Espressif came to fame thanks to its low cost ESP8266 WiFi chip which was originally designed for connected lightbulbs, but soon got used in a variety of applications, and ESP8266 modules must now be the most popular solutions to add WiFi to IoT projects, as long as they are not battery powered. The company has recently announced they were working on a new chip, whose name as yet to be decided, that will support both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy. Details are sparse, but we do know the chip will come with 500KB RAM, support hardware SSL and possibly ECDH, deliver 500 DMIPS of performance, and consume 5 uA in deep sleep mode. The company asked for beta testers via their twitter account around 2 weeks ago, so I guess it’s a bit too late to apply. John Lee, working for Espressif, also said the new part should become available […]
Simblee Low Latency Bluetooth LE IoT Module Loads Its App to Your Smartphone on Demand
RF Digital launched RFDuino Bluetooth Low Energy board in 2013/2014, and the company has now developed Simblee module, whose name is derived from “Simple” and “BLE”, and offers low latency (3ms) and integrates a user application that’s automatically and temporary loaded to your smartphone or tablet upon connection. The module is also part of an add-on board (RFD77201) for RFDuino board. Simblee RFD77101 module specifications: MCU – ARM Cortex M0 micr-controller (Nordic nRF51822???) Memory/Storage – 24KB RAM and 128KB flash for user application Bluetooth Smart / LE Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Stack Simblee interference immunity 3ms latency (for connection); 10us accuracy (jitter) -93dBm receiver sensitivity -55dBm to +4dBm TX power Physical range adjustable from a few inches to hundreds of feet Integrated antenna, integrated shield I/Os 29 GPIOs (flexible pin configuration) 6x ADC inputs 4x PWM outputs 2x SPI master/slave, 2x I2C, 1 x UART Security – Built in AES […]
$55 UWatch UX Strapless Heart Rate Monitor Watch Syncs with iOS and Android Devices
Last time I checked about heart rate monitor, they required a chest strap to monitor ones heart rate, which I found cumbersome. It’s been while though, and I’ve now been informed that a low cost Bluetooth strapless heart rate monitor watch was available for $59.99 on GeekBuying. This type of product should provide a much more accurate evaluation of your daily calories burn rate than typical fitness bands based on an accelerometer and gyro sensor, but I’m not quite sure how they compare to the old models with a chest strap. Uwatch UX specifications and features: SoC – Mediatek Aster MT2501 ARM7 processor @ 108 MHz (A lower end version of MT2502 used in LinkIt One Devkit) System Memory – 32MB RAM Storage – 24MB NOR flash Heart rate monitor – Built-in photoelectric heart rate sensor Other sensors – magnetometer, 3-axis gravity and acceleration sensor Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.0 and […]
NanoPi is a $16 WiFi and Bluetooth LE Linux Development Board
NanoPi is a new Linux development board powered by Samsung S3C2451 ARM9 processor with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE connectivity, connectors for a camera and an LCD display, as well as two expansion headers including a 40-pin “Raspberry Pi compatible” header. NanoPi specifications: Processor – Samsung S3C2451 ARM9 @ 400Mhz System Memory – 64M DDR2 Storage – micro SD slot Connectivity – AP6210 module for 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 1x USB 1.1 host port, 1x micro USB OTG port for power and data (serial or Ethernet) Display I/F – LCD Interface: 0.5mm pitch SMT FPC seat, support full-color LCD (RGB: 8-8-8) Camera I/F – DVP Camera Interface: 0.5mm pitch FPC connector, including ITU-R BT 601/656 8-bit, I2C and GPIOs Debugging – Serial Port Expansion Headers “GPIO1” – 40-pin header including UART, SPI, I2C, GPIO pins (Raspberry Pi compatible) “GPIO2” – 12-pin header including I2S, I2C, UART pins Power – […]
CHIP is a $9 Linux Development Board Powered by Allwinner R8 (Crowdfunding)
It’s quite common to find MCU board for less than $10, but if you want to run Linux, you’ll need to spend a bit more, unlessit’s sponsored, and today, the cheapest you can get is probably the $20 Raspberry Pi Model A+, unless you go with some OpenWRT compatible routers. But there’s now a new board in development, called CHIP, with Allwinner R8 Cortex A8 processor, 512MB RAM, and 4GB NAND flash, as well as wireless connectivity, that will bring cost even lower, as you can pledge $9 on Kickstarter to fund its development. C.H.I.P specifications: SoC – Allwinner R8 Cortex A8 processor @ 1 GHz with Mali-400 GPU (Compatible with Allwinner A13) System Memory – 512 MB RAM Storage – 4GB NAND flash Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.0 Video Output – 3.5mm jack for composite video and audio (HDMI and VGA available via adapters) USB – […]
Wintel W8 Review – Dual Boot Android & Windows TV Box
Wintel W8 (aka Kingnovel K8) is an Intel Atom Z3735F mini PC inspired from Sunchip Wintel CX-W8 (the hardware is a little different), but instead of just running Windows 8.1, the device can dual boot Android 4.4 and Windows 8.1 with Bing. I’ve already taken pictures or torn down Wintel W8, so today, I’ll focus on the software part of the review, first checking dual boot functionality and Windows 8.1 briefly since it should be very similar to MeLE PCG03, before spending more time on Android as it’s my first Android Intel platform. Dual boot in Wintel W8 When you boot the device, you can select Android or Windows icon, with a 10 second timeout that will boot your latest choice. There’s no menu within Windows to start Android, and vice versa, so to dual boot you need to reboot first, and select the operating systems right after UEFI. The […]
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) […]
Mediatek LinkIt Assist 2502 Open Source Hardware Board Targets Wearables and IoT Applications
After LinkIt ONE, Mediatek Labs has introduced a new IoT development kit based on their Aster M2502 ARM7 processor with LinkIt Assist 2502 comprised of AcSiP MT2502A IoT SiP Core module, a 802.11b/g/n module, a GNSS module, and an exchangeable 240×240 16-bit color capacitive touch LCM Board. The AcSiP module can also be purchased separately, so you could use LinkIt Assist 2502 board for early development, because moving to your custom hardware based on AcSiP MT2502A module. LinkIt Assist 2502A specifications: MCU – AcSiP AI2502S05 module with MT2502A (Aster) ARM7 EJ-STM processor @ 260MHz, 4MB RAM, 16MB flash Display – 240×240 LCD module; 16-bit color depth; transflective; based on ST7789S driver IC. Connectivity Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n via AcSiP CW01S module based on MT5931 SoC Bluetooth 2.1 SPP and 4.0 GATT dual mode (part of MT2502A) GPS via AcSiP CW03S module based on MT3332 chip supporting GPS, GLONASS, and BeiDou. GSM […]