Arduino News - Page 88 of 105 - CNX Software

January 11, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Ublox NEO-6M $10 GPS Module with Antenna Works with Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc..

Last week, I wrote about NavSpark Mini a $6 GPS + Beidou module, that’s also available for “free” plus $10 shipping. However, if you don’t have an antenna, you’d also need to add a $9 antenna, bringing the total price to $19 for this low cost GPS solution. But there’s actually a cheaper alternative with Ublox NEO-6M GPS module, as it sells for $10 with a GPS antenna including shipping on either Aliexpress or eBay. Ublox NEO-6M based GPS module specifications: NEO-6M-0-001 module Storage – EEPROM for configuration data External interfaces – UART; default baudrate: 9600 bps Misc – RTC battery (MS621FE) Power Supply – 3 to 5V The battery may not always be included due to transport regulations, so you may have to purchase it separately and solder it yourself. The module is not exactly new, and has been around at least since 2013, so there’s also some documentation, […]

January 4, 2016January 20, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

NavSpark mini is a $6 Arduino Compatible GPS Board

One person asked me whether any of the low cost boards in my Raspberry Pi Zero vs CHIP vs Orange Pi One comparison post came with GPS, and the answer is not without some external hardware. The only low cost boards with GPS I could think of were LinkIt ONE and NavSpark. I wrote about the latter over 2 years ago when the board launched via a crowdfunding campaign, so I went to the update page to find out more about the current status, and found two updates made in the last 6 months, including one about Navspark mini, a tiny board with GPS support, removing the USB port and having fewer I/Os compared to its older brother. NavSpark mini specifications: MCU – Skytraq Venus828F 32bit LEON3 Sparc-V8 MCU @ 100MHz with IEEE-754 Compliant Floating Point Unit, 1024KB Flash Memory, and 212KB RAM GPS 167 channel Venus 8 engine Uses […]

December 21, 2015December 21, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

GigaDevice GD32 is a Faster, Software and Pin-to-pin STM32 Compatible Cortex M3 MCU

Las month, Olimex discovered a Chinese company called GigaDevice has made an STM32 clone called GD32 and compatible with STM32F103, but with higher core frequency (108MHz). Olimex has now posted an update after receiving a letter from GigaDevice, and trying GD32F103RBT6 MCU on their own STM32F103 boards. The company explained that GD32 was their own implementation, and claimed rights on GD32 trademarks, while Olimex discovered than GD32 was working just fine on their board having passed “all functional tests without any modifications”, and with all the same development tools and software code running fine. GD32F103xx datasheet (PDF / English version) can be downloaded to find a few more details: The GD32F103xx device incorporates the ARM Cortex-M3 32-bit processor core operating at 108 MHz frequency with Flash accesses zero wait states to obtain maximum efficiency. It provides up to 3 MB on-chip Flash memory and up to 96 KB SRAM memory. […]

December 12, 2015December 13, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

FTDI NerO is an Energy Efficient Arduino UNO Compatible Board That Can Handle Higher Loads (Crowdfunding)

FTDI found out that the original Arduino UNO R3 boards had issues handling higher loads with 9V and 12V power input being limited to about 800mA and 300mA respectively before the voltage of the 5V regulator drops, so they decided to make their own supporting up to 1A. NerO board specifications: MCU – Atmel ATMega328 MCU @ 16MHz with Optiboot bootloader I/Os 14 Digital I/O Pins including 6 PWM outputs 6 Analog Inputs USB – micro USB port for programming using FTDI FT231XS USB UART interface (4) Misc – Status and PWR LEDs, on/off switch Power Supply – 7V to 20V ( 9V or 12V recommended ) via power barrel or VIN pin. 5V switching regulator. Dimensions – UNO R3 form factor FCC/CE certified The board is manufactured in Europe by MikroElektronika, a company which I started the hear about more and more, especially since they’ve launched their mikroBUS standard […]

December 2, 2015December 3, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 32 Comments

LattePanda is a $79 Arduino Compatible Intel Atom x5 Board Running Windows 10 (Crowdfunding)

