Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft), Author at CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

December 21, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

EdgeBox-ESP-100 – An ESP32-S3 industrial controller with RS485, CAN Bus, DIO, 4G LTE, and more

We’ve previously covered the EdgeBox-RPi4 industrial controller powered by a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 and plenty of I/Os such as RS485, RS232, digital inputs and outputs, and connectivity options such as Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5, and 4G LTE. But if you don’t quite need the power of a Linux controller, the EdgeBox-ESP-100 industrial edge controller based on an ESP32-S3 dual-core WiFi and Bluetooth microcontroller and offering a similar set of features, albeit with twists, may be an interesting option. EdgeBox-ESP-100 specifications: Microcontroller – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3 dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller @ 240 MHz with AI vector instructions, 512KB RAM Memory – 8MB PSRAM Storage – 16MB Flash Network connectivity 10/100M Ethernet RJ45 port 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE via ESP32-S3 4G LTE cellular via SIMCom A7670G LTE Cat 1 module Optional support for LoRa (replaces the A7670G module) Serial & I/Os via terminal blocks […]

December 21, 2022December 21, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

ArduCam Mega – A 3MP or 5MP SPI camera for microcontrollers (Crowdfunding)

ArduCam Mega is a 3MP or 5MP camera specifically designed for microcontrollers with an SPI interface, and the SDK currently supports Arduino UNO and Mega2560 boards, ESP32/ESP8266 boards, Raspberry Pi Pico and other boards based on RP2040 MCU, BBC Micro:bit V2, as well as STM32 and MSP430 platform. Both cameras share many of the same specifications including their size, but the 3MP model is a fixed-focus camera, while the 5MP variant supports autofocus. Potential applications include assets monitoring, wildfire monitoring, remote meter reading, TinyML applications, and so on. ArduCam Mega specifications: Camera Type 3MP with fixed focus 5MP with auto-focus from 8cm to infinity Optical size – 1/4-inch Shutter type – Rolling Focal ratio 3MP – F2.8 5MP – F2.0 Still Resolutions 320×240, 640×480, 1280×720 x 1600 x1200x 1920 x 1080 3MP – 2048 x 1536 5MP – 2592×1944 Output formats – RGB, YUV, or JPEG Wake-up time 3MP – […]

December 20, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

T-Camera S3 – An ESP32-S3 board with camera, display, PIR motion sensor, and microphone

LilyGO has launched a new ESP32-S3 WiFi & BLE camera board with the T-Camera S3 also featuring a small display, a PIR motion sensor, and a microphone, as well as an optional plastic shell. The T-Camera S3 is an evolution of the TTGO T-Camera ESP32 board introduced in 2019 with many of the same features, but the ESP32 microcontroller has been replaced with an ESP32-S3 microcontroller with vector extensions that makes it suitable for machine learning and computer vision applications. The new board also comes with a larger 16 MB SPI flash, more I/Os, and a few other small changes. T-Camera S3 specifications: ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 wireless module SoC – ESP32-S3FN16R8 dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller @ 240 MHz (Note: this SKU is not listed in the official ESP32-S3 datasheet) with 2.4 GHz 802.11n WiFI 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE connectivity Memory – 8MB PSRAM Storage – 16MB SPI flash Camera – 2MP […]

December 20, 2022December 21, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

$96+ Banana Pi BPI-M2S Amlogic A311D/S922X SBC offers dual GbE, optional PoE and WiFi 5

The Banana Pi PPI-M2S is a single board computer (SBC) powered by either Amlogic A311D or S922X processor with 4GB RAM, 16GB eMMC flash, HDMI 2.1 and MIPI DSI display interfaces, one MIPI CSI camera connector, two Gigabit Ethernet ports with one PoE capable, as well as optional WiFi 5 & Bluetooth support. When we first covered the Banana Pi BPI-M2S over a year ago, all we had were some 3D renders of the board and some preliminary specifications. The company has now manufactured the board, provided some documentation, and started to take orders for the board on Aliexpress for $95.79 or $100 depending on whether Amlogic S922X or A311D is selected. Banana Pi BPI-M2S specifications: SoC – Amlogic A311D or S922X hexa-core processor with 4x Arm Cortex-A73 cores @ 2.21 GHz, 2x Arm Cortex-A53 cores @ 1.8 GHz, Arm Mali-G52 MP4 (6EE) GPU with OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.0 […]

