Gesto is a Wearable Gesture Motion Solution for Makers (Crowdfunding)

A while ago I wrote about an open source prosthetic arm controlled by signals generated by your arm’s muscles. It used an Arduino board, a bio-feedback shield by Olimex, and inMoov Hand for the arm and hand. It worked, but lacked accuracy. Gesto is a solution based on boards powered by Atmel MCUs that looks somewhat similar, but with higher accuracy (over 100 gestures have been tested), and the project has now been launched on Crowdsupply. Two kits are available: Gesto Stella EMG circuit – ADS1294 MCU – Atmel ATmega1284p 2x EMG cables connector Through holes with GND, PWR, MOSI, MISO, CLK and SC Dimensions – 35 x 20 mm Includes 16 disposable electrodes and relevant cables Gesto Caelum EMG circuit – ADS1294 MCU – Atmel ATmega1284p Sensors – 3-axis accelerometer (MMA8652FC) Connectivity – Bluetooth (RN42-HID) 2x EMG cables connector USB – Micro USB connector Programming – ICSP connector Power […]

IoT Wi-Fi Modules Comparison Table – ESP8266 vs CC3000 vs RN131 vs HDG204

We now have several options to add WiFi to IoT / embedded projects at relatively low cost, and ESP8266 based solutions clearly wins on costs, but are there some advantages to other higher priced modules? To help us find out, Mike Barela has put up a comparison table with some Wi-FI modules based on Espressif ESP8266, Texas Instruments CC3000, Microchip RN131, and H&D Wireless HDG204 processors. Note 1 – Also comes in Arduino Shield size with SD card slot for $39.95 Note 2 & 3 – Adafruit and Sparkfun sell tested units with AT Firmware for $6.95. lower prices are available on eBay, but quality may vary. Note 4 – Currents are probably somewhat higher than stock ESP-12 due to onboard LED and regulator. The comparison is not exhaustive, but it still appears to show ESP8266 solutions support most features than pricer competing modules. There are however case where competing […]

Samsung Artik is a Family of Arduino Compatible Boards for IoT Applications

There was a time when development boards were only reserved to companies, then boards like Arduino or Beagleboard made these available and affordable to consumers, and with the introduction of the Raspberry Pi, the maker movement grew even more rapidly, and many low cost boards started to be designed and manufactured mostly my smallest companies. But now larger companies like Intel or Qualcomm have jumped on the makers’ bandwagon, and the latest entry is Samsung with their Artik platform currently comprised of three boards that are programmable with the Arduino IDE. Let’s go through specifications for the three boards: Artik 1 SoC – Dual Core MIPS32 processor @ 250MHz (microAptiv UP) and 80MHz (microAptiv UC) without GPU Memory – 1MB RAM on-chip Storage – 4MB SPI flash Display – Up to WVGA (800×480) Connectivity – Bluetooth Low Energy with chip antenna Security – Secure element Sensor – 9-axis motion sensor […]

Seeed Studio Introduces Automation and Wearable Kits for Intel Edison

Intel Edison is a $50 module with a dual core Atom processor @ 500Mhz and a single core Quark MCU @ 100 Mhz, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0, as well as headers for I/Os that’s destined to be used in wearables and IoT applications. Seeed Studio has now launched two kits for the Intel module for home automation and wearables. Grove Indoor Environment Kit for Intel Edison The automation kit comes in a small blue box with the following parts (Intel Edison and baseboard not included): 1x base shield v2 that plugs into Edison baseboard and allows Grove modules connections 11 grove modules –  temperature & humidity, LCD RGB backlight, relay, moisture sensor, servo, light sensor, buzzer, UV sensor, PIR motion sensor, encoder and button. 2x 26 AWG Grove Cables 9V to barrel jack adapter 1x USB cables 1x User guide Programming is done with Edison Arduino IDE as explained in […]

$10 Digistump Oak ESP8266EX Board is Arduino Compatible, Connects to the Cloud, and More (Crowdfunding)