I feel like I’m living in another world after writing a title combining Arduino, Intel and Windows 10, but that’s exactly what LattePanda is promising with a development board featuring both an Intel Atom x5-Z8300 processor and an Atmel AVR MCU, and Windows 10 as the operating system. LattePanda board specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8300 “Cherry Trail” quad core processor @ 1.44 GHz (Burst frequency: 1.84 GHz) with Intel Gen8 HD graphics @ 500 MHz System Memory – 2 to 4 GB DDR3L Storage – 32 or 64 GB eMMC, micro SD slot MCU – Atmel Atmega32u4 micro-controller Video Output / Display – HDMI, and MIPID DSI connector Audio I/O – HDMI, 3.5mm audio port Connectivity – Ethernet, WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 1x USB 3.0 port, 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB port for power Serial – 1x from Intel SoC, 1x from Atmel MCU […]

December 1, 2015December 1, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Quick Start Guide for LinkIt Smart 7688 (Duo) Board

Mediatek Labs has announced LinkIt Smart 7688 development boards powered by Mediatek MT7688 WiSoC earlier today, but I was selected for a close beta several weeks before the launch, and I’ve had time to play a little with the boards, so today I’ll report my experience getting started with LinkIt Smart 7688 amd 7688 Duo by writing a Quick Start Guide showing how to setup the boards, upgrade firmware, access the serial console, run “Blink LED” sample applications with Python and JavaScript, as well as the Arduino IDE, and connect to the Internet. Initial Setup You’ll only need a micro USB cable and a computer with WiFi and USB ports to get started with the board. The green LED (top) for the MCU will turn on immediately, while the red LED (bottom) for WiFI will blink once, and only turn on continuously after 5 seconds, and within 30 seconds after […]

December 1, 2015November 7, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Mediatek LinkIt Smart 7688 and Smart 7688 DUO Boards Run OpenWRT for IoT Applications

MediaTek LinkIt is a collection of development platforms designed for the prototyping of wearables and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and last year they started with LinkIt ONE board based on Mediatek MT2501 “Aster” micro-controller and featuring WiFi, Bluetooth, GPSD and GSM/GPRS connectivity. Mediatek Labs has now launched two new LinkIt board, namely LinkIt Smart 7688 and LinkIt Smart 7688 DUO, both powered by Mediatek MT7688 MIPS processor and running OpenWRT, with the latter also adding an Atmel ATmega32U4 for Arduino compatibility. LinkIt Smart 7688 Board LinkIt Smart 7688 is then the simpler of the two with the following specifications: Processor – Mediatek MT7688AN MIPS24KEc processor @ 580 MHz with WiFi System Memory – 128MB DDR2 RAM. Storage – 32MB flash + micro SD slot Connectivity – 1T1R Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with chip antenna and I-PEX conector USB – 1x micro USB host port, 1x micro USB port for power […]

November 24, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

FleaFPGA Uno Board Combines a Lattice FPGA, Arduino UNO Form Factor, HDMI Output, and an ESP8266 WiFi Module

FPGA board with Arduino headers are not exactly a rarity, for example Digilent ARTY in a larger form factor, and some developers have designed FPGA boards using Arduino Mega form factor, such as Papilio DUO and Arduissimo. But FleaFPGA Uno is the first Arduino Uno like FPGA board I’ve seen and it includes HDMI output, one USB host port, as well as an optional WiFi module based on ESP8266. FleaFPGA Uno specifications: FPGA – Lattice Semi MachXO2-7000HC with 6864 LUTs, 256 Kbits flash, and 240+54 Kbits SRAM System memory – 512KB 10nsec User SRAM. Storage – 16MB User Flash ROM. Video Output 24-bit Digital Video out via HDMI port up to 800×600 Composite NTSC video via 3.5 mm jack Audio – Stereo audio out via 3.5mm jack. USB 1x micro USB port for power and slave serial port 1x USB 1.1 host port (PS/2 port) On-board USB JTAG for easy […]