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October 12, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Hi3861 based HiSpark WiFi IoT development board supports LiteOS and HarmonyOS

HiHope HiSpark WiFi IoT development board features Hisilicon Hi3518 microcontroller with 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 and supports Huawei LiteOS as well as HarmonyOS. Equipped with 2MB flash and 384KB SRAM, the board targets smart home applications, and ships with a baseboard to help with development. HiSpark board specifications: MCU – Hisilicon Hi3861 32-bit microcontroller @ up to 160 MHz with 352 KB SRAM and 288 KB ROM, 2 MB flash memory, and WiFI 4 connectivity; QFN-32 5x5mm package WiFi 802.11b/g/n standard up to 72 Mbps @ HT20 2.4 GHz frequency band (ch1-ch14). Station (STA) and access point (AP) modes with up to 6 clients for the latter WiFi mesh with up to 256 nodes Security – WPA, WPA2 personal, and WPS 2.0 PCB antenna USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and programming via CH340 chip Expansion – 2x headers with up to 2x SPI, 2x I2C, 3x UART interfaces, 15x GPIO, 7x ADC inputs, 6x PWM interfaces, […]

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October 5, 2020October 8, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

UL-Certified TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug with Dual Outlet Sells for $19.99 (Promo)

WiFi smart sockets to control home appliances have been around for a few years, and one of my favorite companies is Sonoff as they offer a variety of affordable smart plugs pre-loaded with eWelink firmware and compatible with open-source firmware like Tasmota and ESPurna. The company is also attentive to safety. communicate issues with customers, and recently wrote a post entitled “Safety is our responsibility” where they detail all steps taken to make sure their mains connected device sare safe to use. Sadly that does not include safety certifications like UL/ETL, or TUV which may have implications for your home insurance depending on where you live, and for peace of mind, it’s always good to have a third verify your design for safety. Which brings me to the main point of this point, as a UL-certified dual-outlet smart socket, namely TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug, is currently on sale for $19.99 when ticking for the $10 discount coupon. [Update: They also […]

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September 17, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

3µA/MHz Ambiq Apollo 4 MCU Targets Battery-powered IoT Devices with Voice Processing

Ambiq Micro is using sub-threshold voltages under 0.5V to offer ultra-low-power Arm microcontrollers. In 2015, the company launch the Apollo Cortex-M4F MCU with 30µA/MHz power consumption in active mode, which was followed in 2016 by Apollo 2 in consuming just 10µA/MHz, and Apollo 3 (Blue) dropped power consumption to as low as 6µA/MHz against using a Cortex-M4F @ 48 MHz in active mode. The fourth generation of ultra-low-power Apollo microcontroller has now been announced with Apollo 4 and Apollo 4 Blue microcontrollers – the latter adding Bluetooth – halving the power consumption of Apollo 3 at just 3µA/MHz, or ten times less than the original ultra-low-power MCU from the company. Apollo 4 (Blue) specifications and key features: MCU Core – Arm Cortex-M4F core up to 192 MHz (TurboSPOT) with FPU, Memory Protection Unit (MPU), and Secure Boot GPU – 2D/2.5D graphics accelerator with full alpha blending, texture and frame buffer compression Ultra-Low Power Memory Up to 2MB of non-volatile MRAM […]

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September 11, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Z-Wave Long Range (LR) Promises Up to 4 Times the Range, 10-year Battery Life

The new Z-Wave Alliance Technical and Certifications workgroup, part of the Z-Wave Alliance, has announced the new Z-Wave Long Range (Z-Wave LR) specifications offering up to four times the range, support for ten times larger network, and 10-year coin cell battery life while keeping backward compatibility and interoperability Z-Wave LR will support up to 2000 nodes on a single smart home network making it suitable for indoor and outdoor smart home applications in multi-dwelling units, hotels, and hospitals, and removing the need for repeaters. The Z-Wave LR specification will be managed and certified under the Z-Wave Plus V2 certification program that currently mandates the inclusion of the enhanced S2 security framework as well as SmartStart plug-and-play setup feature for the consumer smart home. More details may be found on the press release and some of the sessions that were presented at Works With by Silicon Labs Virtual Conference on September 9-10, 2020. Via EE News Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX […]

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September 9, 2020September 9, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

