SiFive Introduces HiFive Unleashed RISC-V Linux Development Board (Crowdfunding)

RISC-V free and open architecture has gained traction in the last couple of years. SiFive has been one of the most active companies with RISC-V architecture, introducing Freedom U500 and E500 open source RISC-V SoCs in the summer of 2016, before launching their own HiFive1 Arduino compatible board, and later the official Arduino Cinque board. That’s fine if you are happy with MCU class boards, but RISC-V is getting into more powerful processors, and recently got initial support o Linux 4.15, so it should come as no surprise the company has now launched HiFive Unleashed, the first RISC-V-based, Linux-capable development board. HiFive Unleashed key features and specifications: SoC – SiFive Freedom U540 with 4x U54 RV64GC application cores @ up to 1.5GHz with Sv39 virtual memory support, 1x E51 RV64IMAC Management Core, 2 MB L2 cache;  28 nm TSMC process System Memory – 8GB DDR4 with ECC Storage –  32MB […]

Tomu Arm Board Fits into a USB Connector, Adds Buttons, Two Factor Authentication to Your Computer (Crowdfunding)

We’ve covered many boards that claim to be the world’s smallest development board, and Tomu board does not claim anything like that, but it’s pretty small, as it’s made to fit into your computer’s USB board. It may be cool, but it could also potentially be useful, as the board exposes two (capacitive touch?) buttons, and two LEDs so you can use it as a computer accessory for example to add volume buttons, or as a Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) token supporting two-factor authentication (2FA) to login to compatible online services. Tomu board hardware specifications: MCU – Silicon Labs Happy Gecko EFM32HG309 ARM Cortex-M0+ up to 25 MHz with 64KB flash, 8KB RAM USB – 1x USB 2.0 FS port Misc – 2x buttons, 2x LEDs: 2 (red + green) Dimensions – 1.4mm thick (0.6mm thick PCB) Singapore based Sutajio Ko-usagi – the company behind the project – provides the […]

ALio Proto Board Supports Through Hole, DIP, and SMD Components (Crowdfunding)

Perfboards and  stripboards are very useful to design your own simple electronic boards without having to design your own board from scratch. However, you have to select through hole or DIP components, as – while possible with some efforts – such boards are not designed for SMD components. AERD, an open source electronic development startup based in Indonesia, has designed ALio prototyping boards supporting both through hole and SMD components, as well as some common connectors/accessories such as micro SD card, USB connector, and so on. Three versions of the board (basic, embedded, Arduino) are available with the following specifications & features: Fits SMD and PTH components at the same time. Double layer bus (top and bottom) Other components/headers All versions – 1.1 mm pitch pad for micro SD/SD card breakout Embedded & Arduino only – mini & micro USB pads, 1x SPI breakout Arduino only – Arduino header, one […]

Anavi Light pHAT Adds RGB Light Strip Support to Raspberry Pi Boards (Crowdfunding)

He works as a software engineer for his main job, but Leon ANAVI is apparently enjoying his hobby of designing open source hardware, as after RabbitMax Flex home automation HAT, and ANAVI Infrared pHAT with IR transmitter and receiver, he has come up with as third project: Anavi Light pHat, an add-on board for Raspberry Pi 3/Zero (W) that adds support for RGB light strips. Light pHAT specifications: Compatible with 40-pin Raspberry Pi header EEPROM with board manufacturer information and a device tree fragment Terminal block for a 12V RGB LED strip 3x 4-pin I2C headers for sensor modules 1x 3-pin header for PIR motion sensor 1x 4-pin UART header for debugging Dimensions – pHAT form factor You first need to connect the pHAT to your board, and then LED strip, and you can then control the lights using Home Assistant open source home automation platform, with the strip integrated […]

Pi/104 Carrier Board for Raspberry Pi Compute Modules (Partially) Complies with PC/104 OneBank Specs (Crowdfunding)

