Arduino News - Page 66 of 104 - CNX Software

November 5, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Arduino Support for Quectel BC66 NB-IoT Module

Quectel has several LTE IoT modules such as BG96 with NB-IoT + eMTC connectivity, but the company has also a smaller, cheaper NB-IoT only module called Quectel BC66, and Georgi Angelov (Wiz-IO) informed me he implemented Arduino support for the module with BC66-DVK board. Let’s first have a look at BC66 specifications: Frequency Bands Available now – B1/B3/B5/B8/B20 Under development – B2/B12/B13/B17/B18/B19/B25/B26/B28/B66 Output Power – 23dBm ±2dB Sensitivity – -129dBm Data Data Rate Single-Tone: 25.5kbps (DL)/16.7kbps (UL) Multi-Tone: 25.5kbps (DL)/62.5kbps (UL) Protocol Stacks – UDP/TCP/CoAP/LwM2M/SNTP/MQTT/PPP/TLS/DTLS/HTTP/HTTPS/FTP SMS – Text/PDU Mode Interfaces – 1x USIM, 1x PSM _EINT, 3x UARTm 1x ADC, 1x RESET, 1x PWRKEY, 1x NETLIGHT, 1x antenna, 1x SPI, “OpenCPU” version only: 1x I2C, 1x I2S, and configurable GPIO Supply Voltage – 2.1 to 3.63V (3.3 typ.); I/O: 1.8V Power Consumption (Typ.) 3.5μA @PSM 0.29mA @Idle Mode (eDRX=81.92s) 0.43mA @Idle Mode (DRX=2.56s) 110mA @LTE Cat NB1, 23dBm Dimensions – […]

November 4, 2018April 13, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Singles’ Day 2018 Promotions on GearBest, Aliexpress, GeekBuying, Banggood…

Taking place every year in China on November 11, Singles’ Day is the equivalent of Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US with shops offering large discounts on various products. The good news is that the event is not actually limited to China, since popular online shopping websites based in China will all organize events and promotions for overseas customers. I posted a list of Singles’ Day promotions in 2017, and I’ll do that again this year with promotions launched by shops like GeekBuying, Aliexpress, GearBest, and others, often starting in early November, and culminating on November 11 for the deepest discounts. GearBest GearBest will have two main Singles’ Day events: Deposit Expansion – To maximize your saving, GearBest implemented a “deposit expansion” policy. This is a FREE bonus that increases the worth of the deposit you made. Put a deposit in advance, get the extra discount when finalizing […]

October 31, 2018October 31, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Bonsai Algorithm Enables Machine Learning on Arduino with a 2KB RAM Footprint

Machine learning used to be executed in the cloud, then the inference part moved to the edge, and we’ve even seen micro-controllers able to do image recognition with GAP8 RISC-V micro-controller. But I’ve recently come across a white paper entitled “Resource-efficient Machine Learning in 2 KB RAM for the Internet of Things” that shows how it’s possible to perform such tasks with very little resources. Here’s the abstract: This paper develops a novel tree-based algorithm, called Bonsai, for efficient prediction on IoT devices – such as those based on the Arduino Uno board having an 8 bit ATmega328P microcontroller operating at 16 MHz with no native floating point support, 2 KB RAM and 32 KB read-only flash. Bonsai maintains prediction accuracy while minimizing model size and prediction costs by: (a) developing a tree model which learns a single, shallow, sparse tree with powerful nodes; (b) sparsely projecting all data into […]

October 26, 2018October 26, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

$94 MAKERphone DIY Mobile Phone Supports MicroPython, Arduino IDE, and Scratch (Crowdfunding)

If you ever wanted to buy a mobile phone that you can assemble yourself, RePhone Kit Ctreate going for $59 is a nice option, but in truth it does not exactly look like your typical phone with its almost square shape. It’s also good to have more option, that’s exactly what MAKERphone is offering with a DIY mobile phone targeting the educational market. Beside the educational value of the assembly also involving some soldering skills depending on the selected kit, kids will be able to learn to program the phone with MicroPython, the Arduino IDE (C language), and/or Scratch visual programming. MAKERphone kit content and specifications: MAKERphone circuit board with 8x user LEDs for backlight (and special effects), 4-way mechanical joystick, 12-button numeric keypad, A, B, C, D, E, and F buttons, DS3231 RTC chip, vibrator… Main microcomputer module based on Espressif Systems ESP32 WiSoC with 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth […]

