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

Z-Wave Long Range

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 […]

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

IDO-SOM2D01 SigmaStar SSD210 Module

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, 128MB 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 […]

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

M5Stack Core2 ESP32 IoT Devkit

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 […]

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

Renesas ZMOD4410 Indoor Air Quality HAT Raspberry Pi

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 […]

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

MediaTek i350

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 […]

Aegis Secure WiFi Smart Deadbolt Works with Android/iOS Phones (Crowdfunding)

Aegis Secure WiFi Smart Lock

We previously wrote about smart lock systems that allow you to open your door with the help of your smartphone. Products covered including Xiaomi Sherlock M1 that only works with specific doors/locks, and K1 smart lock box that stores your keys in a rugged box meaning it works with all door mechanisms, but it does not seem particularly secure to me. BOSMA Aegis Bluetooth & WiFi smart deadbolt looks to potentially a more secure solution as it should work with any door, and complements your main lock which you may want to use when you are not at home for longer periods of time. Aegis smart deadbolt specifications: Connectivity – Built-in Bluetooth; WiFi via a WiFi connector shipped with Aegis Voice Assitant Integration – Google Home and Amazon Alexa Optional BOSMA Sentry smart doorbell with Storage – Up to 128GB via MicroSD card slot; cloud storage Video – 1080p video […]

Dialog DA16200 WiFi SoC Promises a Year of Battery Life for Always-Connected IoT Devices

Dialog DA16200 WiFi One Year Battery Life

WiFi is omnipresent, and many IoT devices are relying on the wireless standard for connectivity, but as most of you will already know, WiFi suffers from high-power consumption and may not always be suitable for battery-operated devices. There are always battery optimization tricks to use WiFi on battery-powered devices, for example, a solar camera using PIR to only record and transmit video when needed,  or a board optimized to consume as little as possible in deep sleep waking up only when necessary. Those tricks are not applicable to all use cases, so Dialog Semiconductor has launched DA16200 Wi-Fi SoC delivering year plus battery life for always-connected Wi-Fi IoT devices. DA16200 key features and specifications: MCU Core – Arm Cortex M4F @ up to 160 MHz Memory – 512 KB SRAM Storage – 256 kB ROM, 8KB OTP ROM, external flash controller, eMMC, SD host Connectivity 2.4 GHz, 20 MHz channel […]

BeagleBone Green Gateway SBC with Ethernet, WiFi, and Bluetooth Launched for $60

Buy BeagleBone Green Gateway

BeagleBone Green Gateway SBC was first unveiled last July as an update to BeagleBone Green Wireless board with Ethernet, and Octavo Systems OSD3358 SiP along with some smaller changes like support for 12V power supply and I2C RTC + battery. The board did however lose two USB 2.0 ports to make space for the Ethernet connector. The board was not quite available at the time, but the good news is that you can now buy BeagleBone Green Gateway for $59.99 on Seeed Studio. Specifications have remained the same as the ones provided for the initial announcement:  SiP – Octavo Systems OSD3358 with Texas Instruments AM3358 Arm Cortex-A8 processor @ 1.0 GHz, 2×32-bit 200-MHz programmable real-time units (PRUs), 3D graphics accelerator, 512MB DDR3 SDRAM, 4KB EEPROM, and integrated power management Storage – 4GB 8-bit eMMC on-board flash storage (Kington) + microSD socket Connectivity 10/100Mbps Ethernet (RJ45) WiFi 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz + […]