kicad News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

September 26, 2025September 29, 2025 by Sponsored Post - No Comments

A Catalyst for Open Source: NextPCB Launches KiCad Projects Platform to Fuel the Future of KiCad (Sponsored)

NextPCB, a global leader in PCB manufacturing and assembly solutions, proudly announces the launch of kicadprojects.com, a dynamic open-source community dedicated to supporting open-source hardware and enriching KiCad, the renowned open-source EDA tool for schematic capture and PCB layout. This initiative unites engineers, students, and innovators worldwide to share projects, collaborate, and support the KiCad community and core KiCad development. A Hub for Collaboration and Innovation Developed and maintained by NextPCB, a platinum KiCad sponsor, kicadprojects.com is more than a platform—it’s a thriving hub where the global KiCad community can: Share & Showcase Projects – Upload and explore innovative PCB designs, schematics, and tutorials. Streamline Collaboration – Download project files, generate automated BOMs, and visualize designs straight from your browser with NextPCB’s KiCad EDA viewer. Open Source, Open Impact In a bold commitment to open-source stewardship, NextPCB will donate $10 (USD) towards the KiCad Project for every approved project uploaded […]

August 21, 2025August 28, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Icepi Zero – A Lattice ECP5 FPGA board in Raspberry Pi Zero form factor (Crowdfunding)

Icepi Zero Lattice LFE5U FPGA board Raspberry Pi Zero form factor

The Icepi Zero is a compact Lattice ECP5 FPGA open-source hardware development board following the Raspberry Pi Zero form factor, and equipped with a microSD card slot, three USB-C ports, a GPDI mini connector for video output, and a 40-pin GPIO header. I was confused at first, since Debashis wrote about the Pico2-ice board a few days ago, but it’s a different design with an RP2350B MCU and a Lattice ICE40U5K FPGA with 5.3K LUTs. Made by Icy Electronics, the Icepi Zero is a pure FPGA board with 24K LUTs, 32MB SRAM, and 16MB QSPI flash that can be used for retro gaming/computer and general FPGA gateware experimentation. Icepi Zero specifications: FPGA – Lattice Semi ECP5U 24k LUTs 112 KiB of RAM 28x 18 x 18 Multipliers Memory – 256 Mbit (32 MB) of 166 MHz SDRAM Storage 128 Mbit (16 MB) of QSPI Flash microSD card slot Video Output […]

August 6, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

FPGA-based Modos Paper Dev Kit supports a wide range of E-Ink displays, up to 75 Hz refresh rate (Crowdfunding)

Modos Paper Grayscale or Color E-Ink displays

Modos Paper Dev Kit helps users create an open-hardware E-Ink monitor with a fast 75 Hz refresh rate and low latency thanks to a Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA driver board, and compatibility with a wide and of E-Ink displays between 4-inch and 42-inch in size. The resulting grayscale or color E-ink monitor can be connected through HDMI or USB and works on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Modos Paper driver board specifications: FPGA – AMD/Xilinx Spartan-6 LX16 FPGA running Caster gateware Memory – DDR3-800 framebuffer memory MCU – STMicro STM32H750 Arm Cortex-M7 microcontroller for USB communication, firmware upgrades, and standalone applications. Processing rate up to 133 MP/s when error-diffusion dithering is enabled, and 200 MP/s when disabled Supported Displays – 4-inch to 42-inch E-Ink displays without integrated TCON; See long list on GitHub Video Input USB Type-C DisplayPort Alt-Mode with on-board PTN3460 decoder microHDMI connector for DVI video input with on-board ADV7611 […]

August 1, 2025August 1, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

microSD-express Pi Adapter is an ultra-small microSD Express adapter for the Raspberry Pi 5

Tiny microSD Express adapter for Raspberry Pi 5

We’ve just written about Will Whang’s RPI5-SDexpress-Hat board, which adds a microSD Express slot to the Raspberry Pi 5, but it’s not that small, and it’s using the 40-pin GPIO for power, so it’s not convenient if you want to install another Raspberry Pi HAT+. Vassily Petrov’s “microSD-express Pi Adapter” is a much smaller microSD Express adapter on a flexible PCB that plugs directly into the PCIe FFC connector and nothing else, driving power from the PCIe connector only. There’s not much on the PCB itself besides a microSD Express card slot and a Microchip MIC2230 800mA/800mA step-down DC/DC regulator. We’re told speeds of up to 800 MB/s are achievable, limited by the PCIe Gen3 x1 interface on the Pi 5 itself. For reference, the RPI5-SDexpress-Hat was tested at about 600 MB/s for sequential reads and under 200MB/s for sequential writes using a 256GB Samsung microSD Express card. A worry […]

