Video Category - Page 50 of 331 - CNX Software

December 17, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

TOOCA Laser L1 review – An affordable 5W laser engraver

ELECFREAKS’ TOOCA Laser L1 is an affordable 5W laser engraver with a sturdy yet lightweight structure and that can engrave various materials including metals. It’s easy to use with a one-button press and suitable for education in schools. TOOCA Laser L1 laser engraver unboxing The laser engraver comes as a kit with components that can be easily assembled. It was well-packed with little risk of being damaged during transport. It also includes tools and instructions for assembly, and you don’t need any extra tools to complete the assembly. TOOCA Laser L1 specifications The machine measures 568x632x198 mm, weighs 3.2 kg only so it can easily be carried around, and offers a 400×415 mm working area. It works with Windows and macOS and only requires 24V power available through the provided power adapter. A wide range of file types are supported, and the device can engrave many types of materials and […]

December 17, 2022December 17, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

LapPi 2.0 – A DIY laptop for Raspberry Pi 4 and other single board computers (Crowdfunding)

The LapPi 2.0 is a DIY laptop kit with an acrylic enclosure, a UPS HAT with a 18650 battery holder, and off-the-shelf parts including speakers, a touchscreen display, a Raspberry Pi camera, and a wireless keyboard that’s suitable for the Raspberry Pi 4 and pretty much any other small single board computer from Radxa, Orange Pi, Banana Pi, FriendlyElec, Hardkernel, and others. We’ve seen several Raspberry Pi laptops over the years with the CrowPi L and Pi-Top, and I have to say the LapPi 2.0 is not the most eye-pleasing or sophisticated design, but at least, it’s versatile and not limited to the Raspberry Pi family. LapPi 2.0 kit content and highlights: Display – 7-inch 5-point capacitive touchscreen IPS display with 1024×600 resolution support for audio output via 3.5mm audio jack and 4-pin header Camera – Official 8MP Raspberry Pi Noir camera with night vision support Audio – 2x 5W/8 […]

December 16, 2022December 16, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

SpinQ quantum computers target the education market

Quantum computing promise a leap in the performance of applications relying upon parallelism using the properties of quantum physics like superposition, interference, and entanglement to perform computation instead of flipping “0” and “1” like traditional transistors. It will be used in scientific simulations, cryptography, machine learning, computational biology, and more. So far, I had seen massive quantum computers in research labs, but companies like Intel and IBM are working on providing quantum processors with hundreds and thousands of qubits that should eventually be found in supercomputers. It’s unclear to me whether we’ll ever see “quantum accelerators” in embedded processors, and in any case, it would be many years away. But if you are interested in better understanding the technology and playing around with quantum computing, SpinQ is selling 2-qubit and 3-qubit quantum computers for the education market: Gemini Mini, Gemini, and Triangulum. Gemini Mini quantum computer Specifications: Number of qubits: […]

December 9, 2022December 9, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Bee Motion S3 – An ESP32-S3 board with a PIR motion sensor (Crowdfunding)

The Bee Motion S3 is an ESP32-S3 WiFi and Bluetooth IoT board with a PIR motion sensor beside the more usual I/Os, Qwiic connector, USB-C port, and LiPo battery support. It is at least the third PIR motion wireless board from Smart Bee Designs, as the company previously introduced the ESP32-S2 powered Bee Motion board and the ultra-small Bee Motion Mini with an ESP32-C3 SoC. The new Bee Motion S3 adds a few more I/Os, a light sensor, and the ESP32-S3’s AI vector extensions could potentially be used for faster and/or lower-power TinyML processing. Bee Motion S3 specifications: Wireless module – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3-MINI-1 module (PDF datasheet) based on ESP32-S3 dual-core Xtensa LX7 microcontroller with 512KB SRAM, 384KB ROM, WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, and equipped with 8MB of QSPI flash and a PCB antenna USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and programming Sensors PIR sensor S16-L221D […]