October 22, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

STMicro Introduces the First STM8 Nucleo Boards, STM8 Arduino IDE Support

While development boards based on STMicro STM8 8-bit MCU such as the “one dollar board” or the official STM8 Discovery boards have been around for several years, STMicro had yet to release a Nucleo board based on the microcontroller. The company has now unveiled not one, but two such boards with NUCLEO-8L152R8 and NUCLEO-8S208RB. Both boards will look similar as only the MCU differs. The former features a 16 MHZ MCU with 64 kB flash and 4KB SRAM, while the latter comes with a 24 MHz MCU with 128 kB flash, and 6KB SRAM.STM8 Nucleo board specifications: MCU (One of the other) NUCLEO-8L152R8 – STMicro STM8L152R8T6 8-bit MCU @ 16 MHz with 64 kB flash, 2KB EEPROM, 4KB SRAM NUCLEO-8S208RB – STMicro STM8S208RBT6 8-bit MCU @ 24 MHz with 128 kB flash, 2KB EEPROM, 6KB SRAM 4x LEDs – USB communication (LD4), 5V STLINK (LD3), User (LD2), Power (LD1) 2 […]

September 26, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Sensything ESP32 Board Supports Multi-sensor Data Acquisition, Wi-Fi & Bluetooth (Crowdfunding)

We’ve previously covered to health related boards from Protocentral with HealthPi Raspberry Pi HAT measuring vitals signs, and HeartyPatch open source ECG patch powered by an ESP32 WiSoC. Today, I’ll write about another of their board – Sensything -, not directly related to health applications, but designed for multiple sensor’s analog and digital (I2C, GPIO) data acquisition, and designed around Espressif Systems ESP32 WiFi & Bluetooth SoC. Sensything specifications: SiP- Espressif Systems ESP32-PICO-D4 system-in-package with 4MB Flash, Texas Instruments ADS1220 ADC Wireless Connectivity 2.4 GHz WiFi with on-board PCB antenna, support for Station and Access Point (AP) modes Bluetooth 4.2 / Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) USB – 1x micro USB port with FT230X (USB-CDC) Expansion I/O: Board-edge alligator clip compatible analog input connectors 2x Sparkfun Qwiic-compatible I2C ports 4x general-purpose I/O pins Analog Input details 4 channels single-ended, 2-channel fully differential Full-scale input range: ± 2.048 V to ± 0.016 […]

September 19, 2018September 19, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Retro-uC Open Source MCU Brings ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 Back to Life (Crowdfunding)

If you’ve started your computing experience in the early eighties, you’ve probably used a ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and/or Atari ST home computers. Those products are long gone, except for collectors, but thanks to chips4makers project’s Zilog Z80, MOS 6502, and Motorola M68K cores are coming back to life via Retro-uC open source microcontroller. As a bonus, developers also worked on Retrino, a board following Arduino Mega form factor, and featuring Retro-uC MCU, as well as Retro-uC ProtoPlus with the chip fitted to a large Perf+ 2 style prototyping board, and Retro-uC Breadboard which can be inserted into a standard breadboard. Retro-uC Microcontroller Retro-uC specifications: Open source microcontroller with a Z80, MOS 6502 and Motorola 68000 core 4 kB of on-chip RAM 72x 5V digital general purpose I/O pins JTAG interface for programming the device Optionally bootable from external I2C flash memory I/O pins that can select the enabled core […]

September 18, 2018November 3, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

WisCellular Certified Global LTE IoT Arduino Shield Enters Beta Testing

RAK Wireless introduced WisLTE Arduino shield last year based on Quectel BG96 module with support for NB-IoT (Cat NB1), eMTC (Cat M1), and 2G fallback as well as GPS location. WisLTE worked globally, but the company did not go through the certification process, at least not for the global market, meaning the shield could not be used in commercial applications. That’s why Rak Wireless has been working on WisCellular shield, also based on Quectel BG96, but this time with global certification. WisCellular specifications: Cellular Module – Quectel BG96 (based on Qualcomm MDM9206) Cellular Network 2G/GSM (GPRS/EPGRS) 4G/LTE-M (Cat M1) NB-IoT (Cat NB1) Global Bands EDGE/EGPRS: 850/900/1800/1900MHz LTE FDD: B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B8/B12/B13/B18/B19/B20/B26/B28 LTE TDD: B39 (For Cat M1 Only) Data Rate Cat M1: Max. 300Kbps (DL), Max. 375Kbps (UL) Cat NB1: Max. 32Kbps (DL), Max. 70Kbps (UL) EDGE: Max. 296Kbps (DL), Max. 236.8Kbps (UL) GPRS: Max. 107Kbps (DL), Max. 85.6Kbps (UL) Voice – […]