smart home News - Page 4 of 44 - CNX Software

November 13, 2025November 13, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

4-inch UGOOS AC1 smart clock features Amlogic A213Y SoC for smart displays and digital signage

UGOOS is better known for its TV boxes, but the company recently introduced a different product with the AC1 smart clock based on an Amlogic A213Y SoC for smart displays and digital signage applications I had never heard of. Let’s have a look at both. UGOOS AC1 smart clock The AC1 smart clock features a 480×480 resolution display, supports Bluetooth pairing, alarms with different ringtones, displays weather, date, time, and sensor data, and supports features such as photo frame, event notes, and music playback. UGOOS AC1 specifications: SoC – Amlogic A213Y (more details below) System Memory – 256MB DDR4 Storage – 8 GB eMMC flash Display – 4-inch IPS touchscreen display with 480×480 resolution; 2.5D glass cover Audio 3W sound speaker Built-in microphone for voice search Wireless – IEEE 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 4.2 Sensors – Temperature and humidity sensor, light sensor Misc – Touch Key, mute switch, and […]

November 11, 2025December 31, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Giveaway Week 2025 winners announced!

CNX Software’s Giveaway Week 2025 has just ended and we’ve now ready to announce the winners. We offered some of the review samples we tested, and three companies joined us offering new samples, namely Banana Pi with two router boards, VOIPAC with an industrial development kit, and RAKwireless offered two of their IoT development kits for the fifth year running. Besides the aforementioned prize, we also included an ESP32-P4 development kit, a dry switch from SONOFF, a Raspberry Pi CM4-based HMI with a 915MHz LoRa module, a 5-inch Raspberry Pi Touch Display, and two USB PD voltage indicators on both CNX Software “International” and CNX Software Thailand. You can see all prizes shown below. Without further ado, here are the seven winners of Giveaway Week 2025 on CNX Software (English): M5Stack M5Tab – Ed Elecrow Pi Terminal – Tom Banana Pi BPI-R4 Lite router board – Stef 5-inch Raspberry Pi […]

November 6, 2025 by Paisit Wongsongsarn - 7 Comments

Review of SONOFF’s latest Matter Smart Switches – Basic Gen5 and Tx Gen2

Today, we’re about to review not one, but two new Matter devices: the SONOFF Basic Gen5 Smart Switch and the SONOFF Tx Gen2 Smart Wall Switch. Both are upgraded versions of their previous models, now adding support for the Matter protocol (over Wi-Fi). The Basic Gen5 is the fifth generation of the popular Basic series, known for being affordable and widely used in the market. It’s a Wi-Fi smart switch that can control all kinds of devices, such as lights or small electrical devices. Basically, anything within its 10A limit. What’s new compared to the previous BasicR4 is the addition of Matter and near-field control via Bluetooth. As for the Tx Gen2 (T6), it’s an upgraded version of the older T2/T3 lineup. Besides adding Matter, it also brings a few new features, like adjustable backlight brightness and the Detach Relay mode. Both models support voice control via Apple Siri, Google […]

October 29, 2025October 29, 2025 by Debashis Das - 8 Comments

Waveshare MK20 macro keyboard features twenty mechanical keys with 0.85-inch color LCD keycaps

Waveshare MK20 Multi Functional AI Voice Control Panel

Waveshare MK20 is a multifunctional macro keyboard with twenty mechanical keys featuring 0.85-inch LCD keycaps. As an upgrade to the earlier MK10 model, it adds a 2.8-inch secondary display along with two control knobs. The device supports AI voice interaction, real-time data display, and smart home integration with Home Assistant. Like its predecessor, the MK20 relies on a dual-system architecture: an Allwinner T113-S3 dual-core Cortex-A7 processor runs Linux to drive the displays, and a GD32 microcontroller runs QMK for low-latency keyboard and knob input. Each LCD key offers 128×128 resolution and supports dynamic images, videos, and multi-layer overlays, while the 2.8-inch secondary display (428 × 142 resolution) provides status or customization information. The keyboard also includes two rotary encoders with aluminum caps for volume, playback, or timeline control. The device is built with an aluminum alloy top case and a 2.5D acrylic lens for durability. Waveshare MK20 specifications: Main Controller – Allwinner […]

October 28, 2025October 27, 2025 by Debashis Das - 3 Comments

Microchip PIC32-BZ6 BLE 6.0, Thread, and Matter wireless MCU integrates touch and motor control

