspberry Pi without running into SPI or GPIO resource conflicts. Brechel Electronic 10BASE-T1L and 10BASE-T1S specifications: Compatibility – Raspberry Pi HAT+ compliant T1L – Supports Pi 3, 4, 5, and Zero […]

July 12, 2026July 12, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Beelink EQi review – Part 2: An Intel Core 3 304 “Wildcat Lake” mini PC tested with Windows 11 Pro

Beelink EQi Wildcat Lake Core 3 304 Windows 11 mini PC review

We’ve already checked out the specifications and hardware of the Beelink EQi Wildcat Lake mini PC in the first part of the review, with an unboxing and a teardown, before booting the mini PC into the pre-installed Windows 11 Pro for a first quick look. We’ve now had time to test the Intel Core 3 304 mini PC in more detail on Windows 11 Pro, so we’ll report our experience. The review includes feature testing, benchmark results, 4K and 8K YouTube video playback, 10GbE, 2.5GbE, and WiFi network performance evaluation, cooling performance, and measurement of fan noise and power consumption. Software Overview and Feature Testing After fully updating Windows 11 Pro and drivers to the latest version (excluding previews), I went to System > About window again. We still have a 1.50 GHz (base frequency) Intel Core 3 304 processor with 16GB 6400MT/s memory, and 834GB of storage from the […]

July 11, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Lua-programmable ELM11-Feather board puts Gowin GW1NR FPGA into Feather form factor (Crowdfunding)

BrisbaneSilicon ELM11-Feather is a “microcontroller” board based on a Gowin GW1NR FPGA that is natively programmable in Lua, C, SystemVerilog, and VHDL. Compatible with the Adafruit Feather form factor, the board features GPIO headers, a built-in debugger, a USB-C port for power and programming, and a 2-pin header for a LiPo battery. The company calls it a microcontroller board because the FPGA runs a PicoRV32 MCU softcore at up to 75 MHz with 1MB RAM and 8MB flash, programmable with Lua, and the user can also customize hardware layers with RTL code using the remaining FPGA fabric. ELM11-Feather specifications: FPGA – Gowin GW1NR-LV9 FPGA from the GW1NR-9 family 8K LUTs 8,640 logical units (LUTs) 6,480 flip-flop 17,280 bits shadow SRAM (SSRAM) 486 Kbit block SRAM (BSRAM) 64 Mbit (8MB) PSRAM 608 Kbit user flash 2x PLL Up to 276x user I/O USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and […]

July 10, 2026July 10, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

M5Stack Stamp-C5 – A Tiny ESP32-C5 USB-C board/module with up to 19 GPIO, 3.7V battery support

M5Stack Stamp-C5, also known as the M5Stamp-C5, is a tiny wireless IoT USB-C board based on the Espressif ESP32-C5 RISC-V microcontroller with dual-band WiFi 6, Bluetooth LE, and 802.15.4 (Zigbee/Thread) connectivity. Despite its small size (19.1 x 17.6mm), the module exposes up to nineteen GPIO pins, eleven on standard 2.54mm pitch headers and castellated holes, and eight on an FPC extension connector. The board also supports battery charging and ships with an external IPEX antenna for wireless connectivity, since there’s no built-in antenna. M5Stack Stamp-C5 specifications: Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-C5HF4 CPU Single-core 32-bit RISC-V processor @ up to 240 MHz Low-power RISC-V core @ 48 MHz acting as the main processor for power-sensitive applications Memory – 384 KB SRAM on-chip Storage – 320 KB ROM, 4MB SPI flash Wireless Dual-band (2.4/5 GHz) 802.11ax WiFi 6, 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 backward compatibility WiFi modes: Station mode, SoftAP mode, SoftAP + […]

July 10, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Open Book Touch – A DRM-free, WiFi-connected 4.26-inch open-source hardware e-reader (Crowdfunding)

Oddly Specific Objects has launched a crowdfunding campaign for the Open Book Touch, an ESP32-S3-based e-reader with a 4.26-inch e-paper display with 480 x 800 resolution and a capacitive touch screen. The open-source hardware device comes with 16 MB flash, 8MB PSRAM, a frontlight with warm and cool LEDs, a microSD card for storage, and an 800 mAh user-replaceable LiPo battery with everything housed in a 3D printed enclosure. Open Book Touch specifications: SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3 dual-core MCU with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE connectivity Memory – 8 MB octal SPI PSRAM Storage 16 MB quad SPI flash MicroSD card slot Display 4.26-inch, 480 × 800 e-paper; 1-bit and 2-bit grayscale with dithering Capacitive touchscreen based on FT6336 low-power controller Frontlight – five warm + five cool LEDs, independently dimmable USB – USB Type-C for power/charging and programming Misc – 3D-printed plastic enclosure; snap-fit, with 3D-printable CAD for custom shells; […]

July 9, 2026July 9, 2026 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Makerfabs MaUWB for Home Assistant – An ESP32-S3 UWB module with PoE and enclosure

Makerfabs MaUWB for Home Assistant is an ESP32-S3-based Ultra-Wideband (UWB) module designed for indoor positioning and Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS). It runs ESPHome for Home Assistant integration, enabling it to be used as part of a UWB-based positioning system to track tagged devices in homes, offices, and other indoor environments. The module combines an ESP32-S3 with a MaUWB UWB module based on the Qorvo DW3000, featuring a PA/LNA for long-range ranging. Compared to the earlier ESP32-S3 version, it drops the OLED and adds a WIZnet W5500 Ethernet controller that supports PoE. The module also supports Wi-Fi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0, and comes in an enclosure for fixed installations. Makerfabs MaUWB for Home Assistant specifications: Wireless Module – ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3 CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 up to 240 MHz with vector extension for AI/ML workloads RAM – 512KB SRAM; 8MB PSRAM Wireless – WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE 5 […]