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November 13, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Arduino Nesso N1 – An ESP32-C6 IoT wireless development kit with WiFi 6, BLE, 802.15.4, LoRa, and IR transmitter

Arduino Nesso N1 is a new ESP32-C6 IoT development kit with not only 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, Bluetooth LE, and an 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee/Thread/Matter, but also a LoRa radio and an IR transmitter for smart home, industrial, and educational applications. Developed in collaboration with M5Stack, the Nesson N1 also features a 1.14-inch touchscreen display, a 6-axis motion sensor, a few LEDs and buttons, as well as Grove and Qwiic expansion connectors, and an 8-pin GPIO header. Nesso N1 specifications: SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-C6 CPU Single-core 32-bit RISC-V clocked up to 160 MHz Low-power RISC-V core @ up to 20 MHz Memory/Storage – 320KB ROM, 512KB SRAM Wireless – 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, and 802.15.4 radio for Thread/Zigbee Storage – 16MB NOR Flash Display – 1.14-inch touchscreen display with 240 x 135 resolution, 262K colors; ST7789P3 driver, FT6336U capacitive touch Wireless 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, BLE 5.3, Zigbee […]

August 22, 2025August 22, 2025 by Debashis Das - 2 Comments

Genesis IoT Discovery Lab is a modular ESP32-S3-based wire-free prototyping platform (Crowdfunding)

Genesis IoT Discovery Lab ESP32 S3 prototyping platform

Developed by Axiometa in Lithuania, the Genesis IoT Discovery Lab is a modular Wi-Fi-enabled prototyping platform built around the ESP32-S3 and a standardized module with AX22 connectors, designed to replace messy breadboards with a structured, plug-and-play system. Designed to simplify hardware development and education, this prototyping module features eight universal AX22 ports, a USB OTG Type-C port, a battery module with charging, and support for over 50 sensors and peripherals. Modules include sensors, buttons, motors, LEDs, relays, and displays, all secured with robust connectors. With open-source hardware and various expansion add-ons, it’s suitable for education, IoT prototyping, and fast hardware iterations. Genesis IoT Discovery Lab specifications: Wireless Module – ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3 CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 up to 240 MHz with vector extension for AI/ML workloads RAM – 512KB SRAM Storage – 8MB flash Wireless – WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE 5 Antenna – PCB antenna USB […]

August 7, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

XIAOML Kit with ESP32-S3, camera, microphone, and IMU complements a free Machine Learning Systems book

XIAOML Kit Machine Learning Systems Book

The XIAOML Kit is one of the devkits that complements Harvard University Professor Vijay Janapa Reddi’s book “Introduction to Machine Learning Systems“, available for free as a 2050-page PDF file. Made by Seeed Studio, the XIAOML Kit is composed of the XIAO ESP32S3 Sense with an ESP32-S3 WiFI and Bluetooth SoC, a microSD card slot, a built-in OV3660 camera and microphone, and the “IMU Breakout board” featuring a 6-axis IMU and 0.42-inch OLED display. The kit enables students, educators, and developers to build vision, sound, and motion applications through tinyML lab sessions developed with Marcelo Rovai (UNIFEI). XIAOML Kit specifications: Main Board – XIAO ESP32S3 Sense SoC – 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 flash, microSD card slot Sensors – OV3660 camera, digital microphone USB – USB-C port […]

August 4, 2025August 4, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Hengbot Sirius is a trainable AI robotic dog for consumers and developers (Crowdfunding)

Hengbot Sirius is a small AI robotic dog that can be trained by users with “manual teaching” and by developers using tools such as Sirius Creator Studio Pro and C or Python APIs. Features include an 8MP camera, a dual-mic array, and a speaker for user interaction using LLMs, text-to-speech, voice recognition, and computer vision leveraging the built-in 5 TOPS AI accelerator, a small LCD, a few RGB LEDs and sensors, and 14 DoF for legs and the head. We’ve seen plenty of other robot dogs over the years, such as the Hiwonder MechDog, the Raspberry Pi CM4-based CM4 XGO Lite smart robot dog, Mini Pupper 2, and Petoi Bittle, among others. Most are more robot-like than dog-like, and the Sirius has a more appealing design closer to a real dog. Hengbot Sirius specifications: SoC – Unnamed but likely Horizon Robotics Sunrise X3 CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 @ 1.2-1.5 […]

