motor control News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

May 29, 2026 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Microchip dsPIC33CK low-cost motor control MCU sells for $0.51 and up

Microchip dsPIC33CK low cost Value Line DSC motor controller

Microchip has expanded its dsPIC33 lineup with the dsPIC33CK Value Line family, a new series of low-cost 16-bit digital signal controllers (DSCs) designed for motor control applications. The devices deliver up to 100 MIPS of deterministic performance and integrate high-resolution PWM and a 12-bit ADC, making them suitable for motor Field-Oriented Control (FOC) and precision sensing tasks. These DSCs are designed to bridge the gap between basic microcontrollers and higher-end dsPIC33A devices. It offers flash memory from 32 KB to 256 KB, supports function consolidation to reduce component count and BOM cost, and is available in automotive-grade (AEC-Q100 Grade 1) versions with secure boot. Microchip dsPIC33CK specifications: MCU Core – 16-Bit dsPIC33CK CPU operating up to 100 MHz / 100 MIPS and DSP with 40-bit wide accumulators Memory & Storage 8 KB to 16 KB Data RAM 32 KB to 256 KB Program Flash with Error Correction Code (ECC) 384 […]

May 2, 2026May 2, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Prunt Board 3 3D printer control board offers smoother and quieter operation (Crowdfunding)

Prunt Board 3 is a 3D printer control board with six TMC2240 stepper drivers, two 15A heater outputs, four fan outputs, four thermistor inputs, and four endstop inputs that is designed to offer smoother and quieter operation. The hardware is said to offer better ESD protection than boards such as the Duet 3 Mini 5+ or BTT SKR 3 EZ and supports hardware-accelerated step generation, but the magic happens with the Prunt firmware and associated server, which enable a 31-phase velocity profile for smoother operation and higher-quality prints compared to boards running Klipper or Marlin firmware. Let’s have a look at the hardware first. Prunt Board 3 specifications: 6x TMC2240 stepper drivers, all capable of running at 3A with minimal airflow 2x 15A heater outputs with short circuit protection (1.3 µs response time) Fan outputs 4x fan outputs supporting 2, 3, and 4-pin fans, all up to 2A with short […]

April 23, 2026April 23, 2026 by Debashis Das - 2 Comments

Microchip PIC16F132 and PIC18-Q35 low-power 8-bit MCUs feature CPLD-like Configurable Logic Blocks (CLB)

PIC16F13276 and PIC18 Q35 families of Configurable Logic Block MCUs

Microchip Technology has introduced the PIC16F132 and PIC18-Q35 8-bit families of MCUs, as an upgrade over the PIC16F13145, which combine traditional embedded control with integrated Configurable Logic Blocks (CLB), to bring CPLD-like programmable logic directly onto the microcontroller die. The main difference between the two families is in logic density, where the PIC16F132x includes 32 Basic Logic Elements (BLEs), and the PIC18-Q35 offers 128 BLEs. Alongside the CLB, these MCUs also integrate security and voltage management features. Programming and Debugging Interface Disable (PDID) provides anti-tamper protection against unauthorized firmware access, and Multi-Voltage I/O (MVIO) allows direct communication across different voltage domains without external level shifters. The company also mentions that by executing logic functions on dedicated hardware rather than in software, the CLB architecture reduces CPU load and power consumption while ensuring deterministic behavior. This makes the devices well-suited for timing-critical applications such as motor control, industrial automation, consumer electronics, […]

April 21, 2026April 21, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

UGV Beast – An off-road tracked AI robot built for Raspberry Pi 4/5

Waveshare UGV Beast is an off-road robot with tracked wheels designed for Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 SBC handling AI vision and strategy planning, while an ESP32 sub-controller takes care of motion control and sensor data processing. If the design feels familiar, it’s because it’s a variant of the UGV Rover unmanned ground vehicle we covered in 2024, which replaces the six wheels of the original model with two continuous tracks, as found in military tanks, for better driving in difficult terrain. Waveshare UGV Beast specifications: Supported SBCs – Raspberry Pi 4B or Raspberry Pi 5 Multi-function driver board/sub-controller Main SoC – ESP32 wireless microcontroller with WiFi, Bluetooth, ESPNOW connectivity Motor drivers – 2x TB6612FNG chips Peripheral interfaces 4x motor control connectors 2x servo connectors Lidar USB (4-pin) and UART (USB-C) connectors 2x 4-pin I2C connectors Sensor – 9-axis attitude sensor (ICM20948) for image stabilization Misc – EN and user […]

March 19, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Avaota F2 – Allwinner V861 RISC-V SBC targets AI cameras with PTZ and audio support

