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December 16, 2021December 16, 2021 by Sponsored Post - No Comments

Tiny, high-precision GPS modules target UAV’s, wearables (Sponsored)

With the rapid development of the Internet of Things, positioning requirements are getting more strict notably with the need for higher precision and smaller GNSS modules. If you are looking for compact GPS modules that support a variety of satellite navigation systems, including China’s Beidou satellite navigation system BDS, the United States’ GPS, and Russia’s GLONASS with low power consumption (3.3V, 30mA), you may consider Ai-Thinker’s GP-01 and GP-02 GPS modules offering the smallest size. The GP-01 module has a total of 24 interfaces with five GPIO pins, while the GP-02 module has a total of 18 interfaces with three GPIO pins. These two modules are also available in development boards for ease of evaluation and development. Both are cheap, reliable, and based on the state of the art technologies. Thanks to its small size of only 10.3 x 9.9 x 2.4 mm, the GP-02 module can be easily embedded […]

December 3, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

ADLINK LEC-RB5 – A Qualcomm QRB5165 SMARC module designed for drones and robots

ADLINK Technology LEC-RB5 is a SMARC compliant system-on-module powered by the Qualcomm QRB5165 octa-core Cortex-A77 class processor which we’ve already seen in Qualcomm Flight RB5 high-end drone reference design and Lantronix Open-Q 5165RB system-on-module designed for robotics applications. The LEC-RB5 SMARC module ships with up to 8GB PoP LPDDR4 memory, 256GB UFS storage, provides on-device artificial intelligence capabilities (up to 15 TOPS), support for up to 6 cameras, and low power consumption. The main target applications are high-end robots and drones in the consumer, enterprise, defense, industrial, and logistics sectors. LEC-RB5 SMARC SoM specifications: SoC – Qualcomm QRB5165 octa-core Kryo 585 processor with a Kryo Gold Prime @ 2.84 GHz, 3x 3 Kryo Gold @ 2.42 GHz, 4x Kryo Silver @ 1.81 GHz, Adreno 650 GPU @ up to 587 MHz, Video decode HW acceleration for H.265/HEVC, H.264, MPEG2, MVC, VC-1, WMV9, JPEG/MJPEG, VP8, VP9, video encode HW acceleration for […]

September 22, 2021September 22, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

$25 “Raspberry Pi 3 mini” board comes with a camera interface, USB & I/Os headers

TPCast-VR, aka “Raspberry Pi 3 mini”, is a compact board based on Broadcom BCM2837 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor, and that should come as part of Element14’s Raspberry Pi customization program, just like the custom Raspberry Pi 3 SBC with eMMC flash designed for laundry gateways that I noticed a few months ago. The board was initially integrated into the power box of the TPCAST Wireless Adaptor for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets, but eventually found its way into other applications notably FPV drones, and it’s now sold separately, as we’ll see further below. I found about the board via a tweet from Will Whang who purchased it for under $20 at the beginning of the year, and discovered the connection with the TPCast wireless adapter. TPCast-VR board specifications: SoC – Broadcom BCM2837 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.2GHz with Videocore IV GPU System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – […]

August 20, 2021August 21, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Qualcomm QRB5165 system-on-module is made for robotics applications

Lantronix Open-Q 5165RB is a tiny System-on-Module (SoM) based on the same Qualcomm QRB5165 octa-core IoT processor we’ve just seen in Qualcomm Flight RB5 5G Platform high-end drone reference design. The ultra-compact (50x29mm) module comes with 8GB LPDDR5, 128GB UFS flash, multiple MIPI camera and display ports, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1, and various I/Os. Lantronix Open-Q 5165RB module specifications: SoC – Qualcomm QRB5165 SoC built on 7nm technology with Octa-core CPU with 1x Kryo Gold prime @ 2.84 GHz, 3x Kryo Gold @ 2.42 GHz, 4x Kryo Silver @ 1.81 GHz Hexagon 698 DSP with quad Hexagon Vector eXtensions Adreno™ 650 GPU @ up to 587 MHz Spectra 480 Image Signal Processor Adreno 665 Video Processing unit – Decode up to 4K240/8K60, Encode up to 4K120/8K30, Concurrent 4K60 decode & 4K30 encode for wireless display NPU230 Neural Processing unit SPU240 Secure Processing unit Up to 15 TOPS of combined […]

August 20, 2021August 20, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Qualcomm Flight RB5 5G Platform is a high-end drone reference design with 7 cameras

