Servo and motor control with Raspberry Pi Pico, CircuitPython, and Wukong 2040 breakout board

Raspberry Pi Pico Wukong 2040 Motor Control CircuitPython

ELECFREAKS Wukong 2040 is a multifunctional breakout board designed for Raspberry Pi Pico. It is equipped with interfaces for four DC motors, up to twelve servos, a buzzer, A\B buttons, RGB “rainbow” lights, a Reset button, etc… The board can be powered by a single 18650 3.7V LiPo battery and integrates a power management IC that monitors the battery level and can also charge the battery via a USB charger. Battery life is typically 60 minutes per charge but can last over 120 minutes depending on the load.   Wukong 2040 key features and specifications Description of the Wukong 2040 interfaces Specifications and dimensions of the Wukong 2040 Expansion Board for Raspberry Pi Pico The Wukong 2040 breakout board for the Raspberry Pi Pico can control up to four DC motors and up to 12 servo motors as shown in the diagram below. Pinout diagram of the Wukong 2040 board […]

MIPI CSI camera works with Intel Atom x7000, Processor, and Core i3 Alder Lake-N processors

Alder Lake-N Customer Reference Board MIPI CSI camera

Most Intel processors do not come with a MIPI CSI camera, but some Alder Lake-N processors do, and Leopard Imaging has designed the LI-ADL-ADP-IMX415-MIPI-081H MIPI CSI camera module that is compatible with the Intel ADL-N CRB (Alder Lake-N Customer Reference Board) and custom Alder Lake-N boards equipped with a compatible MIPI CSI connector. The 13MP camera supports resolutions up to 3864 x 2176 and works with boards and embedded systems based on Intel Atom processors x7000E Series, Intel Core i3-N processors, and Intel Processors N-Series processors. LI-ADL-ADP-IMX415-MIPI-081H specifications: Sony IMX415 CMOS image sensor Diagonal – 6.43 mm (Type 1/2.8) Active Pixels – 3864 (H) x 2176 (V) Pixel Size: 1.45 x 1.45 μm Optical Format: 1/2.8″ Effective Focal Length – 4.063 mm Aperture, F/#2.29 ± 5% IR Filter – 650 nm IR cut filter Field of View (FOV) – 81.7˚ horizontal, 44.7˚ vertical; 95.1˚ diagonal Lens Mount – M12 x […]

$499 NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit delivers up to 80x Jetson Nano Devkit performance

NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit

NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit is an upgrade to the popular Jetson Nano Developer Kit that delivers 80 times the performance, up to 50 times the performance per watt, and gives the developers the ability to design entry-level AI-powered robots, smart drones, intelligent vision systems, and more. The Jetson Orin Nano has a similar form factor as the original Jetson Nano, but is fitted with a Jetson Orin Nano 8GB module with up to 40 TOPS AI performance, and is equipped with a DisplayPort video output, USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, two M.2 Key M sockets for SSDs, Gigabit Ethernet, a pre-installed Wi-Fi module, and connectors for cameras. NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit specifications (compared to Jetson Nano Developer Kit-B01) The new developer kit is supported by the Ubuntu 20.04-based NVIDIA JetPack 5.1.1 SDK, as well as application-specific frameworks such as NVIDIA Isaac ROS and DeepStream, which are […]

XIAO ESP32S3 is a tiny ESP32-S3 WiFi 4 and BLE 5.0 module for IoT, AI, and robotics

XIAO ESP32C3

Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32S3 is the new member of the company XIAO family with an ESP32-S3 dual-core wireless microcontroller with WiFi 4 and BLE 5.0 designed for Smart Home, IoT, wearables, and Robotics applications. It succeeds the single-core ESP32-C3-based XIAO ESP32C3  board with the same form factor, but the new XIAO ESP32S3 offers more performance, vector extension for machine learning, more flash, and improved power consumption in deep sleep mode. Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32C3 specifications: Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3R8 dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller @ 240 MHz with 512KB SRAM, 8MB PSRAM, Wi-Fi 4 & Bluetooth 5.0 dual-mode (Classic + BLE) connectivity Storage – 8MB SPI flash Antenna – External u.FL antenna USB – USB Type-C port for power and programming Expansion I/Os 2x 7-pin headers with 1x UART, 1x I2C, 1x SPI, 11x GPIO (PWM), 9x ADC 3.3V I/O voltage (not 5V tolerant) Debugging – JTAG pads Misc […]