August 1, 2025August 1, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Tonybot educational humanoid robot is programmable with Arduino, Scratch, and Python

While child-sized humanoid robots like the Unitree R1 have come down in price, not everybody has a spare $6,000 to throw around to play with robots, and smaller models like the Tonybot are more affordable for educational purposes. The Tonybot offers 17 degrees of freedom, relies on high-voltage bus servos and anti-blockage servos, and has a separate ESP32 expansion board for extra modules. Optionally equipped with an ESP32-S3 AI vision camera and an AI voice integration module, the 38cm tall humanoid robot supports object and face recognition, color and line following tracking, human-robot interaction, fall recovery, obstacle avoidance, and more, besides walking, dancing, etc… Tonybot specifications: H5S Robot Controller Storage – MicroSD card socket 6x servo ports, head module port Bluetooth/MP3 module header Sensor – Accelerometer Debugging – 4-pin UART header Misc ON/OFF switch Buzzer Power Supply Via DC jack Terminal block for battery ESP32 Expansion Board ESP32-DevKitC board PWM […]

July 3, 2025July 2, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

OpenWheely is a 4WD robot car based on ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 WiFi and BLE module (Crowdfunding)

Sanket Garg’s OpenWheely is a 4WD robot car based on Espressif ESP32-S3-WROOM WiFi and Bluetooth LE module that is equipped with a 2-inch display, a 5MP camera, and various sensors. The robot car can drive upside down, follow sound and light, stream live video, and operate in a swarm. It can be controlled from a Phone, a PC, or an infrared TV remote, but Sanket also designed an ESP32-S3 gamepad with a 2.0-inch display and two joysticks to control the car. We’re also told OpenWheely can be used by students, educators, developers, gamers, and robotic enthusiasts. OpenWheely robot car specifications: Wireless Module – ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3 CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 up to 240 MHz with vector extension for AI/ML workloads RAM – 512KB SRAM Storage – TBD Wireless – WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE 5 Antenna – PCB antenna Display – 2.0-inch LCD screen Camera – […]

May 2, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

SO-ARM101 open-source dual robotic arm kit works with Hugging Face’s LeRobot

SO-ARM101 robotic arm with hugging face support

SO-ARM101 “Arm Servo Motor Kit” is an open-source dual robotic arm kit that works with Hugging Face’s LeRobot robotics framework and is designed to interface with NVIDIA Jetson AI modules and computers. It is an update to the SO-ARM100 DIY open-source robotic arm kit introduced last year with LeRobot framework support. The new SO-ARM101 is still comprised of leader and follower arms but features improved wiring to prevent disconnection issues previously seen at joint 3, motors with optimized gear ratios, and a few functionality where the leader arm can now follow the follower arm in real-time, which will be used for reinforcement learning (RL) where a human can intervene and correct the robot’s actions. SO-ARM101 specifications: Degrees of Freedom (DOF) – 6 per Arm Motor control Total servo – 12x STS3215 bus servos (6x for each Arm) Leader Arm 1x (7.4V) 1:345 gear ratio motor for No.2 joints 2x (7.4V) […]

April 24, 2025July 31, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

ESPuno Pi Zero ESP32-C6 board takes up to 60V DC input, offers RS-485 interface (Crowdfunding)

ESPuno Pi Zero is a Raspberry Pi Zero-sized board based on an ESP32-C6-MINI-1 WiFI 6, BLE, and 802.15.4 wireless module and an SMPS that allows up to 60V DC input via a 2-pin terminal block. The board also features two USB-C ports, one connected to the ESP32-C6 and the other to a CH343P USB-to-serial chip, a 40-pin GPIO header, a Grove connector, a 3-pin terminal block for RS-485, DMX, Profibus, and a few buttons and LEDs. ESPuno Pi Zero specifications: ESP32-C6-MINI-1-N4 or ESP32-C6-MINI-1U-N4 SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-C6 CPU Single-core 32-bit RISC-V clocked up to 160 MHz Low-power RISC-V core @ up to 20 MHz Memory/Storage – 320KB ROM, 512KB SRAM Wireless – 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, and 802.15.4 radio (for Thread/Zigbee) Storage – 4MB flash Antenna ESP32-C6-MINI-1-N4 – PCB antenna ESP32-C6-MINI-1U-N4 – External antenna Storage – 64Kbit 24C64 I2C EEPROM USB 1x USB Type-C UART (CH343P) port […]