Dialog Semi Category - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

December 7, 2021February 6, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments

Review of an ESP32-based BLE to MQTT gateway – Part 1: GL.inet GL-S10 unboxing and teardown

GL.inet introduced the GL-S10 BLE to MQTT IoT gateway last month with an ESP32 module offering WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, as well as Ethernet and PoE support. I got offered a sample for review, and just received it together with the optional BLE beacon. So today, I’ll first have a look at the content, and check out the hardware with a teardown. GL.inet GL-S10 unboxing The package shows us the main features with Bluetooth LE 4.2, WiFi, PoE, and external antenna, with GL-S10 described as a BLE IOT GATEWAY connecting IoT devices to the Cloud. The gateway ships with a getting started guide, an antenna, a USB cable for power, as well as the beacon which we can see with a 3M stick tape. On one side, we have the RJ45 connector for Ethernet and a micro USB port for power, while the other side features a reset button, plus […]

October 7, 2021February 4, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

WattUp 1W active energy harvesting developer kit enables at-a-distance wireless charging

WattUp 1W Active Energy Harvesting Transmitter

Two years ago, we noted Energous’ WattUp hearables developer kit that would charge earbuds with the company’s WattUp near-field wireless charging technology. The company has now introduced the WattUP 1W active energy harvesting developer kit capable of charging multiple IoT devices with at-a-distance wireless charging. The kit is said to be “active” because there’s a 6-inch transmitter, let’s call it a power gateway, and several IoT devices that harvest energy from it. Traditional passive solutions will harvest ambient energy from the surrounding environment, and may not deliver enough power, and do so unpredictably. The developer kit comes with the transmitter, plus one or more receiver units, and relies on the following main chips: Transmitter Dialog Semiconductor DA14682 SmartBond Bluetooth 5.0 Cortex-M0 SoC Dialog Semiconductor DA4100 Wireless Power Transmitter SoC Dialog Semiconductor DA3210 1W Power Amplifier A discrete rectifier and a DA2210 WPT rectifier Receiver(s) Dialog Semiconductor DA14531 Cortex-M0+ BLE 5.1 […]

May 27, 2020May 27, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Dialog DA16200 WiFi SoC Promises a Year of Battery Life for Always-Connected IoT Devices

Dialog DA16200 WiFi One Year Battery Life

WiFi is omnipresent, and many IoT devices are relying on the wireless standard for connectivity, but as most of you will already know, WiFi suffers from high-power consumption and may not always be suitable for battery-operated devices. There are always battery optimization tricks to use WiFi on battery-powered devices, for example, a solar camera using PIR to only record and transmit video when needed, or a board optimized to consume as little as possible in deep sleep waking up only when necessary. Those tricks are not applicable to all use cases, so Dialog Semiconductor has launched DA16200 Wi-Fi SoC delivering year plus battery life for always-connected Wi-Fi IoT devices. DA16200 key features and specifications: MCU Core – Arm Cortex M4F @ up to 160 MHz Memory – 512 KB SRAM Storage – 256 kB ROM, 8KB OTP ROM, external flash controller, eMMC, SD host Connectivity 2.4 GHz, 20 MHz channel […]

September 24, 2019October 7, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Energous Launches WattUp Hearables Developer Kit with Near-Field Wireless Charging

We previously wrote about Energous WattUp near, mid, and far-field wireless charging while covering SKIIN smart underwears that could be recharged using WattUp near-field wireless technology, but the technology inside can also support future on the desk (mid-field) or in the room (far-field) charging. The company has now introduced the WattUp hearables developer kit that sadly still does not seem to support mid- and far-field charging yet but provides everything to manufacturers to get started with wireless charging for Bluetooth earbuds, smart headphones, and similar gadgets. The kit offers all hardware and software resource to get started with developing wirelessly charged audio devices: Transmitter reference design with power supply, based on Dialog Semi DA14680 Bluetooth LE chip, DA4100 wireless power transmitter, as well as EN3921 and EN3913M front end ICs. Receiver reference design with DA2223 RF to DC receiver and DA14585 Bluetooth LE SoC Mobile app Reference design user guide […]

May 2, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

This Open Source Hardware Smartwatch Project is Fully Documented

While there are plenty of smartwatches available, they may not perfectly match your requirements and needs. But did you wake up one day and just decided to build your own? Probably not. But Samson March had his own plans, and as a professional electrical engineer and product designer, he decided to start a smartwatch project during his spare time. What makes it really interesting is that he provided a long list of photos and short videos explaining in details the process, and open-sourced all materials from hardware design files, to firmware source code, and 3D print files for the body and charging dock! The OSHW watch does not have a name (yet) and features the following hardware: Wireless MCU – Dialog Semiconductor DA14683 Arm Cortex-M0 microcontroller up to 96 MHz 128KB RAM, 128KB ROM, 64KB OTP, and with Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity Storage – 128 Mbit SPI flash Display – 1.3″ […]

January 9, 2018October 21, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

SKIIN Smart Underwears Support Energous’ WattUp Near, Mid, and Far-Field Wireless Charging

Near-field wireless charging has been around for several years, but for wireless charging to become really disruptive it needs to work at a distance, and Energous has been working on mid and far-field technology with their WattUp transmissive to charge devices respectively on the desk (mid-field) or in the room (far-field). You need to have compatible devices to work with the technology, and wearables are a prime target, but I was expecting fitness trackers or smartwatches to embed the technology at first, but instead one of the first WattUp compatible wearables are smart underwears from SKIIN. The module found in SKIIN underwears and bras have many of the same features as your typical fitness tracker and some extras: Sensors ECG sensors for Heart Rate Monitoring (HRM) Accelerometer and Gyroscope to measure motion & posture BIA (Bioelectrical impedance analysis) to monitor water intake levels and how your sweat affects your hydration, […]

April 14, 2017February 16, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

MatchX LoRaWAN Solution Supports up to 65,535 Sensor Nodes per Gateway

MatchX is a startup with offices in Chicago, Shenzhen, and Berlin, that provides a complete LoRaWAN solution with their MatchBox gateway based on SX1301 concentrator and Mediatek MT7628N processor, as well as MatchStick, MatchModule, and MatchCore sensors with up to 65,535 of those connecting to a single gateway. MatchBox LoRaWAN/WiFi/GPRS/GPS Gateway MatchBox specifications: Processor – Mediatek MT7628AN MIPS WiSoC @ up to 580 MHz System Memory – 128MB DDR2 RAM Storage – 16MB FLASH Connectivity LoRa – Semtech SX1301 + 2x SX1257@+27dbm Output Power; 470/868/915Mhz frequency range, -146dBm sensitivity 10/100M Ethernet 802.11n 2×2 WiFi @ 300 MHz Optional GPRS via SIM800H, 85.6 kbps (downlink/uplink) + micro SIM card slot GPS via UBlox Max 7C Antennas – 2x u.FL antennas for WiFi, u.FL or chip antenna for LoRa, GPS and GPRS modules USB – 1x USB 2.0 port, 1x USB type C exposing 4 or 6 GPIOs and UART Misc – […]