electronics News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

March 24, 2026March 29, 2026 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Ampisu is a compact pocket-sized USB lab power supply with SCPI and web control (Crowdfunding)

Ampisu Portable programmable lab power supply

The concept of a USB-C-based power supply is not new, and we have previously seen projects like XIAO Powerbread and Axiometa BrodBoost-C. As USB PD-based power adapters and power banks have become much cheaper, adjustable power supplies like the PocketPD and BenchVolt PD have come out. Both have their own limitation: the PocketPD has only a single output channel, thus hardly a lab power supply, and the BenchVolt PD is not quite compact enough to be considered pocket-friendly. This is where the Ampisu comes in. It’s a compact, pocket-friendly, and isolated three-output lab power supply designed to fit in a pocket and includes features of a typical full-sized power supply. It’s designed for low-power embedded work, field debugging, and automated test setups. Ampisu specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 125 MHz with 264KB SRAM Storage – Non-volatile memory for saving configurations Power Input 5V via USB Type-C port Automatically adapts to […]

March 23, 2026March 24, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

ESP32-P4 revision 3.0 gains new power rail, requires new PCB design and firmware

Espressif’s ESP32-P4 revision 3.0 and greater converts pin 54 of the chip from NC (not connected) to a power rail (VDD_HP_1), requires a few extra passives, and an updated firmware. Espressif Systems first unveiled the 400 MHz ESP32-P4 dual-core RISC-V SoC in January 2023, and the official ESP32-P4-Function-EV development board was launched in August 2024, with commercial solutions slowly ramping up last year. You’d think the silicon and related hardware would now be frozen, but apparently not. The pin 54 was likely converted from NC (not connected) to VDD_HP_1 to improve the stability of the high-performance digital domain. The old revisions 1.0, 1.1, and 1.3 are not recommended for new designs, and the company advises people to use revision 3.0 or 3.1. They also provided updated reference schematics with the following key changes: The main differences between chip revisions v1.0/v1.3 (not recommended for new designs) and v3.0 and later versions […]

March 22, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

KiCad 10 release – Dark mode, graphical DRC rule editor, new file importers, and more

KiCad 10 open-source EDA software has just been released with support for dark mode, importers for Allegro, PADS, and gEDA/Lepton PCB, and various changes to the Schematic Editor (e.g., hop-over display) and the PCB Editor, notably adding a graphical DRC rule editor. KiCad 10 was built by hundreds of developers, translators, library contributors, and documentation submitters, who submitted 7,609 unique commits after KiCad 9 was released in February 2025. The new version also gains 952 new symbols, 1216 new footprints, and 386 new 3D models. Some UI and usability improvements include dark mode support (Windows only), customizable toolbars, undo/redo support in dialogs, lasso/freeform selection instead of only rectangular selection, and new importers for Allegro, PADS, and gEDA/Lepton PCB. Schematic editing gains support for variants (e.g., single project with different BoM), hop-over display, jumper support, grouping support, and pin table CSV export/import. PCB Design adds time-domain tuning beyond just length constraints […]

March 9, 2026March 8, 2026 by Debashis Das - No Comments

DSG-22.6 GHz is a $1,590 open-source RF signal generator based on Atek Midas’s custom ICs (Crowdfunding)

DSG 22.6 GHz RF signal generator block diagram

Atek Midas, a Turkish company, has launched DSG-22.6 GHz, a high-performance, open-source RF signal generator designed to provide professional-grade frequency synthesis at a fraction of the cost of traditional benchtop equipment from manufacturers like Anritsu or Keysight. It has an operating frequency range of 0.15 GHz to 22.6 GHz and is designed for makers and production test environments for RF testing, calibration, wireless experimentation, and microwave research. The device offers 1 Hz tuning resolution, adjustable output power −15 dBm to +20 dBm, and supports linear and logarithmic frequency sweeps with configurable start/stop frequencies, step size, and dwell time. It achieves ≥40 dBc spurious and harmonic suppression on the filtered output path and features a tuning speed of <100 µs. The generator includes a capacitive touchscreen display and can also be controlled over a USB Type-C port and/or Wi-Fi. DSG-22.6 GHz specifications: Frequency range – 150 MHz to 22.6 GHz Tuning […]