Leveraging its involvement in the Ingenuity Mars helicopter, Qualcomm has introduced the Qualcomm Flight RB5 5G platform, a high-end drone reference design with 5G and WIFi 6 connectivity, seven cameras up to 8K resolution, and 15 TOPS of AI performance. The platform is based on Qualcomm QRB5165 octa-core processor, a variant of Snapdragon 865 for robotics, also found in Qualcomm Robotics RB5 Platform with support for Intel RealSense D435i (that should reach end-of-life soon), and provides an upgrade to the company’s Flight Pro drone based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 platform. Qualcomm Flight RB5 5G Platform key features and specifications: SoC – Qualcomm QRB5165 with eight Kryo 585 cores up to 2.84 GHz, GPU Adreno 650 GPU with support for Open GL ES and OpenCL, Hexagon 698 DSP with HVX, Hexagon Tensor Accelerator, Qualcomm Spectra 480 ISP with dual 14-bit image signal processing Memory – LPDDR5 up to 2750 MHz, LPDDR4x up […]

April 8, 2021December 22, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

simpleRTK2B-SBC packs 3 u‑blox ZED-F9P RTK GNSS receivers for centimeter-level GPS positioning

Real-time Kinematic (RTK) relative positioning technique allows for 1-3cm positioning accuracy with data derived from satellite-based positioning systems such as GPS, BeiDou, GLONASS, Galileo, and NavIC. We’ve previously covered Skytraq PX1122R RTK GNSS module as well as SBG Systems Ellipse-D industrial-grade inertial navigation system featuring the technology, and now Spain-based ArduSimple has announced the simpleRTK2B-SBC single board computer that aims to “simplify the development of centimeter-level positioning solutions supporting real-time kinematics (RTK)” via up to three u‑blox ZED-F9P RTK GNSS receivers. simpleRTK2B-SBC board features & specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32F7 Cortex-M7 microcontroller GNSS Positioning 184-channel u-blox ZED-F9P engine Configuration options 2x ZED-F9P for position + heading 3x ZED-F9P for position + full attitude (roll, pitch, yaw) Navigation rate up to 20Hz Position accuracy down to 1 centimeter GPS: L1 & L2; GLONASS: L1OF & L2OF; Galileo: E1 & E5b; BeiDou: B2I & B2I; QZSS and SBAS Up to 4 integrated […]

March 16, 2021March 17, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

UP Squared Pro SBC gets more I/Os, 3x M.2 sockets, TPM 2.0 security chip

UP Squared Apollo Lake SBC was launched in 2016 via a crowdfunding campaign with a price starting at just 89 Euros for the model with 2GB RAM 16GB storage, and a dual-core Intel Celeron N3350 processor. AAEON has now announced an update simply called UP Squared Pro with many of the same features, but greater expandability and I/O features, for example, to add 5G modules and AI accelerators through one of the three M.2 sockets, as well as improved security via a TPM 2.0 chip. UP Squared Pro (UPN-APL01) specifications with highlights in bold or strikethrough in comparison to the UP Squared specifications (in 2016): SoC (one or the other) Intel Celeron N3350 dual-core “Apollo Lake” processor @ 1.1 GHz / 2.4 GHz with 12 EU Intel HD graphics 500 @ 200 MHz / 650 MHz (6W TDP) Intel Pentium N4200 quad-core “Apollo Lake” processor @ 1.1 GHz / 2.5 […]

February 25, 2021February 25, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

StereoPi v2 stereoscopic camera is powered by Raspberry Pi CM4 (Crowdfunding)

StereoPi stereoscopic camera based on Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3 was introduced in late 2019 on Crowd Supply. The camera can record 3D video, create 3D depth maps with OpenCV, and benefits from the Raspberry Pi software ecosystem. The developers are now back with an upgraded model. StereoPi v2 comes with many of the same features, but as it is based on Raspberry Pi CM4 (Compute Module 4) it offers better performance, Gigabit Ethernet, Wifi & Bluetooth connectivity out of the box, while other features like PoE, TFT screen, shot button, etc.. are optional. StereoPi v2 specifications: Supported SoM – Raspberry Pi CM4 or CM4Lite modules Storage – MicroSD card socket Video Output – Micro HDMI port Camera I/F – 2x MIPI CSI camera connector plus “hackable camera lines” Networking – Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port, plus optional WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 on Raspberry Pi CM4 module USB – 2x […]