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July 17, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Espressif releases SDK for Aliro smart door locks based on ESP32-C or ESP32-H SoCs

Espressif Systems has just released the SDK for Aliro, designed for smart Matter door locks and other access control solutions built around ESP32-C (WiFi) or ESP32-H (Thread) microcontroller and third-party NFC chips. We recently wrote about the Aliro vendor-agnostic digital access control standard working over NFC, Bluetooth LE, or BLE+UWB. It’s basically the equivalent of Matter, but for smart locks, instead of the broader Smart Home ecosystem. The ultimate goal is to reduce fragmentation and allow users to use compliant wallets from Google, Apple, Samsung, and others to work with Aliro-compatible devices. Espressif’s SDK for Aliro (ESP-Aliro) currently supports the following features of Aliro-over-NFC: Standard Expedited Phase Fast Expedited Phase Reader Certificate Sending via AUTH1/LoadCert Command Keyslot to Look up Access Credential Public Key Mailbox of Exchange command Step-up Phase Espressif’s solution currently only works with Aliro NFC for tap-to-unlock applications, although Bluetooth LE and Bluetooth LE + UWB support […]

July 6, 2026July 5, 2026 by Debashis Das - 1 Comment

u-blox F11 low-power dual-band GNSS chips and modules consume just 7mW in LEAP mode

u blox UBX F11270 KB and UBX F11170 CC L1,L5 dual band GNSS with just 7mW power consumption

u-blox has introduced the F11 platform, a new family of low-power GNSS chips and modules that includes the UBX-F11270-KB and UBX-F11170-CC dual-band GNSS chips, the UBX-M11070-KB chip (L1-only), the MAX-M11N module (L1-only), and the EVK-F112 evaluation kit. These are designed for battery-powered applications such as aftermarket telematics, asset tracking, wearables, drones, micromobility, and other industrial and consumer devices. Among those, the UBX-F11270-KB and UBX-F11170-CC support dual-band L1/L5 GNSS that automatically switch between L1/L5 operation based on signal conditions. The UBX-M11070-KB chip and MAX-M11N module are L1 band only, but all the modules and chips in the series support LEAP (Low Energy Accurate Positioning) mode with a typical power consumption of around 7 mW. Other features include indoor detection, polygonal geofencing, and multipath mitigation. u-blox UBX-F11270-KB and UBX-F11170-CC specifications: GNSS Engine – u-blox F11 platform Memory / Storage UBX-F11270-KB – Embedded flash memory supports firmware upgrade UBX-F11170-CC – Optional external SPI […]

July 2, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

SONOFF NSPanel Pro Gen2 touch control panel review with eWeLink and Home Assistant

SONOFF sent us a sample of the NSPanel Pro Gen2 Smart Home control panel for review. It’s a standard 86-type controller powered by a Rockchip RK3326-S SoC, equipped with 2GB RAM and 32GB eMMC flash storage, a 3.95-inch touchscreen display, and a 2-channel relay supporting up to 10A. The Android device supports dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, Zigbee 3.0, and Matter, and also includes a built-in 1.5W speaker and microphone for two-way audio. It’s an update to the NSPanel Pro we reviewed in 2024. In this review, we’ll start with an unboxing and a teardown, before going through the initial setup in standalone mode, and finally use the panel with the eWelink app and Home Assistant. We’ll connect one of the relays of the NSPanel Pro Gen2 to a ceiling LED light, test Zigbee through a SONOFF AirGuard TH (SNZB-02DR2) temperature and humidity sensor, WiFi through a SONOFF AirGuard PM2.5/PM10 air […]

June 29, 2026June 29, 2026 by Debashis Das - No Comments

DESLOC V150 Plus smart lock integrates a perovskite solar panel, supports 3D face recognition (Crowdfunding)

DESLOC V150 Plus Low Light Self Charging Solar Smart Lock

DESLOC V150 Plus is a smart lock with an integrated perovskite solar panel, which can generate power under low-light conditions, eliminating or at least reducing the need for manual battery charging. The V150 Plus is a two-part system consisting of exterior and interior units connected via wires through the door. The exterior unit includes the perovskite solar panel, two cameras with a 3D facial recognition system, and an AI-assisted fingerprint sensor, while the interior unit houses a 10,000mAh removable battery, a Battery Management System (BMS), and a lock motor. The BMS manages battery charging and power distribution. The rechargeable battery is rated to provide up to 8 months of backup operation when solar charging is unavailable, which is a little longer than the Lockzo AL501 3-in-1 smart door lock we reviewed earlier. DESLOC V150 Plus specifications: SoC – TBD (most probably a chip from Nordic or Espressif) Connectivity – Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Access […]

