Arduino MKR IoT Carrier Rev2 gets a Bosch BME688 4-in-1 environmental sensor

Arduino MKR IoT Carrier Rev2 bottom side

Arduino has launched the MKR IoT Carrier Rev2 board for Arduino MKR boards with a Bosch SensorTech BME688 4-in-1 pressure, humidity, temperature, and gas sensor replacing the HTS221 humidity sensor and LP22HB barometric pressure sensor, and the LSM6DSOX taking the place of the LSM6DS3, among other some other small changes. First sold as part of the Arduino Oplà IoT Kit, the Arduino MKR IoT Carrier eventually became available on its own in February 2021 offering a display, sensors, and I/Os for Arduino MKR boards with wireless connectivity. The company has now introduced a second revision for the Arduino MKR IoT Carrier with new sensors and repositioning of some of the components following customer feedback. Arduino MKR IoT Carrier Rev2 features & specifications: Compatible with Arduino MKR family boards with WiFi, LoRa, NB-IoT, or 3G cellular connectivity Storage – MicroSD card holder Display – Round 1.3-inch OLED display with 240×240 resolution […]

Maker Feather AIoT S3 – An ESP32-S3 board programmable with CircuitPython or Arduino

Maker Feather AIOT S3

Cytron Maker Feather AIoT S3 is an ESP32-S3 board compatible with the Adafruit Feather form factor and suitable for makers and STEM education with features like LEDs for GPIOs, a buzzer, expansion headers and connectors, and support for CircuitPython & Arduino. The WiFi and Bluetooth LE IoT board also supports LiPo and Li-Ion batteries, includes a USB Type-C port for power/charging and programming, and a few buttons. It’s suitable for machine learning thanks to the vector extensions found in the ESP32-S3 microcontroller. Maker Feather AIoT S3 specifications: Wireless module – Espressif ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N8R8 module with ESP32-S3 dual-core LX7 microprocessor @ up to 240 MHz with Vector extension for machine learning, 8MB FLASH, 8MB PSRAM, WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5 LE/Mesh USB – 1x USB Type-C port power and programming Expansion 2x GPIO headers compatible with Adafruit Feather form factor and FeatherWing add-on boards 3x Maker Ports compatible with Qwiic, STEMMA QT, […]

Sub-$5 Cavli C16QS CAT1.bis cellular IoT module features Qualcomm QCX216 modem

Cavli C16QS Cat 1.bis module

Qualcomm QCX216 LTE IoT modem was announced at the end of last year as one of the first solutions supporting the new CAT1.bis standard enabling smaller, simpler, and cheaper modules with a single antenna design. This chip also integrates a WiFi scanner exclusively used for indoor positioning. Cavli Wireless C16QS CAT1.bis is one of the first cellular IoT modules based on the Qualcomm QCX216, and we now have a clearer idea of what “cheaper” means since the company says it will sell those for less than $5 to OEMs, although that price is likely in very high quantities, possibly 100k+ or one million pieces. Cavli C16QS specifications: Wireless IC – Qualcomm QCX216 with dual-core Cortex-M3 @ 204 MHz, cellular modem-RF Storage – 4 MB Cellular connectivity LTE CAT 1.bis based on 3GPP Release 14 Peak speeds – 10Mbps (DL), 5Mbps (UL) Bands EMEA: B1/B3/B5/B8/B20 North America : B2/B4/B12/B13/B66/B71 Integrated eSIM […]

Qualcomm Snapdragon Satellite enables two-way messaging using the Iridium network

Snapdragon Satellite

You may soon be able to get true global coverage even in remote areas thanks to Qualcomm Snapdragon Satellite which will offer pole-to-pole coverage and two-way messaging for emergency use, SMS texting, and other messaging applications. Qualcomm made this possible through a partnership with Iridium to bring satellite-based connectivity to next-generation premium Android smartphones starting with devices based on Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform, while emergency messaging support was done in collaboration with Garmin. You’ll just need to point your phone to the sky to send and/or receive messages, and the connection should take place within a few seconds. Note it can only be used for text, and the bandwitdh would not be sufficient for audio, pictures, and videos. The solution relies on Snapdragon 5G Modem-RF Systems such as the Snapdragon X70 modem to connect to the Iridium low-earth orbit satellite constellation using the L-band spectrum (1 to 2 […]

Forlinx FET-MX9352-C – An NXP i.MX 9352 system-on-module for industrial AIoT applications

