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

MEGA-RTD Raspberry Pi HAT

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 – […]

Comfile Launches 15-inch Industrial Raspberry Pi Touch Panel PC Powered by RPi CM3 Module

15-inch Raspberry Pi Touch Panel PC

Three years ago, we noted Comfile has made 7-inch and 10.2-inch touch panel PC’s powered by Raspberry Pi 3 Compute Module. The company has recently introduced a new model with a very similar design except for a larger 15-inch touchscreen display with 1024×768 resolution. ComfilePi CPi-A150WR 15-inch industrial Raspberry Pi touch panel PC still features the CM3 module, and the same ports including Ethernet, USB ports, RS232, RS485, and I2C interfaces accessible via terminal blocks, and a 40-pin I/O header. ComfilePi CPi-A150WR specifications: SoM – Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3 Lite (CM3L) with Broadcom BCM2837 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.2 GHz with VideoCore IV GPU, and 1GB RAM Display – 15″ LCD with 1024 × 768 resolution, 16.7 million colors, pressure-sensitive touch screen (resistive type) Audio – Stereo Audio Output Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, optional WiFi via USB dongle USB – 3x USB 2.0 ports Serial – 1x RS232C […]

CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Learning Kit Review – Part 1 – Unboxing and First Boot

CrowdPi2 Unboxing Review

Last month, we wrote about Elecrow introducing CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 laptop and electronics learning kit for its launch on Kickstarter crowdfunding website. The company has now sent one of its kits to CNX Software for evaluation and review. I’ll start by checking out the content of the package, and boot it up, before publishing a more detailed review in a few weeks. The package is fairly big and highlights it’s made for kids over 8 years old with close to 100 course resources and over 20 electronics modules. The back of the package list the main features and package contents with for example a 11.6″ Full HD display, Raspberry Pi 4 4GB board running a customized (Linux) system or Retropie for game emulation, electronics components and modules like servos and motors, as well as some resources for gaming including two USB gamepads. The first things we get when opening […]

Is That a Raspberry Pi Zero? Nope. ATMegaZero is an Arduino Compatible Board

ATMegaZero Raspberry Pi Zero ESP8266

ATMegaZero is an Arduino Leonardo compatible board based on Microchip ATmega32U4 8-bit AVR microcontroller that mostly follows Raspberry Pi Zero form factor with the 40-pin GPIO header, MicroSD card slot, and one micro USB port in the same location. The MIPI CSI camera connector makes place for an OLED display connector, and the HDMI port is obviously gone, but you also get an 8-pin  header to easily install an ESP8266 based ESP-01 module to add WiFi connectivity. ATMegaZero specifications: MCU – Microchip ATmega32U4 microcontroller running at 16MHz with 32KB Flash, 2.5KB SRAM, 1KB EEPROM Storage – MicroSD card Display – 32-pin OLED display port compatible with 30-pin SSD1306 and SSD1331 based displays Wireless Connectivity – 8-pin header for optional ESP8266 ESP-01 WiFi module Expansion – 40-pin Raspberry Pi-inspired GPIO header with UART/SPI/I2C Debugging & Programming – Micro USB port, 6-pin programming header Misc – 4x LEDs, button Power Supply – […]

12.5-inch 4K IPS Touchscreen Display Works with Raspberry Pi 4B and other 4K SBC’s

4K IPS Touch Display Raspberry Pi 4

There are plenty of displays for the Raspberry Pi boards, but if you are looking for a high-resolution display with capacitive multi-touchscreen it may be challenging to find. DFRobot may have what you are looking for though with a 12.5″ 4K IPS touchscreen display. The company says it’s compatible with Raspberry Pi 4B SBC, but since it comes with a mini HDMI input port, it should really work with any 4K capable SBC’s or computers. Key features & specifications: 12.5-inch IPS Pro display with 4K UHD (3840×2160) resolution, 60 Hz refresh rate,  HDR, 10-point touch 100% Color gamut, 400cd/㎡ brightness, 178° viewing angle Video Input – Mini HDMI input Audio – Built-in left and right loudspeaker, 3.5mm audio jack (output) USB – 2x USB Type-C ports both supporting touch/data and power Misc – Function menu button, power LED, power button Power Supply – Via USB-C port (USB-PD supported) Dimensions – […]

Cooler Master Launches Pi Case 40 for Raspberry Pi 4 on Kickstarter

Cooler Master Case GPIO Header

Cooler Master, known for its PC cooling solutions and cases, has now launched a Raspberry Pi 4 case on Kickstarter. Cooler Master Pi Case 40 has already raised over $120,000 within a few hours, with the $27 Raspberry Pi 4 enclosure blasting pass the $10,000 funding target in about one hour. The aluminum case is unsurprisingly a fanless design and exposes a power button to easily power on and off the system without having to remove the power source from the Raspberry Pi. The button also happens to be reconfigurable to any other function so you can run whatever script you please after pressing the button. The neat part of the design is that GPIOs are re-routed to the side of the case with corresponding IO markings on the enclosure. The case also comes with a slit to allow both display and camera cables to be routed outside the enclosure, […]

Waveshare Launches an Affordable 7-Color e-Paper Display

Most e-paper displays are black or white with sometimes red or yellow color being added to the mix. But E-Ink has recently launched several color e-Paper display at prices that will not make it affordable to most projects. Waveshare has launched its fair share of e-Paper displays in the past, and now the company is coming with a relatively affordable 5.65″ color e-Paper display with seven different colors for $74.99 plus shipping. Main features and specifications: Display 5.65″ display (114.9 × 85.8mm) Resolution – 600 × 448 pixels Viewing angle – >170° ACeP (Advanced Color ePaper) 7-color with black, white, green, blue, red, yellow, and orange Greyscale – 2 levels Full refresh time – 15s Dot pitch – 0.1915 × 0.1915mm Host Interface – 3-wire SPI or 4-wire SPI Operating voltage – 3.3V/5V Power Consumption 50mW (typ.) during refresh Standby current – <0.01uA (almost none) Dimensions – Board – 138.5 […]

PolarFire SoC Icicle 64-bit RISC-V and FPGA Development Board Runs Linux or FreeBSD (Crowdfunding)

PolarFire SoC Icicle Kit

We got some more details about PolarFire RISC-V FPGA SoC late last year, and we were promised a Linux capable 64-bit RISC-V & FPGA development board with PolarFire SoC Icicle kit in Q3 of 2020. We are already in July 2020. So where is the board? Oh, look! It’s right here on Crowd Supply where it is offered for $499, and shipping is expected to start in mid-September. PolarFire SoC Icicle specifications: SoC FPGA – PolarFire SoC MPFS250T-FCVG484EES penta–core RISC-V CPU subsystem (1xRV64IMAC, 4xRV64GC) with 254K LE non-volatile fabric, 784 18 × 18 math blocks, secure boot, 4x 12.7 Gbps SERDES, FCVG484 package (19 × 19 mm, 0.8 mm pitch) System Memory – 2GB LPDDR4 x32 Storage – 1 GBit QSPI Flash, 8GB eMMC Flash or SD card slot (multiplexed) Video Output – HDMI 2.0 (removed from final board) Connectivity – 2x Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth USB – 1x […]