Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on PiFinger is a Fingerprint HAT for Raspberry Pi (Crowdfunding)

PiFinger is a Fingerprint HAT for Raspberry Pi (Crowdfunding)

“There’s a HAT for that” they say, or something close to it… We’ve covered many HAT expansion for Raspberry Pi boards over the years, but so far, I don’t think we’ve seen any HAT with a fingerprint sensor, probable because tiny USB fingerprint readers are a thing. But if you’d like a HAT with a built-in fingerprint sensor, the guys at SB Components have you covered with PiFinger HAT equipped with a 2D capacitive fingerprint sensor and a small display. The expansion board is also powered by a Nuvoton Cortex-M23 MCU with Arm TrustZone support and on-chip crypto-accelerator. PiFinger specifications: SoC – Unnamed Nuvoton Arm Cortex-M23 microcontroller with Arm Trustzone (likely NuMicro M2351 since it’s made for fingerprint applications) Display – 0.91-inch OLED display Sensor – 2D capacitive fingerprint sensor with 176×176 resolution connected to MCU over SPI Host interface USB to computer UART up to 115,200 baud + GPIO via 40-pin Raspberry Pi header UART via 40-pin Raspberry Pi […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on $25 TTGO T5 4.7-inch e-Paper Display comes with ESP32 WiFi & Bluetooth SoC

$25 TTGO T5 4.7-inch e-Paper Display comes with ESP32 WiFi & Bluetooth SoC

We’ve very recently covered M5paper IoT development kit based on ESP32 WiSoC, and equipped with a 4.7-inch touchscreen e-Ink display together with a 1,150mAh battery all nicely packed into an enclosure. It looks great, but costs $69, so if you’d like to integrate this type of ESP32 connected display into your own project at a lower cost, you may be interested in TTGO T5 4.7-inch e-Paper display with 16 gray levels fitted with an ESP32-WROVER-E module with 16MB flash, and 8MB PSRAM. TTGO T5 key features and specifications: Display 4.7-inch ePaper display with 960×540 resolution, 16 gray levels , partial refresh support 6-pin FPC touchscreen connector Wireless module – ESP32-WROVER-E with ESP32-D0WDQ6 V3 dual-core processor, 16MB flash, 8MB PSRAM USB – 1x USB-C port Expansion – 4-pin connector with GPIOs, GND, 3.3V Misc – 1x reset button, 4x user buttons Debugging – USB-C port connected to USB to TTL CP2104 chip Power Supply 5V/1A via USB-C port 18650 battery metal […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Mesa 20.3 released with Raspberry Pi 4 V3DV driver, Panfrost Bifrost support

Mesa 20.3 released with Raspberry Pi 4 V3DV driver, Panfrost Bifrost support

We’ve previously reported that the Vulkan 1.0 conformant V3DV driver for Raspberry Pi 4 and other Broadcom BCM2711 based platforms was part of Mesa 20.3 open-source graphics framework. But at the time, it was still under development. The good news is that Mesa 20.3 has now been released, and there’s much more than Raspberry Pi 4 support, as Collabora informed us the release also included Arm Mali Bifrost GPU support via the open-source Panfrost driver. The latter was made possible thanks to the work by Alyssa Rosenzweig and Boris Brezillon, with Alyssa going into details in a recent blog post on Collabora. More work is still needed with better performance and OpenGL 3.1 being the focus in the months ahead. But there were also many other changes in Mesa 20.3 as reported by Phoronix: OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.2 APIs support Initial support for Intel Gen12 Alder Lake graphics and AMD Dimgrey Cavefish and VanGogh graphics Lavapipe Vulkan CPU-based implementation […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on HotDive converts your smartphone into a dive computer and underwater camera (crowdfunding)

HotDive converts your smartphone into a dive computer and underwater camera (crowdfunding)

Many recent phones are fitted with a pretty good camera, and some are waterproof, but not quite enough to go snorkeling or diving. If you could, your phone could also double as a dive computer, and that’s exactly what HotDive provides: a waterproof enclosure for your smartphone allowing you to dive up to 80 meters deep, and convert your phone in a dive computer, underwater camera, and fill light at a fraction of the cost of specialized diving equipment. HotDive enclosure includes an independent auto-pump air extraction system creating a vacuum for your smartphone to make sure all photos are clear of fog, as well as a fill light to take clear photos even during night dives. The fill light is made of CREE LED lights delivering 800 lumens, and providing with 130° illuminance and 5800-6500K sunlight-like color temperature. The HotDive Pro version includes hardware to create a built-in dive computer, namely a solution based on Nordic Semi ultra-low power […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 specifications – Cortex-X1/A78/A55 Processor with Snapdragon X60 5G Modem

Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 specifications – Cortex-X1/A78/A55 Processor with Snapdragon X60 5G Modem

Qualcomm teased us with Snapdragon 888 5G mobile platform on the first day of the Snapdragon Tech Summit 2020 before revealing the specifications and more details about their new premium mobile SoC on the second day of the event. Snapdragon 888 (SM8350) octa-core processor is equipped with one high-performance Cortex-X1 core @ 2.84 GHz, three Cortex-A78 cores @ 2.42 GHz, and four low-power Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.80 GHz, an Adreno 660 GPU, and a third-generation Snapdragon X60 5G modem. Snapdragon 888 specifications: CPU – Octa-core Qualcomm Kryo 680 CPU with 1x Cortex-X1 core @ 2.84 GHz, 3x Cortex-A78 cores @ 2.42 GHz, and 4x Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.80 GHz (via Anandtech) GPU – Adreno 660 GPU with support for OpenCL 2.0 FP, OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.1, DX12, and up to 8K 360 VR video playback DSP – Hexagon 780 processor with Vector eXtensions (HVX), Tensor Accelerator Qualcomm Sensing Hub Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engine leveraging the GPU, DSP, […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Power Profiler Kit II measures power consumption in Nordic Semi based embedded systems

Power Profiler Kit II measures power consumption in Nordic Semi based embedded systems

If you’re developing battery-powered products it’s important to optimize your application to consume as little power as possible to extend battery life. As we’ve seen with Qoitech Otii Developer Tool, getting the right tool for development can help developers work more efficiently, and save countless man hours. If you’re specifically working on products based on Nordic Semi nRF51, nRF52, nRF53 or nRF91 wireless chips, the company has just announced the Power Profiler Kit II (PPK2) that enables easy and affordable power measurement of average and dynamic power consumption in embedded solutions based on the aforementioned wireless SoC’s/SiP’s. Power Profiler Kit II key features: 200nA to 1A measurement range Resolution varies between 100nA and 1mA depending on the measurement range Instantaneous and average current measurement for all Nordic DKs, in addition to custom HW Ampere meter and source modes Built-in programmable regulator with a 0.8V to 5V output range and up to 1A current supply 100 ksps sampling rate, or 10x […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments on Khadas Tone 2 Pro mini desktop Hi-Fi system supports MQA decoding, balanced RCA outputs

Khadas Tone 2 Pro mini desktop Hi-Fi system supports MQA decoding, balanced RCA outputs

Khadas Tone high-resolution audio board was introduced in 2018 for audiophiles wanting to design their own DIY HiFi system using Khadas VIM/VIM2 SBC, or connect it the USB version of the board to other single board computers. The company is now about to launch Khadas Tone 2 Pro mini desktop Hi-Fi system based on the same ESS ES9038Q2M DAC, but a faster XMOS XU216 capable of handling MQA decoding, and equipped with balanced RCA outputs, as well as an I2S USB-C port. Khadas Tone 2 Pro key features and specifications: Multicore MCU – XMOS XU216 with 16 real-time logical cores on 2x xCORE tiles; up to 1000 MIPS DAC – ES9038Q2M 32-bit stereo mobile audio DAC Amplifiers – 4x OPA1612 operational amplifiers, 3x buffer amplifiers Seamless hardware MQA decoding Native DSD512 decoding, PCM decoding up to 32Bit/384kHz. Left and right balanced RCA jacks for transmitting a balanced analog signal via Line-out. 3.5mm single-ended and 4.4mm balanced headphone jacks Rotate-push encoder […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments on PinePhone KDE Community Edition smartphone with Plasma Mobile now up for pre-order

PinePhone KDE Community Edition smartphone with Plasma Mobile now up for pre-order

PinePhone Linux phone first launched as an early adopter phone without any OS when the “Brave Edition” was first introduced in November 2019. Since then Pine64 launched variant with different Linux mobile OS including PinePhone Community Edition: UBports, the PostMarket Edition that also added support for mobile/desktop convergence with a model with more RAM and storage, as well as a USB-C Dock, and more recently there was a batch with PinePhone Manjaro Community Edition. If you haven’t already gotten your hand on one of the earlier models, you’ll be glad to know the PinePhone KDE Community Edition is now available for pre-order for the same $149.99 price tag for the phone only or $199.99 with the convergence package. PinePhone comes with Allwinner A64 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor that been around for many years. It’s not a performance beast, but it’s well supported by the open-source Linux community, and affordable. For $150, you’ll get 2GB RAM and 16GB storage, while the $200 […]

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