Forlinx FET-MX9352-C System-on-Module

Forlinx FET-MX9352-C is a system-on-module based on NXP i.MX 9352 dual Cortex-A55 processor with Cortex-M33 real-time core and a 0.5 TOPS AI accelerator that can be used for industrial control, IoT gateways, medical equipment, and various applications requiring machine learning acceleration. The FET-MX9352-C follows last week’s announcement of the iWave Systems iW-RainboW-G50M OSM module and SBC with a choice of NXP i.MX 93 processors. The Forlinx module comes with two board-to-board connectors instead of solderable pads and can be found in the OK-MX9352-C single board computer with dual GbE, various display and camera interfaces, RS485 and CAN Bus, etc… FET-MX9352-C i.MX 9352 system-on-module Specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 9352 with 2x Arm Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 1.7GHz (commercial) or 1.5 GHz (industrial), Cortex-M33 real-time core @ 250 MHz, 0.5 TOPS Arm Ethos U65 microNPU System Memory – 1GB/2GB LPDDR4 RAM Storage – 8GB eMMC flash 2x high-density 100-pin board-to-board […]

MediaTek Genio 700 Cortex-A78/A55 IoT processor targets industrial and Smart Home applications

MediaTek Genio 700

MediaTek Genio 700 is an octa-core Arm processor with two Cortex-A78 cores, six Cortex-A55 cores, a Mali-G57 GPU, and a 4 TOPS AI accelerator designed for consumer and industrial IoT applications. The new processor is a cost-down version of the Genio 1200 premium AIoT processor introduced last year with four Cortex-A78 and four Cortex-A55 cores. The Genio 700 offers many of the same features but with lower performance/capabilities, including a 3-core GPU and an AI accelerator limited to 4.0 TOPS, as well as support for dual displays up to 4K + Full HD (instead of 2x 4K), and 32MP single cameras (instead of 48 MP). MediaTek Genio 700 specifications: CPU – Octa-core processor with 2x Cortex-A78 cores @ up to 2.2 GHz, 6x Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 2.0 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G57 MC3 GPU VPU Encoding up to 4Kp60 with H.265/HEVC Decoding up to 4Kp75, AV1, VP9, HEVC, […]

Walter ESP32-S3 board supports NB-IoT, LTE-M, and GPS

ESP32-S3 board NB-IoT LTE-M GPS

QuickSpot Walter is an ESP32-S3 development board with built-in WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE/Mesh connectivity, as well as NB-IoT, LTE-M, and GNSS support through a Sequans GM02SP 5G IoT modem that appears to be a variant of the Sequans Monarch 2 GM02S with GNSS support. Walter specifications: Wireless modules ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N16R2 module ESP32-S3 dual-core LX7 microcontroller 2MB QSPI PSRAM 16MB QSPI flash 802.11 b/g/n WiFi 4 up to 150 Mbps  with on-board antenna Bluetooth 5 LE up to 2Mbps, Bluetooth Mesh Sequans GM02SP modem LTE Cat M1 (LTE-M) and NB1/NB2 (NB-IoT) GNSS and assisted GNSS using GPS and Galileo constellations NanoSIM for cellular connectivity I/Os 2x 14-pin headers with up to 24x GPIO, UART, VIN, 3.3V, and GND 23x test points 3.3V I/O voltage Power Supply 5V (3.0 to 5.5V) DC via VIN pin 5V via USB Type-C port Dimensions – 55 x 24.8 mm Temperature Range – -40°C to +85°C […]

Bouffalo Lab BL616/BL618 RISC-V MCU supports WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, and Zigbee

Sipeed BL616 module

Bouffalo Lab BL616/BL618 is a 32-bit RISC-V wireless microcontroller with support for 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 dual-mode, and an 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee, Thread, and Matter designed for IoT applications. We first spotted the BL616 RISC-V IoT MCU during the BL602/BL606 announcement in November 2020, but we had virtually no additional information about it so far. It appears both BL616 and BL618 will be launched next month with the main difference between the two being that BL616 has 19 GPIOs and BL618 comes with 35 GPIOs. Bouffalo Lab BL616 and BL618 specifications: MCU core – 32-bit RISC-V CPU (RV32IMAFCP) @ up to 320 MHz with FPU and DSP, 32KB instruction cache & 16KB data cache VPU – MJPEG video encoder Memory – 480KB SRAM, 4KB HBN RAM, embedded 4 or 8MB pSRAM (optional) Storage – 128KB ROM, 4Kb eFuse, embedded 2, 4, or 8MB flash (optional), XIP QSPI […]