The PC/104 consortium maintains various standards for embedded computer defining both the buses to use and form factors. PC/104 SBCs/boards are mainly used in rugged industrial computers, and stackable through ISA and PCIe buses. The standards were mostly designed for x86 processors, but in Q1 2015, the consortium added the OneBank option to PCI/104-Express & PCIe/104 Specification, Revision 3.0 in order to enable lower cost solutions and processors with PCIe and USB interfaces. This brought some lower powered Intel and ARM+FPGA based PC/104 compliant boards to the market such as Winsystems PX1-C415 based on Intel Apollo Lake E3900 SoC, or Sundance EMC²-Z7030 powered by Xilinx Zynq-7030 ARM+FPGA SoC. Adam Parker (Parker Microsystems) has decided to bring the PC/104 OneBank industrial standard to the Raspberry Pi world, by creating Pi/104 a carrier board for the RPi compute modules that (mostly) complies with PC/104 OneBank for factor, and exposes the required USB […]

GNUBee Personal Cloud 2 is a DIY NAS Supporting up to Six 3.5″ SATA Drives (Crowdfunding)

GNUBee Personal Cloud 1 is a DIY NAS powered by Mediatek MT7621A MIPS processor that supports up to 2.5″ SATA drives, and runs free and open source software. It was first introduced in March of this year through a CrowdSupply campaign. The developers are now back with GNUBee Personal Cloud 2 (GB-PC2) with pretty much the same features, but instead of being designed for 2.5″ drives, it supports up to six 3.5″ drive that should offer either more capacity, or a lower total price for an equivalent capacity. GB-PC2 NAS specifications: Processor – MediaTek MT7621A dual core, quad thread MIPS processor @ 880 MHz, overclockable to 1.2 GHz System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 (max supported by MT7621) Storage – SD card slot tested up to 64 GB, 6x 3.5” SATA HDD or SSD (recommended RAID 0 or 1 under LVM, MD, or Linux MD RAID 10) Connectivity – 3x […]

HeartyPatch is an Open Source Wireless ECG Patch Powered by ESP32 WiSoC (Crowdfunding)

Smart health gadgets will soon have a bigger part to play in our lives, especially for health monitoring. It mainly started with fitness trackers, but now we are starting to see connected devices such as blood pressure monitors, including the upcoming watch like Omron HeartVue, thermometer, scales, vital sign monitoring systems, certified medical SBC‘s to allow engineers to developer their own medical applications, and even open source surgical robots. HeartPatch is one of those medical board that specifically aims at measuring ECG data, and sent it over Bluetooth or WiFi thanks to Espressif ESP32 WiSoC. HeartPatch specifications: SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32 dual core Tensilica LX6 processor with Wi-Fi/Bluetooth ECG Chip – Maxim MAX30003 analog front-end USB – 1x micro USB connector for programming, data, power, and battery charging Debugging – USB-UART bridge based on CP2104 Misc – Onboard Snap-on Buttons for disposable electrode pads, RGB LED, Battery – 450 […]

USBCEE Tiny-PAT Board Helps Testing USB-C Power Adapters (Crowdfunding)

USB power delivery allows for up to 100W charging using 20V @ 5A through a USB type C port, and the specifications also mandate supports for various voltages between 5V and 20V. However, some USB-C power adapter that not be fully compliant with the specifications, potentially risking to damage your device. USBCEE Tiny-PAT board has been created in order to test such power adapters to make sure they are compliant with USB PD 2.0/3.0 specifications. Tiny-PAT board features and specifications: Supported USB Spec Version – PD 2.0 / PD 3.0 Max Voltage: 24 V Max Current: 5 A Max Power: 100 W USB type C receptacle Misc – Fail and Pass LEDS, S4 mode button, through holes for VBUS & GND Power Consumption: ~10 mA (may vary based on voltage) Dimensions – 35 x 20 mm By default, the board will test all power rules advertised by the power adapter, […]

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