Microchip IC32 BZ6 single chip wireless MCU

Microchip has recently introduced the PIC32-BZ6 family of single-chip, multiprotocol wireless MCUs, also available as RF-certified modules, and designed for smart home, industrial automation, and automotive applications. The module supports Bluetooth LE 6.0, IEEE 802.15.4-based Thread and Matter, and proprietary mesh protocols. For wired connectivity, there are two CAN-FD ports, a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet MAC, and a USB 2.0 full-speed transceiver. Other features include CVD-based touch sensing and motor control interfaces for interactive and real-time applications. As a secure MCU, the PIC32-BZ6 integrates a hardware-based security engine, a secure boot ROM, and encryption accelerators, along with OTA update capability for long-term device management. The microcontroller offers up to 54 GPIO pins, multiple pin and package options (up to 132-pin VQFN), and automotive-grade variants rated for -40°C to +125°C operation. Microchip PIC32-BZ6 specifications: MCU Core – 128 MHz Arm Cortex-M4F with FPU and DSP extensions Memory 512 KB multi-port SRAM (with […]

October 26, 2025December 23, 2025 by Debashis Das - 1 Comment

CrowPanel Advance 7-inch ESP32-P4 HMI display supports Zigbee, LoRa, and 2.4GHz radio modules

CrowPanel Advanced 7 inch ESP32 P4 HMI AI Display

The CrowPanel Advance 7.0-inch ESP32-P4 HMI AI display is an ESP32-P4 HMI terminal that is similar to the GUITION 7-inch touchscreen display. It also adds an ESP32-C6 module for WiFi 6, Bluetooth LE, and 802.15.4 connectivity, and is suitable for Smart Home, industrial automation, and AIoT applications. It features a 7-inch 1024×600 IPS capacitive touchscreen and optional AI vision and audio through a 2MP MIPI-CSI camera for face and object recognition, and a speaker header and a dual microphone array for interactive voice applications. The smart display also supports interchangeable wireless expansion for Zigbee/Thread, LoRa, and 2.4 GHz proprietary (nRF2401) connectivity. CrowPanel Advance 7.0-inch display specifications: Microcontroller – Espressif Systems ESP32-P4 CPU Dual-core RISC-V HP (High-performance) CPU @ up to 400 MHz with AI instructions extension and single-precision FPU, 768KB of on-chip SRAM Single-RISC-V LP (Low-power) MCU core @ up to 40 MHz with 8KB of zero-wait TCM RAM Memory – […]

October 17, 2025October 16, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Google’s open-source, RISC-V-based Coral NPU is integrated into Synaptics SL2610 Edge AI SoCs

Google has very recently introduced Coral NPU full-stack, open-source RISC-V-based platform for always-on AI on low-power edge devices and wearables. The first chip to integrate the Coral NPU is the upcoming Synaptics Astra SL2610 family. Google Coral NPU The Coral NPU aims to address the software fragmentation on entry-level AI accelerators that makes them difficult to program. By releasing an open-source NPU and associated source code, Google hopes its design will be adopted by silicon vendors, reduce software fragmentation over time, and help machine learning (ML) developers bring products to market faster. Building on the works on the Coral platform, the new, open-source Coral NPU is comprised of three main components: A scalar core – A lightweight, C-programmable RISC-V core that manages data flow to the back-end cores. It uses a simple “run-to-completion” model for ultra-low power consumption and traditional CPU functions. A vector execution unit – A single instruction […]

October 14, 2025October 15, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

ADLINK OSM-IMX95 – An NXP i.MX 95 OSM Size-L system-on-module for IoT and industrial applications

ADLINK OSM-IMX95 is an OSM Size-L solder-on system-on-module powered by an NXP i.MX 95 hexa-core Arm Cortex-A55 SoC with an up to 2 TOPS eIQ Neutron NPU/AI accelerator. It follows the OSM-IMX93 OSM Size-L module based on NXP i.MX 93 SoC, but features a more powerful SoC, up to 16GB LPDDR4L RAM, up to 256GB eMMC flash, and high-speed interfaces like USB 3.0 and PCIe Gen3. The new NXP i.MX 95 OSM module is designed for Smart Home, Smart Building, Smart City, medical, and Industry 4.0 applications. ADLINK OSM-IMX95: SoC – NXP i.MX 95 CPU Up to 6x Arm Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 1.8 GHz Real-time co-processors – Arm Cortex-M7 @ 800MHz and Cortex-M33 @ 250MHz 2D/3D Graphics Acceleration Arm Mali-G310 3D GPU with OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.2, OpenCL 3.0 2D GPU Video Encode / Decode – 4Kp30 H.265 and H.264 AI/ML – 2 TOPS eIQ Neutron NPU System […]