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April 21, 2025April 21, 2025 by Debashis Das - 1 Comment

Raspberry Pi Pico-sized RP2350 CAN development board features a clone of the MCP2515 CAN Bus controller

Waveshare has recently launched RP2350-CAN, a Raspberry Pi RP2350-powered CAN development board with onboard XL2515 CAN Bus controller and a SIT65HVD230 CAN transceiver. The board supports the CAN V2.0B protocol at up to 1 Mbps, and the XL2515 chip appears to be a clone of the popular Microchip MCP2515 CAN controller. The board includes the same 26 multi-function GPIO pins and USB-C port as found on the Raspberry Pi Pico 2. Other features include a DC-DC buck-boost converter (MP28164), BOOT and RESET buttons, a user LED, a selectable 120Ω CAN termination resistor, and CAN screw terminals. The CAN Bus board targets automotive, industrial control, and robotics applications. Waveshare RP2350 CAN specifications: SoC – Raspberry Pi RP2350A CPU Dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 @ 150 MHz with Arm Trustzone, Secure boot OR Dual-core RISC-V Hazard3 @ 150 MHz Up to two cores can be used in any combination Memory – 520 KB on-chip SRAM […]

April 15, 2025April 15, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Xero MCU is a compact USB-C board based on STM32F411 microcontroller (Crowdfunding)

Xero MCU is a small STMicro STM32F411 Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller board with a USB-C port, twenty through and castellated holes for GPIOs, a Debug connector, Reset and Boot buttons, and a few LEDs. The 100 MHz MCU embeds 512KB flash and 128KB SRAM, and the board is said to be designed for hobbyists, students, and professionals. For reference, the Xero MCU board features the same STM32F411CEU6 microcontroller found in the Black Bill board. However, it’s quite shorter at about half the size, and features castellated edges, making it suitable for soldering on a baseboard. Xero MCU specifications: Microcontroller – STMicro STM32F411CEU6 Arm Cortex-M4F MCU @ 100MHz with 512KB Flash, 128KB SRAM USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and programming Expansion – 2x 20-pin through and castelled holes with up to 17x GPIO, I2C, 2x SPI, 2x UART, 4x ADC, 5V, 3.3V, and GND Debugging – 4-pin debug connector […]

April 14, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Pimoroni Presto – A Raspberry Pi RP2350-powered 4-inch wireless desktop touch display

Pimoroni Presto is a 4-inch desktop color touch display powered by a Raspberry Pi RP2350 microcontroller, and equipped with a Raspberry Pi RM2 wireless module for WiFi 4 and Bluetooth connectivity. The display comes with 16MB of SQPI flash and 8MB of PSRAM, seven RGB LEDs for ambient lighting, a microSD card slot, a piezo speaker, a Qwiic/STEMMA QT connector for expansion, a USB-C port for power and programming, and a 2-pin JST connector for an optional battery. Pimoroni Presto specifications: Microcontroller – Raspberry Pi RP2350B MCU CPU Dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 @150MHz with Arm Trustzone Dual-core 32-bit Hazard3 RISC-V @ 150MHz Up to two cores can be used at the same time Memory – 520KB SRAM Package – QFN-80; 10×10 mm Memory – 8MB PSRAM Storage 16MB QSPI flash MicroSD card slot Display – 4-inch square IPS LCD screen with 480 x 480 resolution, capacitive touchscreen Wireless – Raspberry Pi […]

April 9, 2025April 9, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

IOL HAT adds an IO-Link compatible master to Raspberry Pi for industrial IoT sensors and actuators

Pinetek Networks’ IOL HAT is a Raspberry Pi expansion board using the IO-Link (IEC 61131-9) protocol to interact with industrial sensors. It’s based on the Analog Devices MAX14819 IO-Link master transceiver and offers two SDCI (“Single-Drop Digital Communication”) connectors. While work on the IO-Link communication protocol started in 2006, and the IEC 61131-9 “Single-drop digital communication interface (SDCI) for small sensors and actuators” standard was adopted in 2013, it only recently came onto our radar with products like the STMicro EVLIOL4LSV1 IO-Link actuator board and Renesas CCE4511 IO-Link master and ZSSC3286 IO-Link sensor signal conditioner. The IOL HAT brings the IO-Link standard for industrial IoT communication to the Raspberry Pi. IOL HAT specifications: IO-Link chip – Analog Devices MAX14819 dual IO-Link master transceiver with integrated framers and L+ supply controllers 2x SDCI ports for IEC 61131-9 (IO-Link) sensors and actuators Host connection (one or the other) PT-1201 model – 40-pin […]

