LumenRadio’s nRF52840 based Wireless Modbus module aims to simplify Modbus RTU installations

LumenRadio's W Modbus and W Modbus PRO module's

LumenRadio has recently introduced a Wireless Modbus (W-Modbus) module built around Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF52840 SoC. The module can connect up to 100 nodes, integrates a power amplifier with 100mW transmission power, and supports Bluetooth LE for smartphone connectivity. These features simplify Modbus RTU installations by eliminating traditional control cables, making them ideal for building and industrial automation applications. The company mentions two variants available for this module the ‘W-Modbus OEM Module’ which supports one Modbus client, and the ‘W-Modbus PRO OEM Module’ supporting up to sixteen Modbus clients. Both modules support self-healing, self-organizing mesh protocols that address the issues of network reliability and scalability in industrial environments. The module can also be used for remote monitoring and troubleshooting via smartphones. LumenRadio’s Wireless Modbus module specification Module – LumenRadio W-Modbus module SoC –  Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 CPU – 32-bit Cortex-M4 core with FPU @ 64 MHz Connectivity Bluetooth 5.4  (BLE, Bluetooth mesh, […]

MIKRIK V2 Robot Car is an entry-level, open-source robotics kit built for ROS and 3D computer vision

MIKRIK V2 open source robotics kit

The MIKRIK V2 Robot Car is an open-source robotics kit for studying 3D computer vision and is compatible with both ROS1 and ROS2 software suites. The two-wheel-drive robot is powered by a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (as a ROS1 differential drive controller) and a more powerful x86 or ARM single-board computer that can support ROS2 applications like the LattePanda Delta 3, Intel NUC, or NVIDIA Jetson Nano. The robot car uses the Intel Realsense D435i camera for 3D depth vision. It is a less expensive alternative to the iRobot Create, Husarion, and TurtleBot, and compares favorably with NVIDIA’s open-source JetBot AI robot platform. The robot car’s chassis is squared-off and made from shatterproof flex plastic. The CAD files are available on GitHub for self-assembly using a laser cutter and a 3D printer. The assembly and setup process is documented on the Hackster project page. On the software end, it […]

Bluetooth 6.0 features accurate two-way ranging using Channel Sounding, latency reduction, improved scanning efficiency, and more

Bluetooth 6.0 Channel Sounding

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has just announced the release of the Bluetooth 6.0 Core Specification with features and feature enhancements that include Bluetooth Channel Sounding for two-way ranging between BLE devices, decision-based advertising filtering and monitoring advertisers to improve device scanning efficiency, an enhancement to the Isochronous Adaptation Layer (ISOAL) for lower latency and higher reliability, the LL extended feature set, and a frame space update for throughput optimization. Bluetooth 5.4 was released as a minor update mostly adding electronic shelf label (ESL) support in February 2023, or about 18 months ago, but Bluetooth 6.0 is a major update with the most notable feature being Bluetooth Channel Sounding to enable two-way ranging between two Bluetooth LE devices. It’s not the first time we’ve heard about “Bluetooth Channel Sounding” for distance measurements as it was implemented in WiFi 7/6 and Bluetooth 5.4 chipsets such as Synaptics SYN4382 and Broadcom […]

Ezurio Sona NX611 – An NXP IW611-powered Wi-Fi 6 industrial IoT module

Ezurio Sona NX611 Wi Fi 6 module

Ezurio, formerly Laird Connectivity, has announced the Sona NX611, a new Wi-Fi 6 module designed for industrial IoT applications. The module uses the NXP IW611 chipset and supports Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and Bluetooth 5.4. It operates in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, achieving data rates up to 600 Mbps, and can withstand industrial temperatures from -40°C to +85°C. The Sona NX611 comes in several form factors, including SiP (System-in-Package), M.2 1216 SMT, and M.2 2230 E-Key pluggable options. It is compatible with NXP processors and supports Ezurio’s Linux connectivity stack software and Android OS. The module is under development and is expected to be in mass production by September 2024. It will have global certifications like FCC, ISED, UKCA, CE, and Bluetooth SIG. Previously we have seen the IW611 and IW612 modules were used in the u-blox MAYA-W2 IoT module. We have also written about Laird RM126x LoRaWAN […]

Seeed Studio Wio Tracker 1110 Dev Kit supports Meshtastic for off-grid communication

Wio Tracker 1110 Dev Kit for Meshtastic

The Seeed Studio Wio Tracker 1110 is a dev kit designed to work with the Meshtastic network. The board is built around a Nordic nRF52840 multiprotocol Bluetooth 5.4 SoC and uses the Semtech LR1110 LoRa transceiver for communication. Seeed Studio is selling the Wio Tracker 1110 development board in a bundle with an OLED display and a GNSS receiver, providing everything needed to start experimentation for peer-to-peer LoRa mesh networking. Meshtastic is a free, open-source, decentralized mesh network that uses LoRa radios to establish a low-power, long-range, off-grid communication system in areas without reliable infrastructure. Driven entirely by the community, Meshtastic enables decentralized, encrypted communication without the need for a dedicated router or phone. Previously we have written various versions of the Wio Tracker including the Wio GPS and Wio LTE GPS Tracker. Since Meshtastic projects are becoming popular among developers and enthusiasts, we will likely see many more dev […]

SagireEdge AI 600 SMARC SoM and devkit feature Qualcomm QCS6490 AIoT processor for Edge AI applications

Qualcomm QCS6490 SMARC SoM

Sagire AI’s SagireEdge AI 600 is a SMARC-compliant system-on-module (SoM) and a development kit based on Qualcomm QCS6490 octa-core Cortex-A78/A55 IoT processor and designed for Edge AI applications. The module comes with 8GB LPDDR5 and 128GB UFS storage, a WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.5 wireless module, a CAN Bus controller, and on-module camera and audio input connectors. Its MXM 3.0 edge connector exposes additional camera interfaces, a MIPI DSI display interface, PCIe Gen3 x2, gigabit Ethernet, a few USB interfaces, and a range of low-speed I/Os. SagireEdge AI 600 SoM specifications: SoC – Qualcomm QCS6490 CPU – Octa-core Kryo 670 with 1x Gold Plus core (Cortex-A78) @ 2.7 GHz, 3x Gold cores (Cortex-A78) @ 2.4 GHz, 4x Silver cores (Cortex-A55) @ up to 1.9 GHz GPU – Adreno 643L GPU @ 812 MHz with support for Open GL ES 3.2, Open CL 2.0, Vulkan 1.x, DX FL 12 DSP – […]

Conexio Stratus Pro – A battery-powered nRF9161 development kit with LTE IoT, DECT NR+, GNSS connectivity (Crowdfunding)

Conexio Stratus Pro nRF9161 IoT prototyping kit

Conexio Stratus Pro is a tiny IoT development kit based on Nordic Semi nRF9161 system-in-package (SiP) with LTE-M/NB-IoT, DECT NR+, and GNSS connectivity and designed to create battery-powered cellular-connected electronic projects and products such as asset trackers, environmental monitors, smart meters, and industrial automation devices. Just like the previous generation Conexio Startus board based on the Nordic Semi nRF9160 cellular IoT SiP, the new Conexio Stratus Pro board supports solar energy harvesting and comes with a Feather form factor and Qwiic connector for each expansion. Conexio Stratus Pro specifications: System-in-package – Nordic Semi nRF9161 SiP MCU – Arm Cortex-M33 clocked at 64 MHz with 1 MB Flash pre-programmed MCUBoot bootloader, 256 KB RAM Modem Transceiver and baseband 3GPP LTE release 14 LTE-M/NB-IoT support DECT NR+ ready GPS/GNSS receiver RF Transceiver for global coverage supporting bands: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B8, B12, B13, B17, B18, B19, B20, B25, B26, B28, […]

Avnet AI Vision Development Kit features Qualcomm QCS6490 SoC, dual camera, GbE, and USB-C PD

QCS6490 Vision AI Development Kit

Just last month at Embedded World 2024, Qualcomm announced its RB3 Gen 2 Platform based on the QCS6490 processor with Cortex-A78 and A55 processing cores and 12 TOPS of AI power. Building on this, Avnet has recently launched the Avnet AI Vision Development Kit, also based on the QCS6490 SoC. The kit includes a dual camera setup, Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, USB-C Power Delivery, and a host of other features for applications like inventory and asset monitoring, drone/UAV/other mobile vision-AI edge compute applications, and multi-camera security systems with recognition. Previously we have written about similar AI dev kits including Allwinner V853 100ASK-V853-Pro, Sipeed Maix-III devkit, RZBoard V2L, and many other AI vision development boards feel free to check those out if you are interested in the topic. Avnet AI Vision Development Kit specifications SM2S-QCS6490 SMARC Compute Module: CPU – 4x Arm Cortex-A78 (up to 2.7 GHz), 4x Arm Cortex-A55 (up to […]

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