$10 System-on-Module Drives Full HD Smart Displays via SigmaStar SSD201 SoC

SigmaStar makes some of the cheapest processors for cameras on the market such as MStar MSC313E SoC. I’ve now been informed about a new low-cost module – IDO-SOM2D01 – based on SigmaStar SSD201 dual-core Cortex-A7 Full HD SoC with 64MB embedded DDR2, 28MB flash, as well as support for Ethernet and WiFi. As far as I understand, there’s no camera input, and instead, the SSD201 processor targets applications leveraging Full HD display for the Smart Home, industrial HMI, and home control systems. Industio IDO-SOM2D01 system-on-module specifications: SoC – SigmaStar SSD201 dual-core Cortex-A7 processor @ 1.2 GHz with 2D GPU, 64MB DDR2 RAM (QFN128 package) Storage – 128MB SPI NAND flash (option up to 2GB) Video Decoder – H.264/H.265 up to 1920×1080 @ 60 fps 96x castellated holes (1.1mm pitch) with Video Output – 4-lane MIPI DSI up to 1080p60 Audio – 1x analog microphone input, 2x DMIC inputs, 1x Line Out Networking – 2x 10/100M Ethernet interfaces USB – 1x […]

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September 1, 2020September 1, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

M5Stack Launches Core2 ESP32 IoT Development Kit with 2-inch Touch Display

M5Stack has just launched an upgrade to its M5Stack Core development with M5Stack Core2 based on the same Espressif ESP32 WiFI + Bluetooth SoC, but adding capacitive touchscreen support to the 2-inch TFT LCD, as well as a motion sensor and a microphone. The new version also adds 8MB PSRAM, a larger 390 mAh battery, and targets IoT terminals for Smart Home, industrial automation or robotics, STEM Education, and DIY prototyping. M5Stack Core2 specifications: SoC – Espressif ESP32-D0WD-V3 dual-core Xtensa LX6 processor clocked at up to 240MHz with 520KB SRAM, Wi-Fi, and dual-mode Bluetooth connectivity External Memory – 8MB PSRAM Storage – 16MB flash storage, MicroSD card slot up to 16GB Display – 2-inch IPS LCD screen with 320×240 resolution (ILI9342C driver), and touchscreen support (via FT6336U controller) Audio – 1W speaker (1W-0928), SPM4123 microphone, NS4168 I2S power amplifier Antenna – 2.4GHz 3D antenna USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and programming via CP2104 chip Sensors – 6-axis […]

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August 14, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Renesas ZMOD4410 Indoor Air Quality HAT for Raspberry Pi Measures VOC, Humidity, and Temperature

We’ve recently covered a few products or solutions designed to report indoor air quality (IAQ) including ESPurna firmware getting support for BME680 precise indoor air quality measurements and Metriful Sense indoor environment monitor for Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Avnet has now introduced its own Raspberry Pi IAQ add-on board with “Renesas ZMOD4410 Indoor Air Quality HAT for Raspberry Pi” capable of measuring VOC (volatile organic compounds), humidity and temperature, as well as estimating carbon dioxide (eCO2) levels. Renesas ZMOD4410 TVOC Sensor Hat (AES-RHSEN-ZM44-G) key features and specifications: Sensor – Renesas ZMOD4410 TVOC / IAQ I2C sensor, Renesas HS3001 relative humidity & temperature I2C sensor Misc – Power LED; software-controlled status LEDs for “sample active” and “limit” Host Interface – 20-header for Raspberry Pi with configurable alarm/interrupt output Power Supply via header Jumper for supply voltage selection between 1.75V and 3.9V (default: 3.3V) Test points to measure ZMOD4410 current consumption Avnet provides a pre-compiled test application using Renesas TVOC and eCO2 […]

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August 13, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

MediaTek i350 Edge AI Processor is Designed for Mainstream AIoT & Smart Home Applications

MediaTek is well known for its mobile processors, but recently the company also manufactures IoT and AI processors such as MediaTek i300/i500 and MediaTek i700. The company has now introduced an updated to the entry-level MediaTek i300 processor with MediaTek i350 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor integrated with DSP and AI processor for vision and voice edge processing applications including facial, object, gesture, motion recognition, license plate recognition (LPR), voice activation and speed recognition, sound isolation, bio-tech and biometric measurements, and more. MediaTek i350 key features and specifications: Processor – 4x Arm Cortex-A53 cores up to 2.0 GHz with 512KB unified L2 cache, Arm NEON GPU – Arm Mali-G52 MC1 up to 800Mhz with support for OpenGL ES, OpenCL, and Vulkan APIs Co-processor – MediaTek APU 1.0 AI Processor up to 500MHz (285 GMACs) Memory -LPDDR4/LPDDR4X up to 3200Mbps, LPDDR3, DDR3/L up to 1866Mbps Storage – eMMC 5.1 flash (SLC/MLC/TLC) Display Interfaces LVDS, HDMI, MIPI DSI, MediaTek DPI with 8-bit RGB/YUV444, or […]

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