December 19, 2022December 19, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Linux 6.2 exFAT update to improve performance when creating files and directories

The exFAT file system is about to get faster in Linux 6.2, at least when creating files and directories, with the performance boost especially noticeable on low-end processors. Microsoft released the exFAT specification and announced Linux support in August 2019, which was followed by a new exFAT implementation in Linux 5.7 (June 2020) from Samsung. But people are still working on improving exFAT Linux support, and Yuezhang Mo, an engineer at Sony, committed a patchset for Linux 6.2 that reduces repeated traversal of directory entries to boost the performance of exFAT: After traversing all directory entries, hint the empty directory entry no matter whether or not there are enough empty directory entries. After this commit, hint the empty directory entries like this: 1. Hint the deleted directory entries if enough; 2. Hint the deleted and unused directory entries which at the end of the cluster chain no matter whether enough […]

December 19, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Pinecil V2 Bluetooth LE soldering iron gets a web interface

It’s now possible to make use of the Pinecil V2 soldering iron‘s Bluetooth LE connectivity through a web-based interface used to monitor and/or set the temperature and power of the RISC-V soldering iron. When the Pinecil V2 soldering iron was launched with a Bouffalo Lab BL706 RISC-V Bluetooth microcontroller last summer, we were told there were main potential cases to make use of the Bluetooth LE features: OTA firmware upgrade and remote telemetry and control. The latter is now being taken care of by Joric who has written a web application to visualize telemetry data and even control the temperature of the soldering iron. To be able to use the Bluetooth features, you’ll first need to install the latest Pinecil V2 firmware with blisp flashing utility before going to https://joric.github.io/pinecil to pair your soldering iron as explained in the wiki. Note the implementation relies on the Web Bluetooth API which […]

December 19, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

TopTon TP-X4F mini PC with four 2.5GbE ports features up to AMD Ryzen 7 5825U processor

TopTon TP-X4F is a mini PC and network appliance equipped with four 2.5GbE ports and powered by a choice of processors from the AMD Ryzen 5000U series up to the Ryzen 7 5825U octa-core-16-thread processor. The system supports up to 64GB RAM and up to five high-speed internal SATA or NVMe storage devices through M.2 sockets and SATA connectors and comes with three 4K display interfaces: HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB-C, as well as four USB ports. TopTon TP-X4F specifications: SoC (one or the other) Ryzen 5 5600U hexa-core/12-thread processor @ 2.3 GHz / 4.2 GHz with Radeon Vega 7 graphics @ 1.8 GHz; TDP: 10-25W (default: 15W) Ryzen 7 5800U octa-core/16-thread processor @ 1.9 GHz / 4.4 GHz with Radeon Vega 8 graphics @ 2.0 GHz; TDP: 10-25W (default: 15W) Ryzen 7 5825U octa-core/16-thread processor @ 2.0 GHz / 4.5 GHz with Radeon Vega 8 graphics @ 2.0 GHz; TDP: […]

December 18, 2022December 18, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

OpenPLC open-source Programmable Logic Controller Suite works with Arduino, ESP8266/ESP32, Raspberry Pi, etc.

OpenPLC is an open-source, free-to-use Programmable Logic Controller Suite, compliant with the IEC 61131-3 standard, and working with a range of hardware platforms such as Arduino, ESP8266/ESP32, Raspberry Pi SBCs, as well as Windows and Linux machines. When Arduino unveiled the Arduino PLC IDE, we noted the languages defined by the IEC 61131-3 standard were licensed, and the PLC key for the Portenta Machine Control unit sold for $17.60. One reader complained about the high license cost per device, but Massimo Banzi, the co-founder of the Arduino project, replied it was cost-effective for smaller deployments: Actually it’s not that much money compared to the cost of other PLC software (thousands of dollars per seat!). This model helps small companies with not that many devices.. It’s possible to negotiate bulk licenses for companies. But there’s also another option with OpenPLC open-source PLC suite that does not require any license fee. That’s […]