Arduino Portenta gets an LTE Cat. M1/NB IoT GNSS shield

Arduino Portenta LTE Cat-M1 NB-IoT GNSS shield

Arduino PRO Portenta family of industrial boards is getting a new LTE Cat. M1/NB-IoT GNSS shield that adds global connectivity and positioning capabilities through the Cinterion TX62-W LPWAN IoT module by Thales. The shield works with the Portenta H7 board as well as its lower-cost variants and Arduino MKR boards and will power industry 4.0 and edge computing solutions such as positioning, asset tracking, and remote monitoring applications at the factory, in agriculture, public utilities, and smart cities. Portenta CatM1 shield specifications: Cinterion TX62-W module with: 3GPP Rel.14 Cat.M1, Cat.NB1, Cat.NB2 Global coverage with a single SKU FDD-LTE Bands – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27, 28, 66, 71, 85 LTE Cat. M1 – DL: max. 300 kbps, UL: max. 1.1 Mbps LTE Cat. NB1 – DL: max. 27 kbps, UL: max. 63 kbps LTE Cat. NB2 – DL: max. 124 kbps, […]

The Eclipse Oniro Project aims to deliver consumer & IoT software that works across multiple platforms

Eclipse Oniro Project

Several of the embedded talks at FOSDEM 2022 mention the “Eclipse Oniro Project”. I had never heard about that project from the Eclipse Foundation, so let’s see how they describe it: Oniro is an Eclipse Foundation project focused on the development of a distributed open source operating system for consumer devices, regardless of the brand, model, make. Oniro is a compatible implementation for the global market of OpenHarmony, an open source operating system specified and hosted by the OpenAtom Foundation. Designed with modularity in mind, Oniro offers greater levels of flexibility and application portability across the broad spectrum of consumer and IoT devices — from tiny embedded sensors and actuators, to feature rich smart appliances and mobile companions. As a distributed and reusable collection of open source building blocks, Oniro enables compatibility with other open source technologies and ecosystems. Through close collaboration with projects and foundations such as OpenHarmony from […]

Board with 25 RGB LEDs is offered with ESP32-C3 or ESP32-Pico-D4

ESP32-C3 board 25 RGB LEDs

In case you are in need of a tiny WiFI or Bluetooth-connected board with an RGB LED matrix, two have shown up on Banggood with basically the same 25 RGB LED design , except “C3FH4 RGB” board is based on ESP32-C3 RISC-V SoC, while the other, named “PICO D4 RGB“, features ESP32-Pico-D4 SiP (System-in-Package). The boards are cute and the main purpose is probably for decoration/ornament, but I’d imagine if you purchase a few they could also be used as an experimentation/education platform for mesh networking, using the ESP Mesh Development Framework (ESP-MDF) for instance. C3FH4 RGB / PICO D4 RGB board specifications: SoC/SiP C3FH4 RGB board – ESP32-C3FH4 SoC with RISC-V core @ 160 MHz, 4MB flash, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 5 LE with Long-Range support PICO D4 RGB board – ESP32-PICO-D4 system-in-package with ESP32 dual-core Xtensa processor @ 240 MHz, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth dual-mode, 4MB flash Ceramic […]

ESP32 CAN board fits into OBD-II dongle, supports auto shutdown

RejsaCAN ESP32 OBD-II dongle

RejsaCAN-ESP32 is a small board based on ESP32-WROOM-32 WiFi (and Bluetooth) module with a CAN interface that fits into a 3D printed OBD-II dongle for easy installation into most cars. Magnus Thomé has already published several automotive projects, notably for car racing with a system that checks real-time tire temperature, and he designed RejsaCAN-ESP32 board so that it can be plugged directly into his car with support for 5-15V input voltage, and also includes an auto-shutdown option to prevent battery drain by monitoring the battery voltage in the car. RejsaCAN-ESP32 specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-WROOM-32 module with a dual-core ESP32 processor @ 240 MHz with 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity, PCB antenna, 32Mbit SPI flash USB – 1x USB-C port for power and programming via CP2104 USB to TTL chip Expansion – 15-pin header with 3x GPIO, SPI, I2C, analog input, PWM or analog output, CAN bus […]

Newt 2.7-inch wireless display offers high refresh rate with SHARP’s Memory-in-Pixel (MiP) technology (Crowdfunding)

