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

July 28, 2020July 28, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

M.2 and Half-size mPCIe Cards Support Real-Time Ethernet and FieldBus Networks

Hilscher cifX M.2 and half-size mini PCIe cards powered by the company’s NETX 90 network-on-chip multi-protocol Cortex-M4 SoC bring real-time Ethernet and FieldBus to compatible systems. The tiny cards are designed for PC-based devices such as IPC’s, HMI’s and robots, and support various firmware for PROFINET IO-Device, EtherNet/IP Adapter, EtherCAT Slave, or OpenModbus/TCP. The company claims its cifX M.2 (A+E key) and half-size mini PCIe cards are the smallest multiprotocol PC cards on the automation market with a size of 22×30 mm and 30×26.8 mm respectively. The cards also support extended temperature from -20°C to 70°C and offer one hardware platform for all real-time Ethernet slave protocols. Besides PROFINET IO-Device, EtherNet/IP Adapter, EtherCAT Slave, and OpenModbus/TCP, Hilscher will provide support for CC-Link IE Field Basic and Ethernet POWERLINK Slave in new firmware available in Q4 2020, and OPC UA and MQTT functionalities are planned for future releases. The cards are […]

July 28, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Is That a Raspberry Pi Zero? Nope. ATMegaZero is an Arduino Compatible Board

ATMegaZero is an Arduino Leonardo compatible board based on Microchip ATmega32U4 8-bit AVR microcontroller that mostly follows Raspberry Pi Zero form factor with the 40-pin GPIO header, MicroSD card slot, and one micro USB port in the same location. The MIPI CSI camera connector makes place for an OLED display connector, and the HDMI port is obviously gone, but you also get an 8-pin header to easily install an ESP8266 based ESP-01 module to add WiFi connectivity. ATMegaZero specifications: MCU – Microchip ATmega32U4 microcontroller running at 16MHz with 32KB Flash, 2.5KB SRAM, 1KB EEPROM Storage – MicroSD card Display – 32-pin OLED display port compatible with 30-pin SSD1306 and SSD1331 based displays Wireless Connectivity – 8-pin header for optional ESP8266 ESP-01 WiFi module Expansion – 40-pin Raspberry Pi-inspired GPIO header with UART/SPI/I2C Debugging & Programming – Micro USB port, 6-pin programming header Misc – 4x LEDs, button Power Supply – […]

July 27, 2020February 21, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Sonoff Zigbee Bridge Now Supports Tasmota Firmware, Home Assistant, Zigbee2Tasmota

Sonoff Zigbee Bridge & Tasomota Home Assistant

Sonoff ZBBridge (aka Sonoff Zigbee Bridge) WiFi to Zigbee gateway was launched a few months ago for $16.90 plus shipping, and it’s now also listed on Banggood for $17.99 shipped. It allows users to control Zigbee devices connected to the gateway using the eWelink mobile app used with other Sonoff devices. But many people like to run Tasmota firmware on their Sonoff devices since it’s open-source and provided more flexibility such as integration with Home Assitant or Domoticz. There was already support for Zigbee in Tasmota at the time but only for Texas Instruments SimpleLink CC253x Zigbee MCU’s, and Sonoff ZBBridge is made of an ESP8266 WiSoC and a Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 Gecko Series 2 Cortex-M33 Zigbee microcontroller. So I just suspected that eventually, Sonoff Zigbee Bridge could support Tasmota open-source firmware but that would take some time… It took about four months. Not too bad. It started in the […]

July 27, 2020December 2, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Edge Impulse Enables Machine Learning on Cortex-M Embedded Devices

Artificial intelligence used to happen almost exclusively in the cloud, but this introduces delays (latency) for the users and higher costs for the provider, so it’s now very common to have on-device AI on mobile phones or other systems powered by application processors. But recently there’s been a push to bring machine learning capabilities to even lower-end embedded systems powered by microcontrollers, as we’ve seen with GAP8 RISC-V IoT processor or Arm Cortex-M55 core and the Ethos-U55 micro NPU for Cortex-M microcontrollers, as well as Tensorflow Lite. Edge Impulse is another solution that aims to ease deployment of machine learning applications on Cortex-M embedded devices (aka Embedded ML or TinyML) by collecting real-world sensor data, training ML models on this data in the cloud, and then deploying the model back to the embedded device. The company collaborated with Arduino and announced support for the Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense and […]