June 25, 2026June 25, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

NeoEyes NE503 – A $1199 Edge AI Camera based on Hailo-15H 20 TOPS SoC

Camthink NeoEyes NE503 is a 4K Edge AI camera platform powered by the Hailo-15H quad-core Cortex-A53 SoC with a 20 TOPS AI accelerator, and paired with 8GB of LPDDR4 memory and a 64GB eMMC flash. The camera also features a Sony IMX678 4K sensor and an 8–32mm F1.6 AF auto-zoom lens for high-quality monitoring, low-light imaging, and long-range recognition. The camera directly handles high-resolution video input, local multi-model inference, containerized applications, and event-driven workflows on the device, without relying on the cloud or a local server. NeoEyes NE503 specifications: SoC – Hailo-15H CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 @ 1.3 GHz VPU – H.265/H.264 encoding ISP – Supports up to 12 MP resolution, 600 Mpixel/s pixel rate, HDR, and noise reduction AI performance – Up to 20 TOPS; < 50 ms target inference latency System Memory – 8GB LPDDR4 @ 4266 MT/s; 8.5 GB/s single-channel bandwidth Storage 64 GB eMMC flash 8 […]

June 24, 2026July 17, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Aliro is a vendor-agnostic standard for digital access control working over NFC, Bluetooth LE, or UWB

Managed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance, Aliro is a smart lock/access control standard that works over NFC, Bluetooth LE, or UWB and is designed to be vendor-agnostic. While Matter is designed for Smart Home applications, Aliro specifically targets access control, and both aim to address market fragmentation. It was brought to my attention when we wrote about the Nordic nRF54L15 Tag, but we had already mentioned it for chips from other vendors such as STMicro (ST64UWB) and Qualcomm (FastConnect 8800), as well as earlier wireless MCUs from Nordic Semi such as the nRF54LM20A and nRF54LM20B. It appears to be adopted across the industry, so let’s have a closer look. Aliro 1.0 was first released in February 2026 with the following highlights: Leverages existing smartphones and wearables Framework utilizes asymmetric cryptography to ensure secure and trusted interactions between user devices and readers Integration with digital wallets from Apple, Google, Samsung, etc… […]

June 19, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Matter 1.6 specification adds NFC-based commissioning, thermostat suggestions, various core enhancements

Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) has recently released the Matter 1.6 specification with new features such as NFC-based commissioning, Thermostat Suggestions for smarter climate control, and a range of core enhancements designed to improve device communication, safety devices visibility, and ecosystem security. The last time we wrote about a Matter release was for Matter 1.4.2, which added Wi-Fi-only provisioning and improved security, and we somehow missed the Matter 1.5 release that introduced cameras, closures (window shades, drapes, awnings, gates, garage doors…), and enhanced energy management capabilities. Let’s have a closer look at the new Matter 1.6 release. Matter 1.6 highlights: NFC-based commissioning – Commissioning can be challenging for devices like ceiling fixtures and in-wall switches, since they may need to be configured before they are installed. Matter 1.6 addresses this issue by allowing a Matter device to be commissioned through bi-directional NFC communication before the device is fully powered on. That’s […]

June 15, 2026June 16, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Linux 7.1 Release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 7.1 on LKML: So it’s only Sunday morning back home, but it’s Sunday afternoon where I am right now, so I’m doing the 7.1 release at the regular time – just not in the regular timezone. This obviously means that the merge window opens tomorrow, but I’ll be in yet another timezone by then, so timing will all be a bit irregular. Normally I try to front-load the merge window and do as much as possible the first few days – this time I’m not sure that will work out with my laptop and a couple of long flights without internet, but I’ve made sure that I have fetched the early pull requests (thank you – you know who you are), so I will be able to do some of it off-line. Anyway, possible slight hiccups in the merge window aside, the news today […]