bluetooth News - Page 47 of 65 - CNX Software

July 6, 2016July 6, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Nordic Semiconductor nRF52832 Cortex-M4 ANT & Bluetooth LE SoC Gets Even Tinier

Nordic Semiconductor nRF52832 is a Bluetooth 4.2 LE SoC based on an ARM Cortex-M4F core that was first released about a year ago in a QFN48 package targeting IoT and Wearables. But if your application is really tight on space and the 6x6mm package is just too big, the company has just introduced a 3.0×3.2mm WL-CSP (Wafer Level Chip Scale Package ) package for nRF52832 decreasing the area to about one quarter of the QFN package The specifications are exactly the same as the QFN, but let’s see what we’ve got in that 9.6mm2 package: MCU Core – ARM Cortex-M4F @ 64 MHz with DSP & FPU, 512kB Flash and 64kB RAM 2.4 GHz radio for ANT, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, and Gazell connectivity; 5.5mA peak RX/TX currents; on-chip RF Balun On-chip NFC tag Peripherals – 3x Master/Slave SPI, 2x Two-wire interface (I²C), UART (RTS/CTS), 3x PWM, Digital microphone interface (PDM) Security […]

June 28, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Raspberry Pi Zero Based Google’s Project Bloks Aims to Teach Programming to Young Children

Visual programming development tools such as Scratch or Blockly are now becoming more popular to introduce school children to programming, and Google Research is now working on bringing the software visual programming concept to physical blocks “programming” though Project Bloks targeting younger children who may not be able to write or read yet. It might also help older children grasping programming concepts faster than when programming by typing on a keyboard. Project Bloks is comprised of three main hardware components connected together: Pucks – Those are the buttons, dials, switches, and other inputs from the project. Pucks have no active electronics, and even a piece of paper with some conductive ink could be a Puck. Base Boards – They read a Puck’s instruction through a capacitive sensor, and forward a Puck’s command to the Brain Board. Each Base Board is also fitted with a haptic motor & LEDs, and can […]

June 27, 2016July 5, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Review of Xiaomi Mi Band 2 Activity Tracker

I’ve been using Xiaomi Mi Band 2 for a little over two weeks now, so I’m not ready to report my findings, and the results are mixed. If you are interesting in checking out the accessories, and physical aspect of the watch, feel free to read Xiaomi Mi Band 2 unboxing post first. Since the new model adds an OLED display, let’s first see what options it has to offer. The display is off by default, and pressing the capacitive touch button (please note that it’s not a real physical button, so it won’t work with most gloves for example) will turn on the display for 5 seconds. You can keep pressing to go through time, step count, distance, calories burnt, heart rate monitor, and battery level. Except for time, there’s a icon shown before display the actual value. If you find that the display does not look clear, that’s […]

June 22, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Get an Early ESP32 Board by Contributing to Luanode for ESP8266 & ESP32 Project (Crowdfunding)

Development boards and module based on Espressif ESP32 dual core processor with WiFi and Bluetooth LE connectivity are due for Q3 or Q4 2016, but you could get an early sample as early as July if you contribute to Jimmy Wu’s (of wifimcu.com) crowdfunding campaign to develop Luanode (Lua SDK) for ESP8266 and ESP32 processors, as ESP32 boards are part of the rewards. Luanode is a Lua SDK for ESP32 and ESP8266 that supports multi-tasking through FreeRTOS, and includes support for peripherals. The source code and documentation can be already be found on Github, and the main differences against something like NodeMCU appear to be multi-tasking and (for now) ESP32 support. Interestingly the SDK contains a tools called WiFi-Killer uses for Denial of Service (DoS) attacks using ESP8266 or ESP32 modules… One hardware project is called WiFi tank comprised of one T300 Tank Chassis, ESP8266 Development Kit, 720p HD Camera, […]

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

EBox T8-4 TV Box and Ipega Bluetooth Game Controller Unboxing and Teardown

Entertainmentbox.com is a UK based shop specializing in TV box, and the company sent me their latest Amlogic S905 TV Box running Android 5.1 with EBMC based on Kodi 16.1, featuring an internal 2.5″ SATA bay, as well as an interesting and different design. I’ll write a two part review as usual, starting with specifications, and photos of the device, accessories, and internals, before actually testing the device in the second part of the review in a few weeks. EBox T8-4 specifications The TV box, also called Ebox T8 V4, has the following specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905 quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750 MHz System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC 5.0 flash + SD card slot + internal 2.5″ SATA bay for HDD or SSD Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60 Hz with HDMI […]

June 15, 2016June 15, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Apache Mynewt RTOS for IoT Includes an Open Source Bluetooth 4.2 LE Stack for MCUs

The Apache Software Foundation has recently released version 0.9 Apache Mynewt open source real-time operating systems for micro-controllers under… an Apache 2.0 license. The RTOS works on STMicro STM32 Cortex-M4, and Arduino Zero / M0 Cortex-M0 boards, but they’ve also implemented the first open source Bluetooth Low Energy stack for MCUs, starting with support for Nordic Semi nRF52 Cortex-M4 and nRF51 Cortex-M1 evaluation boards, and acting as a replacement for Nordic SoftDevice Bluetooth Smart / LE solution. The operating system competes with ARM mbed, the Zephyr Project, and RIoT, but the foundation claims it is the only one that’s both community driven and permissively licensed (Apache 2.0) project in the embedded space. The OS is modular and can be configured with a Go-like build and package management tool with components such as secure boot loader, flash file system and TLV storage mechanism, rich logging infrastructure, circular buffering schemes, and Bluetooth […]

June 10, 2016August 9, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Bluetooth 5 Promises Four times the Range, Twice the Speed of Bluetooth 4.0 LE Transmissions

The Bluetooth SIG is about to officially unveil Bluetooth 5 on June 16 during a media event in London. One change on the marketing side is that they dropped the point number, so it won’t be called Bluetooth 5.0 like in Bluetooth 4.0, but just Bluetooth 5. The decision has been made allegedly to “simplifying marketing, and communicating user benefits more effectively”. On the technical side, Bluetooth 5 will double the speed and quadruple the range of low energy Bluetooth transmissions compared to Bluetooth 4.x, which could be important for IoT applications where nodes are connected throughout the house. Bluetooth 5 will also allow connectionless services to add location-relevant information and navigation. The specifications have not been publicly released yet, and made they will be on June 16. Eventually, you’ll be able to download them on Bluetooth “adopted specifications” page. Via XDA developers Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in […]

June 2, 2016June 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Xiaomi Mi Band 2 Fitness Tracker Adds an OLED Display, Promises 20-day Battery Life

I’m not a big fan of fitness trackers without display that require you to monitor your daily progress on your smartphone, and that’s probably why when Xiaomi released their first fitness band I was not quite as interested, but now the Chinese company has released Mi Band 2 with an OLED display, an heart rate monitor, IP67 ingress protection rating, and a 20-day of battery life for just 149 RMB ($23). Mi Band 2 key features: Fitness, heart rate and sleep tracker OLED display, view time, step count, heart rate 20-day battery, IP67 water resistant ADI accelerometer and optical heart rate sensor Anodized 0.05mm ultra-thin button Upgraded pedometer algorithm Hypoallergenic silicone band 2nd gen Bluetooth 4.0 for faster, stable connections It’s still good to be able to gather your fitness data over time, and you can do so with Mi Fit app for Android or iOS. The downside with an […]