April 13, 2025April 14, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Battery-powered Seeed Studio IoT Button features ESP32-C6 SoC, supports ESPHome or Zigbee firmware

Seeed Studio IoT Button is an inexpensive ESP32-C6 button powered by a rechargeable 18650 battery and designed to easily and quickly control Smart Home devices over WiFi 6 or Zigbee wireless protocol. It will be especially handy to Home Assistant users since the device is pre-flashed with ESPHome firmware for easy integration (over WiFi), and the company also provides a Zigbee firmware for Zigbee Home Assistant (ZHA) integration. The hardware is pretty basic with a button, three LEDs, and a USB-C port for charging the replaceable 18650 battery. Seeed Studio IoT Button specifications: SoC – ESP32-C6FH4 CPU Single-core 32-bit RISC-V clocked up to 160 MHz Low-power RISC-V core @ up to 20 MHz Memory – 512KB SRAM, 16KB low-power SRAM Storage – 320KB ROM, 4MB flash Wireless – 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 LE/Mesh (somehow not used here), 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee 3.0 and Thread. Matter compatible. USB – […]

March 27, 2025March 27, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

FourThirdsEye is an open-source hardware 10.7MP IMX294 camera module for the Raspberry Pi 5/CM4

FourThirdEyes IMX294 camera module Raspberry Pi 5

Will Whang’s FourThirdsEye project is an open-source hardware camera module designed for Raspberry Pi 5 SBC and Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 SoM using a Sony IMX294 Type 4/3 CMOS image sensor. The camera module can capture 10.7 MP images and 4K (4096 x 2160) videos with improved low-light performance and dynamic range (4.63 μm pixel size) compared to existing Raspberry Pi camera modules. Will claims it’s perfect for photography enthusiasts, developers, and makers who want a more powerful camera for their Raspberry Pi projects. FourThirdsEye camera module specifications: Sony IMX294 sensor Output image size – Diagonal 21.63 mm (Type 4/3) aspect ratio 17:9 & 4:3 Number of effective pixels 4168 (H) × 2176 (V) approx. 8.93M pixels (aspect ratio 17:9) 3792 (H) × 2824 (V) approx. 10.71M pixels (aspect ratio 4:3) Unit cell size – 4.63 μm (H) × 4.63 μm (V) Optical blacks Horizontal – Front: 0 pixels, […]

February 21, 2025February 21, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

KiCad 9 released with support for embedded files, tables in schematics, custom ERC/DRC errors, mouse scroll wheel actions, and more

KiCad 9 open-source EDA software has just been released with a range of new features such as support for embedded files (fonts, 3D files, PDF), tables in schematics, custom ERC/DRC errors, warnings, and exclusion comments, mouse scroll wheel actions, multiple track drag, and much more. The latest KiCad 9.0.0 release includes 4,870 unique commits from hundreds of developers and translators, and the KiCad library has further gained 1500 new symbols, 750 new footprints, and 132 new 3D models. There are way too many changes to list them all here, so I’ll mention some highlights here: Jobsets (predefined output jobs) – Feature that provides predefined sets of ‘jobs’— plotting, exporting, and running DRC—on schematics and PCBs. Independent jobset files are reusable as users may want to create output pipelines that they can apply across their projects for consistency. Jobsets can be run from the command line or the KiCad GUI. Embedded […]

January 28, 2025March 29, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

anyon_e DIY laptop features Rockchip RK3588 SoC, 13.3-inch 4K AMOLED display, aluminum chassis

We’ve already seen several Rockchip RK3588 laptops with the Cool Pi laptop and GenBook RK3588, as well as the open-source hardware MNT Reform Next. anyon_e is another open-source DIY laptop based on Rockchip RK3588 octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 SoC but with higher-end specifications compared to competitors. The anyon_e features a 13.3-inch 4K AMOLED display, a wireless QWERTY mechanical keyboard, a custom aluminum chassis that keeps the thickness of the laptop to just 18mm, and a battery good for about 7 hours. It’s based on the FriendlyELEC CM3588 core board found in the CM3588 NAS Kit. anyon_e laptop (preliminary) specifications: SoM – FriendlyELEC CM3588 SoC – Rockchip RK3588 CPU – 4x CortexA76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, 4x CortexA55 core @ 1.8 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G610 MP4 GPU Video decoder – 8Kp60 H.265, VP9, AVS2, 8Kp30 H.264 AVC/MVC, 4Kp60 AV1, 1080p60 MPEG-2/-1, VC-1, VP8 Video encoder – 8Kp30 H.265/H.264 video encoder […]