Spark Photon is a $19 Hackable IoT Wi-Fi Board

Spark Core is a popular Wi-Fi module for the internet of things  with a community of over 20,000 developers, but at $39 it may have started to feel a little expensive compared to the new IoT Wi-Fi modules such as ESP82666 or xWiFi, so the company has unveiled a new Wi-Fi board called Photon that’s smaller, better, and cheaper. Let’s compare Spark Core with the new Spark Photon. Feature Spark Core Spark Photon Wi-Fi Support 802.11 b/g 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi Setup Smart Config Soft AP Wireless Module TI CC3000 Broadcom BCM43362 MCU STM32F103 STM32F205 MCU Speed 72 MHz 120 MHz Flash Memory 128 KB 1 MB RAM 20 KB 128 KB GPIO 18 UART (Serial) Yes JTAG Yes I2C Yes SPI Yes ADC Yes DAC No Yes CAN No Yes VBAT pin exposed No Yes Wakeup pin exposed No Yes Price $39.00 $19.00 So beside slashing the price by 50%, […]

Ingenic Unveils Newton2 Platform for Wearables with M200 Dual Core SoC

Ingenic Newton is a development platform for wearables powered by Ingenic JZ4775, an application processor mostly used in tablets. Many companies are now making SoCs speficially designed for wearables with a powerful application core, and a low power core serving as a sensor hub, an Ingenic M200 SoC found in the new Ingenic Newton2 platform, uses the sample principle by combinging a MIPS XBurst processor @ 1.2GHz with a low power MIPS XBurst core @ 300MHz combined with low power GPU and VPU. Ingenic Newton2 specifications: SoC – Ingenic M200 dual core processor with MIPS XBurst @ 1.2 GHz, MIPS XBurst @ 300 MHz, 2D/3D GPU, and VPU supporting H.264, VP8, MPEG-1/2/4, VC-1, and RV9 up to 720p30 System Memory – 512 MB LPPDR2 (Samsung eMCP) Storage – 4GB eMMC (Samsung eMCP) Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.1 (Broadcom BCM43438) + connector for GPS Sensors – Gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer […]

NXP Introduces LPC54100 Single & Dual Core Cortex M4F/M0+ MCU Family and LPCXpresso54102 Development Kit

NXP has recently introduced LPC54100 Series microcontrollers with a Cortex-M4F core up to 100MHz, and optionally an ARM Cortex M0+ core for always-on sensor processing applications, as well as LPCXpresso 54102 board.  Typical applications include mobile, portable health and fitness, home and building automation, fleet management and asset tracking, robotics and gaming. Key features of LPC54100 series MCUs: CPU – 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4F up to 100 MHz,  optional 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0+ coprocessor On-chip RAM – 104 KB internal RAM On-chip Storage – Up to 512 KB on-chip Flash Interfaces 3 fast-mode plus I²C, 4 UART, 2 SPI, 39 GPIO ADC with up to 12-channels, 12 bits, and 4.8 Msps sample rate, full-spec (1.62 V to 3.6 V) Clock Sources – IRC, digital clock input, PLL, 32 kHz XTAL, WWDT Timers – 5x 32-bit general-purpose timers/counters, One-state configurable timer/PWM, RTC with alarm, and WWDT 22-channel DMA with 20-programmable triggers Power consumption […]

Connect Objects Wirelessly, and Create User Interfaces Easily With Xped DeB for Arduino (Crowdfunding)

Xped, an australian startup, has designed an ecosystem comprised of an Arduino shield with NFC and 802.15.4 connectivity, a Raspberry Pi Model B+ based gateway, and DeB browser that generates a user interface in Android, iOS, or Linux based on an XML file stored in an Arduino board. This allows to connect various objects wirelessly, with reduced power consumption thanks to 802.15.4, and to create user interfaces easily with a text file located in your Arduino board. ADRC stands for Auto-Discovery Remote Control, and that’s what Xped ADRC Shield allows thanks to the following hardware specifications: MCU – RM Cortex M3 32-bit microcontroller with 256 KB of FLASH memory. NFC – NDEF Type-2 Tag with bi-directional communications capability. NFP proximity communications technology which is similar to NFC but was developed by Xped to use less than 1,000th of the power and provide faster speeds than NFC. It is mainly used […]

