Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on E3K all-in-one wireless bio-sensing platform supports EMG, ECG, and EEG sensors (Crowdfunding)

E3K all-in-one wireless bio-sensing platform supports EMG, ECG, and EEG sensors (Crowdfunding)

Over the year, The maker community has designed several platforms to monitor vital signs with boards like Healthy Pi v4 or HeartyPatch both of which are powered by an ESP32 WiFi & Bluetooth wireless SoC. WallySci has designed another all-in-one wireless bio-sensing platform, called E3K, that also happens to be powered by Espressif Systems ESP32 chip, and can be connected to an electromyography (EMG) sensor to capture muscle movements, an electrocardiography (ECG) sensor to measure heart activity, and/or an electroencephalography (EEG) sensor to capture brain activity. The board also has an extra connector to connect a 9-axis IMU to capture motion. E3K main board which the company refers to as “Data Communication and Processing Unit” (DCPU) comes with the following specifications: Supported wireless board – ESP32-DevKitC with ESP32-D0WD-V3 dual-core 32-bit LX6 microprocessor, up to 240 MHz, Integrated 520 KB SRAM, 16 MByte SPI flash. 2.4 GHz WiFI 4, and Bluetooth 4.x/5.x connectivity Data acquisition – 2x 8-bit DAC with 1 […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Vizy AI camera runs Tensorflow, OpenCV, PyTorch on Raspberry Pi 4 (Crowdfunding)

Vizy AI camera runs Tensorflow, OpenCV, PyTorch on Raspberry Pi 4 (Crowdfunding)

We previously covered Charmed Labs PIXY2 computer vision camera based on an NXP LPC4330 microcontrollers that worked with Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and other development boards. The company is now back with a fully integrated more powerful solution with Vizy AI camera featuring a Raspberry Pi 4 SBC with up to 8GB RAM. Vizy AI camera key features and specifications: SBC – Raspberry Pi 4 with Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Arm Cortex-72 processor, up to 8 GB RAM Camera – High-resolution camera based on Sony iMX477 12.3 MP sensor that can capture at over 300 frames/second and support both daytime and nighttime viewing; Both M12 and C/CS lenses are supported Video Output – 2x micro HDMI ports Audio – Analog stereo audio port Networking – Gigabit Ethernet, dual-band WiFi 5, and Bluetooth 5.0 USB – 2x USB 3.0 ports, 2x USB 2.0, 1x USB Type-C port from Raspberry Pi 4 (But not sure it’s actually used) Expansion – 8-pin terminal block for […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Education Laptop Review

CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Education Laptop Review

I started my review of CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Learning Kit a while ago and at the time I showed content from the kit and its first boot. I’ve now spent more time with this very special Raspberry Pi 4 laptop and will focus this review on the education part, namely CrowPi2 software, but will also look at thermal cooling under stress with and without a fan, and try to install another Raspberry Pi compatible board inside the laptop shell. CrowPi2 Education Software It’s quite important to read the user manual before getting started as there are a few non-intuitive steps you may have to take. First I assume the wireless keyboard would just connect after pressing the power button, but it did not. The user manual explains the RF dongle is inside the mouse, and once you connect it you’ll be able to use the keyboard that has some battery charge out of the box, and can be charged […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on VIA Pixetto Hi3518E V300 HD Camera Board Targets Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Education

VIA Pixetto Hi3518E V300 HD Camera Board Targets Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Education

VIA Technologies has launched the VIA Pixetto vision sensor aims to teach artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to students aged twelve and above. The Linux board features an Hisilicon Hi3518E V300 Cortex-A7 HD camera SoC combined with 64MB RAM, 128MB SPI flash, a MicroSD slot, as well as GalaxyCore GC2053 2M CMOS sensor offering 1920 x 1080 resolution and a 130° field of view. VIA Pixetto hardware specifications: SoC – Hisilicon Hi3518E V300 Cortex-A7 HD camera SoC @ 900 MHz with H.264, H.265, MJPEG/JPEG encoder System Memory – 64MB DDR, MicroSD card slot Storage – 128MB SPI flash Camera – GalaxyCore GC2053 2M CMOS sensor with 1920 x 1080 resolution,  130° FoV Audio – Microphone USB – 1x Micro USB 2.0 port Connectivity – WiFi 4 via Hisilicon Hi1131 low-power Wi-Fi chip  and ceramic antenna Expansion – Grove connector Misc – 3x LEDs (Power, OS boot, active status), 1x reset button Power Supply 5V/500mA via Micro USB port […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on UPX-Edge BrainFrame Edge AI DevKit Targets Smart Video Analytics