Newt ESP32 IoT Display

Newt is a battery-powered, always-on, ESP32-S2 wireless display with a 2.7-inch display leveraging SHARP’s Memory-in-Pixel (MiP) technology to provide an experience similar to E-Ink displays but with a much faster refresh rate. The wireless display can connect to the Internet to retrieve weather, calendars, sports scores, to-do lists, quotes, and whatever you’d like. Since it is powered by an ESP32-S2 microcontroller you can program with the ESP-IDF framework, Arduino, MicroPython, or CircuitPython. Newt display specifications: WiFi module – Espressif ESP32-S2-WROVER module with ESP32-S2 single-core Xtensa LX7 processor @ 240 MHz with 4 MB flash and 2 MB PSRAM Display – 2.7-inch, 240 x 400 pixel SHARP MiP LCD with “high-contrast, high-resolution, low-latency content with ultra-low power consumption”, reflective mode to eliminate the need for a backlight. USB – 1x USB Type-C port for programming, power, and charging Expansion – I2C Qwiik connector Misc Micro Crystal RV-3028-C7 RTC (45nA power consumption) […]

HUENIT modular robot arm takes 3D printer, laser engraver, suction, AI camera modules (Crowdfunding)

Huenit Robot Arm

Most robot arms are designed to carry and manipulate payloads, but HUENIT modular robot arm is much more versatile as besides a traditional suction module, the robot supports modules such as a 3D printer, laser engraver, pen holder for drawings, and a creator module for let people designed their own. The robot arm can hold payloads of up to 750 grams, have a reach of up to 39 cm without module, supports WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, and can also optionally be fitted with a 2MP AI camera module based on Kendryte K210 RISC-V processor with built-in AI accelerators. HUENIT specifications: Robot arm 4-axis Payload up to 750 grams Reach – 390mm without module Repeatability – 0.05mm Precision – 0.1mm Speed – Up to 500mm/s Storage – MicroSD card slot USB – 1x USB-C port Wireless – WiFI and Bluetooth Misc – UART, external stepper Power Supply – 24V DC input, […]

ESP32 UWB board features DW1000 module for accurate indoor positioning

ESP32 UWB board

FiRa “Fine Ranging” UWB technology was introduced a few years ago and is now found in devkits and Apple U1 chip. Makerfabs ESP32 UWB board provides another option with Espressif ESP32-WROVER-32 or ESP32-WROOM-32 WiFi & Bluetooth module combined with a Decawave DW1000 module for precision tracking. Makerfabs explains the board acts like a continuously scanning radar that locks onto another device (called Anchor, since it’s usually in a fixed location) and communicates with it to determine the distance between objects by calculating the time of flight (ToF) between devices, or in other words, the roundtrip time of challenge/response packets. ESP32 UWB board specifications: Wireless modules: WiFi & Bluetooth LE – ESP32-WROVER-32 or ESP32-WROOM-32 module with ESP32 dual-core processor @ 240 MHz UWB – B&T BU01 module based on Decawave DW1000 chip; IEEE802.15.4-2011 UWB compliant wireless transceiver module with a precision of 10cm indoors, a data rate of up to 6.8 […]

TTGO T-CAN485 – An ESP32 board with RS485, CAN bus interfaces

TTGO T-CAN485

LilyGO is regularly bringing ESP32 boards to market for specific applications, and their latest TTGO T-CAN485 connects ESP32 to CAN bus and RS485 industrial control interfaces. The board also takes 5 to 12V power input via a 2-pin terminal, comes with a microSD card for data storage, a USB Type-C port and CH340K serial chip for programming and debugging, plus a 12-pin GPIO header, some buttons, and an RGB LED. TTGO T-CAN485 board specifications: SoC – Espressif System ESP32 dual-core processor @ up to 240 MHz with 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2 LE connectivity Storage – 4MB flash, microSD card socket Industrial control interfaces CAN bus via 3-pin terminal block RS485 via 3-pin terminal block Expansion – Unpopulated 12-pin header with 8 GPIOs configurable as UART, SPI, I2C, plus VDD, GND Debugging – USB-C port for serial access via CH340K USB to TTL chip Misc- Reset and Boot buttons, WS2812 […]