July 27, 2020July 28, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

ECM3532 AI Sensor Board Features Cortex-M3 MCU & 16-bit DSP “TENSAI” SoC for TinyML Applications

Eta Compute ECM3532 is a system-on-chip (SoC) with a Cortex-M3 microcontroller clocked at up to 100 Mhz, and NXP CoolFlux 16-bit DSP designed for machine learning on embedded devices, aka TinyML, and part of the company’s TENSAI platform. The chip is also integrated into the ECM3532 AI sensor board featuring two MEMS microphones, a pressure & temperature sensor, and a 6-axis motion sensor (accel/gyro) all powered by a CR2032 coin-cell battery. ECM3532 AI sensor board specifications: SoC – ECM3532 neural sensor processor with Arm Cortex-M3 core @ up to 100 MHz (< 5μA/MHz run mode) combines with 512KB embedded FLASH, 256KB SRAM, and 8KB BootROM + secure bootloader, and NXP CoolFlux 16-bit DSP @ up to 100 MHz with 32KB program memory, 64KB data memory. See the product brief for details. Storage – 64Mbit serial Flash for datalogging Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.2 LE via ABOV Semiconductor A31R118 and PCB antenna […]

July 26, 2020July 26, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Beelink GS-King X Review with Android 9 – Video & Audio Playback, NAS/File Server Function, and Benchmarks

Last month I received Beelink GS-King X for review and started with an unboxing and teardown to check out the hardware. I’ve now had time to test the device with Android 9 including the file server function, a key selling point since of the device since it supports up to two 3.5″ SATA drives internally. A Tedious and Frustrating Start Eventually, I managed to boot the TV box and access the launcher, but it was no pleasure cruise. The first time, I connected the power, there was nothing at all, with the LED turned off, and no noise from the device. I thought the device was dead. The company asked me to check the power supply, and indeed a quick check with a multimeter confirmed it was dead despite the blue LED (on the power supply) implying the contrary. Nevermind, bad things happen, and the company sent me a new […]

July 25, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 27 Comments

Rock Pi 4C SBC with 4GB RAM, HDMI and DisplayPort Launched for $59 and up

Last October, Radxa unveiled Rock Pi 4C SBC as an update to the company’s Rock Pi 4 SBC, with the same Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor, 4GB RAM, but instead of providing one HDMI output only, Rock Pi 4C board offers two video output just like Raspberry Pi 4 board, but with a twist, since it combines a micro HDMI port with a Mini DisplayPort connector. It’s all good except for one small detail. So far, it was not possible to purchase the board. The good news is that Radxa has now announced the availability of the board for just $59 on AllNetChina. You can also buy Rock Pi 4C on other platforms, but the price is much higher at $109.99 on Amazon, and $99.99 on Aliexpress. Rock Pi 4C specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 big.LITTLE hexa-core processor with 2x Arm Cortex-A72 @ up to 1.8 GHz, 4x Cortex-A53 @ up […]

July 24, 2020July 24, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

12.5-inch 4K IPS Touchscreen Display Works with Raspberry Pi 4B and other 4K SBC’s

There are plenty of displays for the Raspberry Pi boards, but if you are looking for a high-resolution display with capacitive multi-touchscreen it may be challenging to find. DFRobot may have what you are looking for though with a 12.5″ 4K IPS touchscreen display. The company says it’s compatible with Raspberry Pi 4B SBC, but since it comes with a mini HDMI input port, it should really work with any 4K capable SBC’s or computers. Key features & specifications: 12.5-inch IPS Pro display with 4K UHD (3840×2160) resolution, 60 Hz refresh rate, HDR, 10-point touch 100% Color gamut, 400cd/㎡ brightness, 178° viewing angle Video Input – Mini HDMI input Audio – Built-in left and right loudspeaker, 3.5mm audio jack (output) USB – 2x USB Type-C ports both supporting touch/data and power Misc – Function menu button, power LED, power button Power Supply – Via USB-C port (USB-PD supported) Dimensions – […]