Pivistation 5 – A Raspberry Pi 5 Camera Kit to quickly get started with computer vision (Crowdfunding)

PitiStation 5 Raspberry Pi 5 camera kit

Arducam Pivistation 5 is an all-in-one Raspberry Pi 5 camera kit that aims to provide a turnkey hardware and software solution to quickly get started with computer vision applications and offered with a choice of camera sensors designed for various applications. The system looks like a Raspberry Pi 5 SBC housed in the official case fitted with a camera. Three models are available, namely the “Hawkeye” featuring a high-resolution 64MP autofocus camera, the “Darksee” with an 8MP camera sensor with ultra low-light sensitivity, and the “Klarity” with a 20MP camera with fixed focus and a large 1-inch sensor. Pivistation 5 specifications All the cameras above rely on a rolling shutter, but the company is also working on the upcoming Arducam Pivistation 5 Swift model that includes a global shutter for robotics applications. Besides the pre-assembled hardware, the Arducam Pivistation 5 family aims to quicken the development process with pre-installed software […]

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS “Noble Numbat” released with Linux 6.8, up to 12 years of support

Ubuntu 24.04 release

Canonical has just released Ubuntu 24.04 LTS “Noble Numbat” distribution a little over two years after Ubuntu 22.04 LTS “Jammy Jellyfish” was released. The new version of the operating system comes with the recent Linux 6.8 kernel, GNOME 46, and a range of updates and new features we’ll discuss in this post. As a long-term support release, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS gets a 12-year commitment for security maintenance and support, with five years of free security maintenance on the main Ubuntu repository, and Ubuntu Pro extending that commitment to 10 years on both the main and universe repositories (also free for individuals and small companies with up to 5 devices). This can be extended a further 2-year, or 12 years in total, for Ubuntu Pro subscribers who purchase the Legacy Support add-on. Canonical explains the Linux 6.8 kernel brings improved syscall performance, nested KVM support on ppc64el, and access to the […]

The Open Home Foundation will manage Home Assistant, ESPHome, Zigpy among over 240 open-source Smart Home projects

Open Home Foundation

The Open Home Foundation is a non-profit organization that will manage over 240 Smart Home projects, standards, drivers, and libraries including  Home Assistant, ESPHome, Zigpy, Piper, and Improv Wi-Fi with the goal of “fight[ing] for the fundamental principles of privacy, choice, and sustainability for smart homes”. The non-profit was introduced during the “State of the Open Home 2024” (see video embedded at the end of this article) with Nabu Casa – the for-profit company behind Home Assistant – transferring all their projects to the new entity, and the Open Home Foundation will also help with the development of critical external projects such as Z-Wave JS, WLED, Rhasspy, and Zigbee2MQTT. The foundation further explains the goal of teaming multiple projects together in a stronger structure: We’ve done this to create a bulwark against surveillance capitalism, the risk of buyout, and open-source projects becoming abandonware. To an extent, this protection extends even […]

ODROID-H4 – A Compact Alder Lake N-Series SBC with up to dual 2.5GbE and four SATA III ports

ODROID-H4 Ultra SBC

Hardkernel has just launched an upgrade to their ODROID-H3/H3+ Jasper Lake SBC, with the ODROID-H4, ODROID-H4+, and ODROID-H4 Ultra boards powered by Intel Processor N97 or Intel Core i3-N305 Alder Lake N-Series processors. The ODROID-H4 family supports up to 48GB DDR5-4800 memory and NVMe SSD storage, comes with up to two 2.5GbE, four SATA III ports, three 4K capable video output ports (HDMI and DisplayPort), a range of USB ports, and a 24-pin GPIO header. ODROID-H4 specifications compared to previous generation ODROID-H2+ and ODROID-H3 boards. The GPIO header offers the following interfaces for all models except for the ODROID-H2+: 2x I2C, 3x USB 2.0, 1x UART, 1x HDMI-CEC, ext. power button. The H2+ header has similar interfaces, but only one USB 2.0 and two UART. Some may note the maximum RAM capacity numbers differ from the data on Intel Ark, but the latter is not usually correct, and Hardkernel have […]