December 8, 2022January 23, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

Gowin R86S mini PC offers 2.5GbE and 10GbE networking for $310 and up

Gowin R86S (aka GW-R86S) is an affordable Intel Celeron N5100 or Pentium N6005 Jasper Lake mini PC, router, and firewall appliance with 2.5GbE and 10GbE networking that sells for $310 and up on Aliexpress. 10GbE used to be reserved for the enterprise market due to the cost of hardware, but costs have gone down a lot as illustrated by the Gowin R86S system with up to three 2.5GbE ports, two 10GbE SFP+ cages, as well as ports that you would typically find a mini PC such as HDMI 2.0 video output, M.2 socket for NVMe SSD, two USB 3.0 ports, and a WiFi module. Gowin R86S specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Celeron N5105 quad-core Jasper Lake processor @ 2.0GHz / 2.9GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD graphics 605; 10W TDP Intel Pentium N6005 quad-core Jasper Lake processor @ 2.0GHz / 3.3GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD graphics @ up to […]

December 7, 2022December 7, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Add an ePaper display to Raspberry Pi Pico W with EnkPi 2.9-inch to 7.5-inch displays (Crowdfunding)

EnkPi Raspberry Pi Pico W ePaper Display

SB Components is running another crowdfunding campaign with the EnkPi ePaper display powered by a Raspberry Pi Pico W board and offered in four different sizes namely 2.9-inch, 4.2-inch 5.83-inch, and 7.5-inch. Each mainboard also comes with a USB Type-C port, a microSD card socket, an RTC with a backup battery holder, a buzzer, six user buttons, and a JST connector for expansion with GPIO, I2C, UART, and ADC signals. EnkPi specifications: MCU board – Raspberry Pi Pico W with Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller, 2MB QSPI flash, WiFi 4 module. Storage – MicroSD card socket Display connected over SPI to the Pico W board 2.9-inch tricolor ePaper display with 296×128 resolution 4.2-inch tricolor ePaper display with 400×300 resolution 5.83-inch tricolor ePaper display with 648×480 resolution 7.5-inch tricolor ePaper display with 800×480 resolution Partial refresh support with up to 170 degrees wide viewing angle USB – 1x USB Type-C […]

December 6, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

$200 Swarm M138 kit enables two-way satellite connectivity for IoT projects

Sparkfun has launched a Satellite Transceiver Kit based on the Swarm M138 satellite and GNSS modem that allows low-bitrate two-way connectivity for IoT projects anywhere on earth. Remote IoT applications have benefited from LPWAN standards such as LoRaWAN and NB-IoT, but in some extreme cases coverage may still be challenging, so satellite communication may be the only practical option. It used to be really expensive, but Swarm makes this more affordable, and companies like SigFox and Semtech also have (or had?) plans to use low-earth orbit satellites for their respective LPWAN technologies. Swarm M138 kit content and specifications: Swarm M138 mini PCIe satellite modem and GNSS receiver module MCU – Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller Up to 1 Kbps data rate, up to 912 bytes packet size Frequency 137-138 MHz (downlink) 148-150 MHz (uplink) Dimensions – 51.0 x 30.0 x 5.3 mm Weight – 9.6 grams Temperature Range – -40°C to +85°C […]

December 5, 2022December 5, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Getting Started with CrowBot BOLT smart robot car

Elecrow CrowBot BOLT & Game Controller Assembled

CrowBot BOLT is a smart robot car based on an ESP32 wireless microcontroller and designed for the education market with the ability to program the robot with visual programming, Arduino, or MicroPython. Elecrow sent me a sample of the CrowBot BOLT kit for evaluation so I’ll have a look at the hardware, show how to assemble it, showcase the features of the built-in firmware, and demonstrate how to program the robot with visual programming, Arduino, and MicroPython using some of the provided code samples. CrowBot BOLT unboxing The package lists some of the highlights with 16 teaching courses, support for multiple programming platforms, scalability with Grove connectors, and the inclusion of the Joystick that’s also programmable. The CrowBot BOLT comes as a kit so there will need to be some work to do to assemble the robot, but no soldering is required (in normal cases, more on that later). The […]