April 4, 2025April 4, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

ESP32-P4 credit card-sized board features Ethernet, WiFi 6, four USB ports, 40-pin GPIO header, MIPI DSI and CSI connectors

Waveshare ESP32-P4-Module-DEV-KIT credit card-sized board may look like a Linux-powered Raspberry Pi SBC, but instead, it’s based on an “ESP32-P4-Module” comprised of a 400 MHz Espressif ESP32-P4 RISC-V general-purpose microcontroller, an ESP32-C6 “co-processor” for WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5, and a 16MB SPI NOR flash. Designed for HMI applications, the board offers MIPI DSI and CSI connectors, as well as a 100Mbps Ethernet RJ45 jack, four USB 2.0 ports, a 40-pin GPIO header, and more. It basically integrates the same ports as a Raspberry Pi SBC minus HDMI, but relies on a microcontroller instead of a Linux-capable application processor. Waveshare ESP32-P4-Module-DEV-KIT specifications: ESP32-P4-Module Microcontroller – ESP32-P4NRW32 MCU Dual-core RISC-V microcontroller @ 400 MHz with AI instructions extension and single-precision FPU Single-RISC-V LP (Low-power) MCU core @ up to 40 MHz GPU – 2D Pixel Processing Accelerator (PPA) VPU – H.264 and JPEG codecs support Memory – 768 KB HP L2MEM, […]

March 12, 2025March 12, 2025 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Geehy G32R501 dual-core Cortex-M52 industrial AI MCU targets industrial and automotive applications

Geehy G32R501 Arm Cortex M52 Real Time MCU

Geehy Semiconductor has introduced the G32R501 Cortex-M52 industrial AI MCU, the industry’s first real-time MCU based on a dual-core Arm Cortex-M52 architecture. Designed for industrial automation, commercial power supplies, and electric vehicles. Back in 2023, we talked about the features and specifications of the Arm Cortex-M52 core, but now Geehy has introduced the G32R501 MCU with AI and DSP capabilities designed for low-cost IoT applications. This MCU features single and double-precision FPUs, an Arm Helium DSP extension, and Geehy’s Zidian Math Instruction Extension for AI/ML tasks and signal processing. It includes 640 KB Flash, 128 KB SRAM, TCM (Tightly Coupled Memory), and a six-channel DMA module for efficient data handling. The MCU also features three 12-bit ADCs (3.45 MSPS), seven 12-bit DAC comparators, and Σ-Δ filter modules to improve signal accuracy, making it ideal for motor control and real-time monitoring. With 16 high-resolution PWM channels (150-ps resolution), quadrature encoder modules, […]

February 28, 2025March 8, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

ESP32-S3 infrared thermal imaging camera module offers 80×62 resolution, 45° and 90° wide angle versions

Waveshare has launched an ESP32-S3-based thermal imaging camera module based on the same 80 x 62 infrared camera found in its Thermal-45/90 camera Raspberry Pi HAT and Thermal-45/90 USB camera. The thermal camera module is offered with two field of views, namely 45° for the basic version and 90° for the wide angle variant, twenty solder pads with GPIOs, UART, and I2C for expansion, a USB-C port for power and programming, and a 2-pin header to connect a battery if required. Waveshare “ESP32-S3 IR thermal imaging camera module” specifications: Wireless Module ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 MCU – ESP32-S3 dual-core Tensilica LX7 up to 240 MHz with 512KB SRAM, up to 8MB PSRAM Storage – 16MB flash Wireless – WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE 5 Thermal Camera – Meridian Innovation MI0802 Resolution – 80 × 62 Field of View (FOV) 56°(D) x 45°(H) x 34°(V) (Baisc version) 122°(D) x 90°(H) x 67°(V) (Wide angle […]

February 20, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Raspberry Pi Pico SDK 2.1.1 release adds 200MHz clock option for RP2040, various Waveshare boards, new code samples

The Raspberry Pi Pico SDK 2.1.1 has just been released with official 200 MHz clock support for the Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU, several new boards mostly from Waveshare, but also one from Sparkfun, as well as new code samples, and other small changes. Raspberry Pi RP2040 gets official 200 MHz clock support When the Raspberry Pi RP2040 was first released along with Raspberry Pi Pico in 2021, we were told the default frequency was 48 MHz, but the microcontroller could also run up to 133 MHz. Eventually, I think the Cortex-M0+ cores were clocked at 125 MHz by default, although some projects (e.g. PicoDVI) would boost the frequency up to 252 MHz. Frequencies higher than 133 Mhz were not officially supported so far, but the Pico SDK 2.1.1 changes that since the Raspberry Pi RP2040 has now been certified to run at a system clock of 200MHz when using a […]