Qualcomm Robotics RB1 and RB2 development kits launched for $199 and up

Qualcomm Robotics RB1 RB2 Vision Kit

We quickly mentioned the Qualcomm Robotics RB1 and RB2 development kits in our post about Lantronix Open-Q 2210RB and 4210RB SiPs mostly to complain about the lack of information at the time. But things have changed the Qualcomm Robotics RB1 and RB2 devkits for cheaper, smaller Linux-powered robots with lower power consumption are now available, and we have more details with three options: Core Kit, Vision Kit, and Full Kit. So let’s have a closer look. All kits are based on the Qualcomm Robotics RB1/RB2 Core Kit with the following (preliminary) specifications: System-on-module RB1 –  Thundercomm TurboX C2210 SoC – Qualcomm QRB2210 CPU – Quad-core Cortex-A53 processor at up to 2.0 GHz GPU – Adreno 702 GPU at 845 MHz with support for OpenGL ES 3.1, Vulkan 1.1, OpenCL 2.0 Hexagon QDSP6 v66 DSP 1080p 30 fps encode / 1080p 30fps decode System Memory – 1GB or 2GB LPDDR4 Storage […]

Lantronix Open-Q 2210RB and 4210RB SiPs for robotics power RB1/RB2 development kit

Open-Q RB1 RB2 Development Kit with Qualcomm QRB2210 or QRB4210

What comes after Qualcomm Robotics RB3, RB5, and RB6 platforms? Apparently, it’s Qualcomm Robotics RB1 and RB2 platforms powered by Qualcomm QRB2210 and Qualcomm QRB4210 processors respectively and optimized for cheaper, smaller robots with lower power consumption. But Qualcomm is one of the lamest companies known to man, so they did not include any photos when announcing the Robotics RB1 and RB2 platforms, so I’ll focus this post on Lantronix Open-Q 2210RB and 4210RB system-in-packages (SiP) based on the same processors, as well as the Open-Q RB1/RB2 development kit. Open-Q 2210RB and 4210RB SiP The new system-in-packages are very similar to the earlier Open-Q 2290CS and 4290CS SIPs for industrial IoT and machine vision applications, with the only difference being the Qualcomm processor used, so I invite you to read the earlier post for the full details, and I’ll just provide summaries here. Open-Q 2210RB key features: SoC – Qualcomm […]

Review of micro:bit XGO Robot Kit – An educational robot dog with a Bluetooth joystick

micro:bit XGO robot kit review joystick

ELECFREAKS micro:bit XGO Robot Kit is a robotic dog designed for robotics education. It moves realistically and acts like a real pet dog, and can help teach various technology concepts related to mechanical engineering, electronics, programming, and artificial intelligence (AI). The kit support both the BBC Micro:bit V1 and V2 boards which can be programmed with Microsoft MakeCode, Python, the Arduino IDE, and other languages. The XGO robot is compact and can be easily used on a desk or table. The robot is made of aluminum metal coated with a beautiful anodized finish. Each leg has 12 high-quality digital servos moving each joint, 3 on each side, totaling 12, helping the robot dog to move smoothly and flexibly. The robot can be controlled with apps, a joystick, and up to 19 ready-made postures, such as holding hands, looking for food, sitting down, squatting, etc… Content of the XGO robot kit: […]

Firefly AIO-3588SG – A compact, low-profile 8K SBC with WiFi 6 and Gigabit Ethernet

AIO-3588SG SBC

Firefly AIO-3588SG is a compact, low-profile SBC with Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6, and an 8K capable USB-C port with DisplayPort that is based on the company’s Core-3588SG module powered by a Rockchip RK3588S octa-core Cortex-A76/A55 processor with up to 32GB RAM and 256GB eMMC flash. The board is designed to be as thin as possible and includes a low-profile RJ45 Ethernet jack which should make it suitable for projects and products that require high performance in a thin form factor such as robotics, digital signage, virtual reality headsets, etc… Firefly AIO-3588SG specifications: System-on-module – Firefly Core-3588SG with SoC – Rockchip RK3588S octa-core processor with 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.4 GHz, 4x Arm Cortex-A55 cores, Arm Mali-G610 MP4  GPU, 6 TOPS NPU, 8Kp60 video decoder, 8Kp30 video encoder System Memory – 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB (32GB optional) 64-bit LPDDR4, LPDDR4x, or LPDDR5 Storage – 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, or […]