January 29, 2026January 29, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Electronic components price and lead time increases announced across the board, and not only because of RAM

Most people already know about rapidly rising RAM prices, but I’m receiving more and more emails about price increases for a range of devices, in a way that’s reminiscent of the impact the Coronavirus/COVID-19 had in 2020 to 2022. We’ve already covered the Raspberry Pi Compute Modules price increase in October 2025, followed by the Raspberry Pi 4/5 price adjustment last December. Unsurprisingly, it’s going to spread to other companies as well. A few days ago, I received an email from SolidRun entitled “Customer Notification: Industry‑Wide Component Shortages and Price Increases”: The global semiconductor, and electronic components industry is currently experiencing significant price increases and widespread shortages. What started as memories shortage covering mostly DDR4 and NAND integrated circuits and modules – expanded across multiple categories (including SoCs). As a result, many critical components now face extended lead times, with certain items that were previously available within a few weeks […]

December 30, 2025 by Debashis Das - 2 Comments

Elecrow AI starter kit turns NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano into a learning platform with 11.6-inch display, 30 electronics modules

Elecrow AI Starter Kit for the NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano turns the NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano into a learning and educational kit for students, educators, and hardware enthusiasts looking for a rapid and powerful prototyping platform. The kit integrates an 11.6-inch IPS touchscreen, an 8MP servo-controlled gimbal camera, a voice interaction module, and 30 common electronics modules embedded in the kit. The company also provides 39 Python tutorials for sensor control, computer vision, and basic AI workflows. In addition to the display, camera, and audio features, the kit also includes expansion through I2C, UART, and GPIO. Jetson Orin Nano AI Starter Kit specifications: Main Board – NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano (Not included in the kit) Display – 11.6-inch IPS touchscreen display with 1366 × 768 resolution Onboard modules Input modules Multimedia – 8MP IMX219-based camera with dual-servo gimbal (PTZ-style control) Sensors Temperature & humidity sensor Ultrasonic distance sensor PIR motion […]

December 29, 2025December 29, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Open-source hardware USB to GPIB adapter connects legacy GPIB/IEEE-488 instruments to modern hosts

XyphroLabs’s UsbGpib is an open-source hardware, inexpensive, and portable USB to GPIB adapter aiming to provide “access to legacy GPIB/IEEE-488 instruments using contemporary hardware and software, with a focus on accessibility, openness, and ease of integration into current workflows”. Initially developed by Hewlett-Packard in the late 1960s/early 1970s, GPIB (General Purpose Interface Bus), also known as IEEE-488 or initially HP-IB (Hewlett-Packard Interface Bus), is a short-range digital communications bus standard designed for connecting and controlling programmable electronic test and measurement instruments such as oscilloscopes, multimeters, and power supplies to computers or controllers. The UsbGpib project helps connect GBIP-compliant equipment to modern host computers with a USB port. UsbGpib key hardware features and specifications: Microcontroller – Microchip ATMega32U4 8-bit AVR microcontroller for 5V I/O compatibility USB – USB Type-C port with full USBTMC (USB Test and Measurement Class) support 24-pin GPIB interface – Fully IEEE-488.1 and IEEE-488.2 enabled, including service request […]

December 18, 2025December 18, 2025 by Debashis Das - 6 Comments

REETLE SmartInk I – An AI-powered E-Ink phone case with voice recording (Crowdfunding)

The REETLE SmartInk I is a phone case with a touch-enabled E-Ink display and built-in AI features. It features a secondary screen on the back for reading text, viewing notes, recording voice, and displaying to-do items, allowing basic tasks to be completed without using the phone’s main display. In the back, you have a 3.97-inch E-Ink touchscreen with one-press voice recording, AI-based transcription, summarization, and smart to-do display, all synced to a companion mobile app via Bluetooth 5.0. It supports iPhone 13–17 series and a wide range of Android phones, features a 300 mAh battery with 10W MagSafe wireless charging, and delivers up to 10 hours of reading, 8 hours of recording, and over 2 weeks of standby time. Weighing around 55 grams with a total thickness under 4 mm, it includes military-grade drop protection, tempered glass, widget switching (QR codes, notes, schedules), a thin design, and a 10°C to […]