A few years ago, I wondered why adding Wi-Fi to Arduino had to be rather expensive ($40+), and why there weren’t any low cost and small form factor Wi-Fi boards for embedded applications. But we’re now in 2015, embedded is “dead” giving rise to IoT, and I’m left wondering how it’s possible to make IoT Wi-Fi modules that cheap, and whether people will ever stop churning out cheap Wi-Fi boards, as I’m flooded with such news weekly… So when I saw yet another ESP8266 board on Kickstarter I was about to dismiss it, but since it was made by Digistump, that has an active community with their other products like DigiSpark Pro or DigiX, I decided to have a closer look. Digistump Oak hardware specifications: MCU – Espressif ESP8266EX 32-bit microprocessor @ 80MHz (overclockable up to 160MHz)  with 1MB ROM (~300KB available for user code), 64KB RAM, 512 bytes EEPROM […]

Nextion 2.4″ and 4.3″ UART TFT Displays Come with a Drag and Drop UI Editor (Crowdfunding)

You may want or need to add a small TFT display to control your devices, and it may not always be easy to interface with the hardware, and desiging the user interface may be time consuming. ITEAD Studio latest project, Nextion TFT HMI touchscreen displays, aims to simplify connection with a simple UART interface, and make UI design easier with their Nextion Editor that allows developers to create a user interface without coding. Two models are available: Nextion-2.4″ 2.4″ display with 320×240 resolution Refresh rate: 80 ms 4MB flash 4-pin UART interface Micro-SD card slot, GPU, resistive touch sensor. Dimensions – Board: 74.43 x 42.85 x 3.32 mm; display: 60.78 x 42.62 mm Power Consumption – Sleep: 20 mA; active: 90 mA Nextion-4.3″ 4.3″ display with 480×272 resolution Refresh rate: 20 ms 16MB flash 6-pin UART interface Micro SD card slot, GPU, RGB driver, RGB buffer, resistive touch sensor Dimensions […]

UDOO Neo Combines Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Sensors into a Single $49 Board (Crowdfunding)

UDOO Neo was unveiled last February as the first hobbyist board features Freecale i.MX6 Solox Cortex A9 + Cortex M4 processor. I was expecting UDOO to design support board since their earlier UDOO board combined Freescale i.MX6 processor with an Atmel MCU, and the new processor allowed for integrating the same functionality into a single chip. The board is now on Kickstarter where you can pick UDOO Neo Basic for $49 (Early bird is $35), or UDOO Neo for $59 (Early bird was $45) adding an Ethernet port, some sensors, and 1GB RAM, instead of 512 MB for the Basic version. But both versions of the board basically share the same specifications: SoC – Freescale i.MX 6SoloX ARM Cortex-A9 core @ 1GHz with 2D/3D GPU and ARM Cortex-M4 Core @ 166 MHz System Memory – 512MB (Basic) or 1GB DDR3 Storage – micro SD slot, 8-bit SDIO interface (on expansion headers) […]

Domino Core Wi-Fi Module Powers an Arduino Yun Compatible Board (Crowdfunding)

The makers of GL.iNet OpenWRT compatible router have decided to build a module and two development boards based on Qualcomm Atheros AR9331 WiSoC. Domino.IO is composed of a Domino Core Wi-Fi module that can be used in your own project, but if also part of Domino Pi, a breadboard-friendly board featuring the module, and Domino Qi mini, a similar board with an Atmel ATMEga32U MCU making it compatible with Arduino Yun board. Domino Core specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Atheros AR9331 MIPS processor @ 400MHz with System Memory – 64MB DDR3 Storage – 16MB flash Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi with u.FL connector I/Os via half through holes – USB 2.0 host/slave, 3x Ethernet, 29 IOs including UART, SPI, I2S, SLIC, etc… Dimensions – 41 x 25 x 3.8 mm Domino Pi and Qi mini summarized specifications are shown in the table below. Domino Pi Domino Qi Mini Wi-Fi Module Domino […]

EDATEC Raspberry Pi 5 fanless case