Hi-Link HLK-M30 StartKit Based on Mediatek MT7681 WiSoC Sells for $10

Here’s yet again another low cost Wi-Fi board for the internet of things with Hi-Link HLK-M30 StartKit featuring an HLK-M30 Wi-Fi module powered by Mediatek MT7681 SoC, exposing 5 GPIOs, and a serial RS-232 DB9 interface. AFAICR, it’s the second MT7681 board featured on CNX Software after xWiFi. Key feature of HLK-M30 Wi-Fi module and Starter Kit: SoC – Mediatek MT7681 WiSoC Wi-Fi Standards – 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi encryption: WEP/WPA-TKIP/WPA-AES/WPA2-TKIP/WPA2-AES STA/AP mode Protocols supported by MT7681 – TCP Server/Client, UDP Server/Client, DHCP, DNS, HTTP Internal and external antennas Serial – DB9 connector for RS-232 Expansions 2.54mm through holes for 3.3V/GND, Tx/Rx, and GPIO 1 0 to 4. 4-pin SPI interface to flash firmware to IC (not usable by end users) Misc – Test LEDs Power – 5V power barrel Dimensions – 14.1 x 16.5 x 2.25 mm (Module size). PCB size: Unknown. Documentation including User’s manual and AT command sets, windows […]

Zero+ IoT Wi-Fi Board is Programmable with Lisp (Crowdfunding)

There have been so many low cost Wi-Fi modules and boards with GPIO headers announced this year, especially on crowdfunding sites, and from the hardware point of view, Zero+ (Zero Plus) board looks very much like many other Ralink RT5350 boards such as Vocore or AsiaRF AWM002, but what makes it different is that it can be programmed with Lisp from a web-based IDE. But let’s go through Zero+ board specifications first: SoC – Ralink/Mediatek RT5350 MIPS processor @ 360MHz with dual band 802.11n Wi-Fi with data Rate up to 150Mbps System Memory – 32 MB RAM Storage – 8MB to 16 MB SPI Flash (for firmware) Expansions Headers – 2x headers with access to I2C, SPI, USB, 2x UART,  JTAG, and 14x GPIOs USB – 1x USB host port, 1x micro USB for power Misc – 2x buttons Dimensions – 36 x 25mm (possibly module dimensions only, not full board). I’m […]

Nordic Semi Announces nRF51 DK Arduino Compatible Board, and nRF51 Dongle with Bluetooth Smart, ANT, and 2.4GHz Connectivity

Nordic Semiconductor has introduced two new low cost development boards supporting Bluetooh LE, ANT/ANT+, and proprietary 2.4GHz applications based on their nRF51 series SoCs: nRF51 DK, an Arduino UNO Rev.3 compatible board that can be used for various IoT and wearables applications, and nRF51 Dongle, a USB dongle to connect to a PC or board, which can be useful for packet sniffing and BLE peer connection. nRF51 DK Development Board Key features listed for the board: SoC – Supports nRF51822 (BT/2.4Ghz) and nRF51422 (BT/ANT) SoCs based on an ARM Cortex M0 processor, with 128kB or 256kB flash memory, and 16kB or 32kB RAM. Connectivity Bluetooth Smart, ANT/ANT+ and 2.4GHz proprietary Integrated PCB antenna Connector for RF measurements Expansions Headers Arduino Uno Rev. 3 compatible connector for use with 3rd party shields All I/O and interfaces available via connectors Debugging Segger J-Link OB and ARM CMSIS-DAP Program/Debug supported Support for Program/Debug […]

Mackerel Wi-Fi IoT Board Connects to goHACK.me Cloud Services

ACKme Networks, a start-up specializing in embedded wireless solution, launched Mackerel evaluation board based on their AMW004 Wi-Fi networking module. The module is intend to interface to objects in standalone mode (SOLO), or controlled by a micro-controller (SLAVE), and features WiConnect software to interface with goHACK.me cloud services powered by sensors.com “OEM cloud solution”. Mackerel (AMW004-E03) board specifications: AWM004 (Wallaby) Wi-Fi module: MCU – ARM Cortex M4 @ 120MHz with integrated 1MB flash and 128kB RAM, onboard 8Mbit (1MByte) SPI-serial flash Networking Standards – IEEE 802.11 b/g/n/d/e/h/i/j 802.11 data rates – 802.11b: 1, 2, 5.5, 11 Mbps; 802.11g: 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54 Mbps; 802.11n: MCS0 – MCS7 Wi-Fi Security – Open, WEP-40, WEP-104, WPA, WPA2-PSK, WPA/WPA2-mixed  Network Protocols –  ARP, ICMP, DHCP client/server, DNS, NTP, SMTP, UDP, TCP, HTTP client/webserver, Sensors.com Network Security –  SSL3.0/TLS1.1, HTTPS I/Os – UART (up to 4Mbit/s), SPI (up to 10Mbit/s), […]

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