UPX-Edge BrainFrame Edge AI DevKit Targets Smart Video Analytics

UPX Edge Embedded Computer

AAEON UP Xtreme Edge (UPX-Edge) is a rugged embedded computer built around the company’s UP Xtreme SBC with a choice of 15W Whiskey Lake-U processors ranging from Celeron 4305UE to Core i7-8665UE, and optional Intel Movidius X AI accelerator cards. We previously noted the company had launched UP Xtreme Smart Surveillance kit integrating Milestone video management software (VMS) and SAIMOS video analytics software to the embedded computer. AAEON has now partnered with another company – AOTU.AI – to announce the launch of the BrainFrame Edge AI Developers Kit (DevKit) aiming to help developers and system integrators to rapidly create and deploy Smart Vision applications. The solution relies on UP Xtreme Edge mini PC fitted with an Intel Core i5-8365UE processor and 16GB RAM, 64GB eMMC flash, and two Intel Movidius Myriad X VPUs. We’ve also gone through Up Xtreme Edge specifications, so let’s instead focus on the software. This is how aotu.ai describes BrainFrame smart video analytics platform: BrainFrame is […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Using an Old Cassette Tape to Enclose a Battery-powered Raspberry Pi Zero

Using an Old Cassette Tape to Enclose a Battery-powered Raspberry Pi Zero

If you’re old enough you may have a stock of old cassette tapes that may or may not work anymore. The good news is that if you have time on your hands, you could recycle those as a Raspberry Pi Zero enclosure, including even other components like a small battery, battery charging board, and display. That’s exactly what Martin Mander did with his Cassete Pi IoT scroller project that receives notifications via IFTTT service and displays them as scrolling text on a small display connected to the Raspberry Pi Zero W. Here’s the detailed list of components used in this project: Raspberry Pi Zero Wireless Pimoroni LiPo SHIM LiPo/LiIon power supply shim for Raspberry Pi boards Adafruit Micro Lipo charger board with micro USB port Pimoroni 11×7 LED Matrix 150 mAh Li-Polymer Battery Cassette Tape DPDT Slide Switch Vibration motor Once assembly is done, you can flash a Micro SD card with Raspberry Pi OS and install a Python script […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on MEGA-RTD Raspberry Pi HAT Offers up to 64 Resistance Temperature Detectors (Crowdfunding)

MEGA-RTD Raspberry Pi HAT Offers up to 64 Resistance Temperature Detectors (Crowdfunding)

Sequent Microsystems like to make stackable Raspberry Pi HATs. After their stackable 4-relay board allowing for up to 32 relays controlled by a Raspberry Pi board, the company has now launched MEGA-RTD 8-channel RTD Raspberry Pi HAT enabling up to 64 resistance temperature detectors via 8x MEGA RTD board stacked on top of a Raspberry Pi board. If you haven’t heard about this type of temperature sensors, we wrote a post explaining the advantages and drawbacks of resistance temperature detectors last year. Basically, those temperature sensors contain a resistor that changes resistance value as their temperature changes, and support much wider temperature ranges than traditional temperature sensors such as DHT22 while keeping a <0.1°C accuracy. The price of the sensors themselves is similar to traditional sensors, but the total price is more expensive since they require extra hardware to measure the resistance/voltage value. MEGA-RTD key features and specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32F030 Arm Cortex-M0 microcontroller handling I2C commands from Raspberry […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on IoTSDR Linux Board Targets the Development of IoT Gateways with Standard or Custom IoT Protocols (Crowdfunding)

IoTSDR Linux Board Targets the Development of IoT Gateways with Standard or Custom IoT Protocols (Crowdfunding)

Xilinx Zynq-7010/-7020 powered iotSDR board by EmbedINN enables the development of IoT gateways with support for LoRa, SigFox, WeightLess, Bluetooth, BLE, 802.15.4, ZigBee, as well as custom IoT protocols. The board also supports GPS, Galileo, Beidou, and GLONASS navigation systems thanks to a Maxim Integrated MAX2769 GNSS chip. iotSDR key hardware features and specifications: SoC (one or the other) Xilinx Zynq-Z7010 (XC7Z010-1CLG400C) dual-core Arm Cortex-A9 processor with 256 kb on-chip memory, FPGA fabric with 28,000 logic cells, 17,600 LUTs, 2.1 Mb block RAM, 80 DSP slices Xilinx Zynq-Z7020 (XC7Z020-1CLG400C) dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor with 256 kb on-chip memory, FPGA fabric with 85,000 logic cells, 53,200 LUTs, 4.9 Mb block RAM, 220 DSP slices System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 Storage 128 Mbit QSPI flash memory for firmware Microchip AT24MAC602 SPI EEPROM for RF transceiver MCU firmware and data Radios “IoT” Radios RF Transceivers – 2x Microchip/Atmel AT86RF215 European band – 863-870 MHz / 870-876 MHz / 915-921 MHz Chinese band […]

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