Avaota F2 is the first SBC based on an Allwinner V861 dual-core 64-bit RISC-V SoC with 128MB on-chip DDR3 memory, support for 4K cameras, a H.265 video codec, and a 1 TOPS AI accelerator. It’s an update to the earlier Avaota F1 camera board based on an Allwinner V821 SoC. The new open-source hardware F2 SBC offers several benefits, including support for both Full HD and 4K camera sensors, motor control for the PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) feature, and improved audio support through speaker (one) and microphone (two) connectors. However, the F1 also included WiFi, which the Avaota F2 lacks. Avaota F2 specifications: SoC – Allwinner V861M2-XXX CPU Dual-Core RISC-V XuanTie C907 (RV64GCBV/RV32GGCBV) clocked up to 1.4GHz with RVV 1.0 extensions Single-core RISC-V XuanTie E907 (RV32IMAFC) clocked up to 800MHz VPU Video Encoder H.264/H.265 up to 4K @ 25fps (M)JPEG up to 8192×8192 Video Decoder – (M)JPEG up to 1080p60 AI accelerator […]

March 11, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Texas Instruments MSPM0G5187 and AM13Ex MCUs integrate TinyEngine NPU for Edge AI applications

Texas Instruments MSPM0G5187 and AM13Ex are two new microcontroller (MCU) families featuring the company’s TinyEngine neural processing unit (NPU) to enable low-latency, high-efficiency Edge AI/Machine Learning inference on the chips. TI claims that the TinyEngine NPU can run AI models with up to 90 times lower latency and more than 120 times lower energy utilization per inference than similar MCUs without an accelerator. The MSPM0G5187 is a general-purpose, low-power Arm Cortex-M0+ MCU, while the AM13Ex Arm Cortex-M33 microcontroller targets real-time motor control, starting with the AM13E23019 SKU. TI MSPM0G5187 general-purpose Cortex-M0+ MCU Key features and specifications: CPU – Arm Cortex-M0+ @ 80 MHz Memory – 32 KB RAM with ECC Storage – 128 KB flash with ECC, 8 KB data flash with ECC Accelerators TinyEngine NPU for AI/ML delivering up to 2.56GOPS (Giga Operations Per Second) at 80MHz MATHACL math accelerator Peripherals USB – 1x USB 2.0 (12 Mbps) Audio […]

February 1, 2026February 1, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Fusion HAT+ Review – Adding AI voice and servo/motor control to Raspberry Pi for robotics, Smart Home, or education

Fusion HAT+ review LLM servo control camera

SunFounder has sent me a review sample of the Fusion HAT+ Raspberry Pi expansion board designed for motor and servo control using audio interactions with its built-in microphone and speaker, as well as LLM models. It can be used as an AI-enabled robot controller, a smart home hub, a voice assistant, or an interactive learning platform. In this review, after an unboxing and going through the installation of the Fusion HAT+ on a Raspberry Pi 5 2GB, I’ll mainly focus on the voice interaction part using text-to-speech (TTS), speech-to-text (STT), and local and cloud-based LLMs and VLMs, and also quickly test servo control to wave a flag using voice commands. SunFounder Fusion HAT+ unboxing I received the sample in the retail package reading “SunFounder Fusion HAT+ for Raspberry Pi” and detailing the key features, namely rechargeable battery, 12x PWM, onboard speaker and microphone, 4x 12-bit ADC, safe shutdown, 4x DC […]

January 22, 2026January 21, 2026 by Debashis Das - 2 Comments

Geehy G32R430 Arm Cortex-M52 Encoder MCU features Arctangent accelerator, dual 16-bit ADC for industrial motion control systems

Last year, Geehy introduced the industry’s first dual-core Cortex-M52 real-time MCU, and has now followed up with the G32R430, an Arm Cortex-M52 Encoder MCU with two 16-bit ADCs and a hardware ATAN (arctangent) accelerator for sub-1 µs electrical angle computation in high-precision encoder and motion control systems. The MCU is clocked at 128 MHz and uses ITCM/DTCM tightly coupled memory for deterministic, zero-wait-state execution, alongside a 4KB cache for low-latency control loops. It integrates two 16-bit high-precision ADCs with support for synchronous sampling, along with an extra 12-bit ADC, multiple analog comparators, DACs, and an on-chip temperature sensor, allowing encoder designs to be built with very few external analog components. It also supports various encoder protocols, including BiSS-C, SSI, Tamagawa, and SPI, and includes generic interfaces like USART, SPI, and I²C. With a –40°C to +105°C industrial operating range, this MCU is suitable for servo motors, industrial robots, absolute and incremental […]