“MaUWB_DW3000 with STM32 AT Command” Review – Using Arduino to test UWB range, precision, indoor positioning

mauwb dw3000 st tag test

Hello, the device I am going to review is the MaUWB_DW3000 with STM32 AT Command. This is an Ultra-wideband (UWB) module from MakerFabs. The core UWB module on this board is the DW3000 UWB transceiver, and it is also equipped with an ESP32 microcontroller programmable with the Arduino IDE, as well as OLED display. The manufacturer claims that this UWB board resolves multiple anchors and tags mutual conflicts and supports up to 8 anchors and 64 tags. Additionally, the manufacturer has added an STM32 microcontroller to handle UWB multiplexing, allowing users to control the core UWB module by simply sending AT commands from an ESP32 microcontroller to the STM32 microcontroller. More information about this UWB board can be found on the manufacturer’s website. “MaUWB_DW3000 with STM32 AT Command” unboxing MakerFabs sent the package to me from China. Inside the package, there were 4 sets of the MaUWB_DW3000 with STM32 AT […]

Raspberry Pi at Embedded World 2024: AI camera, M.2 HAT+ M Key board, and 15.6-inch monitor

Raspberry Pi AI Camera Sony IMX500

While Raspberry Pi has not officially announced anything new for Embedded World 2024 so far, the company is currently showcasing some new products there including an AI camera with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and a Sony IMX500 AI sensor, the long-awaited M.2 HAT+ M Key board, and a 15.6-inch monitor. Raspberry Pi AI camera Raspberry Pi AI Camera kit content and basic specs: SBC – Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W with Broadcom BCM2710A1 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 @ 1GHz (overclockable to 1.2 GHz), 512MB LPDDR2 AI Camera Sony IMX500 intelligent vision sensor 76-degree field of view Manually adjustable focus 20cm cables The kit comes preloaded with MobileNet machine vision model but users can also import custom TensorFlow models. This new kit is not really a surprise as we mentioned Sony and Raspberry Pi worked on exactly this when we covered the Sony IMX500 sensor. I got the information from […]

Variscite DART-MX95 SoM – Edge Computing with dual GbE, 10GbE, Wi-Fi 6, and AI/ML capabilities

Variscite DART MX95 SoM

Introduced at Embedded World 2024, the Variscite DART-MX95 SoM is powered by NXP’s i.MX 95 SoC and features an array of high-speed peripherals including dual GbE, 10GbE, and dual PCIe interfaces. Additionally, this SoM supports up to 16GB LPDDR5 RAM and up to 128GB of eMMC storage. It features a MIPI-DSI display interface, multiple audio interfaces, MIPI CSI2 for camera connectivity, USB ports, and a wide range of other functionalities, making it highly versatile for a variety of applications. Previously, we have covered many different SoMs designed by Variscite, including the Variscite VAR-SOM-6UL, Variscite DART-MX8M, and Variscite DART-6UL SoM, among others. Feel free to check those out if you are looking for products with NXP SoCs. Variscite DART-MX95 SoM Specifications SoC – NXP i.MX 95 CPU Up to 6x 2.0GHz Arm Cortex-A55 cores Real-time co-processors – 800MHz Cortex-M7 and 250MHz Cortex-M33. 2D/3D Graphics Acceleration 3D GPU with OpenGL ES 3.2, […]

Imagination launches the APXM-6200 RISC-V “Catapult” CPU for cost-sensitive consumer and industrial applications

APXM-6200 RISC-V CPU

Imagination has expanded its Catapult product portfolio to include a new RISC-V core, the Imagination APXM-6200 CPU. The APXM-6200 is a 64-bit, in-order application processor with an 11-stage, dual-issue pipeline. There isn’t much information on the new Imagination RISC-V core on the product page but we know it offers “best-in-class” performance density, a minimal silicon footprint, and industry-standard security features. The CPU is targeted at intelligent consumer and industrial applications and delivers a 2.5x improvement in performance density and a 65% improvement in normalized performance over comparable Arm Cortex-A53 and other cores on the market. It’s also faster than the Cortex-A510 Armv9 core in SpecINT2k6. Imagination claims that combining the APXM-6200 CPU with their GPUs will ensure a 2x increase in bus utilization and a 2x reduction in memory traffic. It also comes with RISC-V vector extensions, and AI compute libraries and supports fast data coupling with AI accelerators for […]