battery News - Page 4 of 12 - CNX Software

March 6, 2023March 7, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Riotee batteryless stackable IoT board embeds an nRF52833 module (Crowdfunding)

Nessie Circuits’ Riotee board features a Riotee module based on Nordic nRF52833 WiSoC with a 2.4 GHz radio that targets batteryless IoT applications thanks to a stackable design taking a capacitors add-on board and a solar panel. Batteries introduce maintenance costs and environmental issues with millions of batteries disposed of every day. That’s why companies are trying to provide solutions for batteryless IoT designs such as the Everactive batteryless IoT devkit or Telink energy harvesting wireless module for remote controls. The Riotee module, board, and ecosystem also aim to play their part in reducing the use of batteries in wireless IoT devices. Riotee board specifications: Riotee module Wireless MCU – Nordic nRF52833 Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller @ 64 MHz with 512 kB flash, 128 kB RAM, 2.4 GHz radio Memory – 128 kB of non-volatile memory (MSP430FR5962 FRAM) for “automatic checkpointing of application state” Castellated holes with 11x GPIOs including two […]

February 26, 2023February 28, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

ePulse Feather ESP32 development board is optimized for low power consumption (in deep sleep)

Thingpulse ePulse Feather is an ESP32 development board following Adafruit’s Feather form factor and optimized for low power with 12 to 27 uA deep sleep power consumption. The board is based on the ESP32-WROVER with 8MB Flash and 8MB SPRAM and comes with a USB-C connector for charging the battery and programming through a CH9102F UART chip, as well as the I/Os headers provided by the Feather form factor. The board can be especially useful in battery-operated WiFi remote controls for home automation or other purposes that sleep most of the time until the user presses one of the buttons. ThingPulse ePulse Feather specifications: Wireless module – Espressif Systems ESP32-WROVER-E-N8R8 module with ESP32-D0WD-V3 or ESP32-D0WDR2-V3 dual-core microcontroller @ 240 MHz with 8MB QSPI flash, 8MB QSPI PSRAM USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power/charging and programming via CH9102F UART to TTL chip. Expansions – 12-pin + 16-pin headers with […]

January 28, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Arduino Nicla Voice enables always-on speech recognition with Syntiant NDP120 “Neural Decision Processor”

Arduino PRO Nicla Voice with LiPo battery

Nicla Voice is the latest board from the Arduino PRO family with support for always-on speech recognition thanks to the Syntiant NDP120 “Neural Decision Processor” with a neural network accelerator, a HiFi 3 audio DSP, and a Cortex-M0+ microcontroller core, and the board also includes a Nordic Semi nRF52832 MCU for Bluetooth LE connectivity. Arduino previously launched the Nicla Sense with Bosch SensorTech’s motion and environmental sensors, followed by the Nicla Vision for machine vision applications, and now the company is adding audio and voice support for TinyML and IoT applications with the Nicla Voice. Nicla Voice specifications: Microprocessor – Syntiant NDP120 Neural Decision Processor (NDP) with one Syntiant Core 2 ultra-low-power deep neural network inference engine, 1x HiFi 3 Audio DSP, 1x Arm Cortex-M0 core up to 48 MHz, 48KB SRAM Wireless MCU – Nordic Semiconductor nRF52832 Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller @ 64 MHz with 512KB Flash, 64KB RAM, Bluetooth […]

January 26, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

LILYGO T-QT Pro 0.85-inch WiFi IoT display adds support for battery charging

LILYGO T-QT Pro is an ESP32-S3 WiFi and BLE IoT board with a 0.85-inch color display, 4MB flash, 2MB PSRAM, a USB-C port, a few GPIOs, and support for LiPo battery with charging. It is an upgrade to the ESP32-S3-based LILYGO T-QT V1.1 board that also supports LiPo battery power but lacks a charging circuit, so you had to remove the battery and charge it manually each time. The T-QT Pro adds a charging circuit and switches from an ESP32-S3 with an 8MB flash design to one using ESP32-S3FN4R2 with 4MB flash and 2MB PSRAM. LilyGO T-QT Pro specifications: Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3FN4R2 dual-core Tensilica LX7 @ up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration, 512KB RAM, 4MB flash, 2MB PSRAM, wireless connectivity Connectivity via ESP32-S3 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi 4 with 40 MHz bandwidth support Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 5.0 connectivity with long-range support, […]

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 […]

November 14, 2022November 14, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

This is what a 100 µAh micro-battery looks like

Electronic components have shrunk a lot over the year, but batteries are usually one of the larger items in a design. ITEN changes that with solid state lithium-ion micro-batteries in the shape of SMD components with up to 100 µAh capacity. This is clearly not going to power your next smartphone, but ITEM micro-batteries could be found in ultra-low-power sensors potentially replacing non-rechargeable coin cell batteries with much higher capacities (e,g. 100 mAh). ITEN says their solid-state micro-batteries are superior to coin cell batteries because those are polluting, difficult to assemble on PCB, costly to recycle and require periodic maintenance once a battery is depleted. In addition, some low-power embedded systems still require high current pulses for instance to drive RF transceivers or actuators leading hardware engineers to rely on oversized coin cell batteries as those can only deliver small currents. The carbon footprint of such batteries is claimed to […]

October 28, 2022October 28, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

LOLIN C3 Pico is a tiny ESP32-C3 board with battery charging support

LOLIN C3 Pico is a tiny (25.4×25.4mm) ESP32-C3 RISC-V board with 2.4 GHz WiFi and Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity, a few I/Os, and LiPo battery support including charging circuitry. I tend to like Wemos/LOLIN boards, because of their small form factor, support for equally tiny shields, and low price. The LOLIN C3 Pico is no exception, and even adds a few features such as an RGB LED, an I2C connector, and support for battery power and charging. LOLIN C3 Pico specifications: SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-C3FH4 single-core 32-bit RISC-V (RV32IMC) microcontroller up to 160 MHz with 400 KB SRAM, 4MB Flash Connectivity – 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE (in SoC) Expansion headers 2x 8-pin headers with up to 12x GPIO, ADC, I2C, SPI, UART (3.3V I/O voltage) LOLIN I2C port USB – 1x Type-C USB for 5V power and programming Misc – Reset button and user button, […]

October 7, 2022October 7, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Olimex ESP32-C3-DevKit-Lipo is a tiny RISC-V board with WiFi 4, Bluetooth 5.0, and a LiPo battery charger

Olimex has just launched the ESP32-C3-DevKit-Lipo board based on ESP32-C3 RISC-V wireless microcontroller offering WiFI 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, some I/Os, as well as USB and JTAG. As its name implies, the board can be powered by a LiPo battery and charged through a USB Type-C port. It offers up to 15 GPIO for expansion and comes with an ICSP connector in case you need to reflash or debug the bootloader through a JTAG interface. ESP32-C3-DevKit-Lipo specifications: Wireless module – Espressif Systems ESP32-C3-MINI-1-N4 module with: ESP32-C3 (ESP32-C3FN4) 32-bit RISC-V single-core processor up to 160 MHz with 4 MB embedded flash, 384 KB ROM, 400 KB SRAM (16 KB for cache), 8 KB SRAM in RTC Connectivity – 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi 4 1T1R up to 150 Mbps & Bluetooth LE 5.0 with PCB antenna USB – 1x USB Type-C port for programming and JTAG debugging Expansion – 2x 9-pin […]