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August 4, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

BG2B is the lowest-power Bluetooth LE SoC from Silicon Labs so far

Silicon Labs BG2B is an ultra-low-power Arm Cortex-M33 Bluetooth 6 LE SoC with support for Channel Sounding, “Secure Vault High” security, and integrated CAN-FD and peripherals such as LED drivers and ADCs for smaller, longer-lasting IoT devices. The company claims it’s the lowest-power Bluetooth LE device in its portfolio, with 1.1 µA EM2 sleep current with RAM retention, as well as 14%-15% lower MCU active current and lower Bluetooth receive current compared to Silicon Labs BG22/BG22L. The new microcontroller targets secure ranging, asset tracking, electronic shelf labels (ESLs), smart home, industrial monitoring, and vehicle diagnostics. Silicon Labs BG2B specifications: CPU core – 32-bit Arm Cortex-M33 @ 80 MHz with DSP instructions and floating-point unit (FPU) Memory – 64 kB or 128 kB SRAM Storage – 1016 kB flash Wireless – 2.4 GHz radio Modulation Formats OQPSK DSSS 2 (G)FSK with fully configurable shaping (G)MSK Protocols Bluetooth Low Energy 6 Channel […]

August 3, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

ChronoWatch X2040 – A DIY watch with off-the-shelf Raspberry Pi RP2040 round display, 3D printed case, and custom firmware

If you’ve ever wanted to build your own watch, the ChronoWatch X2040 DIY watch allows you to do it the easy way with a Waveshare RP2040-Touch-LCD-1.28 touch LCD board, a 3D-printed case, a 3.7V LiPo battery, a few screws, and firmware using the Pico C/C++ SDK. When Vishal Soni decided he wanted to build a watch, he initially planned to design a custom board, but since there are already several round LCD boards based on Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU, he went with a Waveshare board, preferring to spend more time on firmware programming. ChronoWatch X2040 parts: Waveshare RP2040-Touch-LCD-1.28 with Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU and 1.28-inch round touch display – About $23 to $29 on Amazon, AliExpress, or the Waveshare store. 3D printed case designed with Tinkercad 3.7V 950mAh Lipo battery (35 x 25 x 10 mm) M2 4mm screw M2 heat inserts 2-pin MX1.25 connector 1mm heat shrink sleeve tube […]

July 29, 2026July 29, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

SensWear – An open-source modular Nordic nRF54L15 development platform for wearables

SensWear nRF54L15 wearables development platform

SensWear is an open-source hardware development platform for wearables based on Nordic nRF54L15 Bluetooth LE SoC and a range of sensors designed for researchers, developers, and companies building smart rings, wristbands, patches, and other custom devices. The solution is mainly comprised of flexible boards, including the SensWear core board with an nRF54L15 MCU and a 6-axis IMU sensor, and daughter boards with either PPG and optical sensing, temperature sensing, capacitive touch sensing, or haptic feedback. SensWear key features and specifications: Core mainboard SoC – Nordic Semi nRF54L15 CPU Arm Cortex-M33 @ up to 128 MHz RISC-V coprocessor for “software-defined peripheral” Memory – 256 KB SRAM Storage – 1.5MB Non-volatile Memory (NVM) Wireless Bluetooth LE 6.0 Thread, Zigbee (IEEE 802.15.4-2020) Matter Amazon Sidewalk Proprietary 2.4 GHz protocols with a new 4 Mbps mode NFC support Sensors Bosch BHI360 six-axis smart IMU and sensor hub Standardized interface for interchangeable daughter boards I2C and […]

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 […]

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… […]

May 22, 2026May 22, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

M5Stack StopWatch ESP32-S3 devkit offers 1.75-inch touch AMOLED, microphone, speaker, and GPIO expansion

M5Stack Core StopWatch is an ESP32-S3-powered WiFi and Bluetooth development board with a 1.75-inch round AMOLED touch display, 16MB flash, and 8MB PSRAM designed for portable IoT devices, electronic badges, and wearables. The device also features a 1W speaker and a MEMS microphone for voice interaction, two programmable buttons, a vibration motor, a 6-axis IMU sensor, an RTC, and expansion capabilities through a Grove connector and GPIO headers. It’s powered by a 450 mAh battery managed by an “M5PM1 multi-level power management” solution and charged over a USB-C port. M5Stack Core StopWatch specifications: SoC – Espressif ESP32-S3R8 CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration Memory – 8MB PSRAM Wireless – WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE + Mesh connectivity Storage – 16MB flash Display – 1.75-inch AMOLED round touch display with 466 x 466 resolution Audio 1W speaker MEMS microphone ES8311 […]

May 15, 2026May 15, 2026 by Debashis Das - 4 Comments

PENOX WristBuds – A Bluetooth 6.0 smartwatch with integrated TWS earbuds (Crowdfunding)

WristBuds 2 in 1 Smartwatch with ENC Earbuds

PENOX WristBuds is a 2-in-1 rugged Bluetooth 6.0 smartwatch with integrated TWS earbuds, eliminating the need for a separate charging case. Designed for outdoor enthusiasts and the “zero-clutter mobility” market. The watch is built around a Bluetrum AB5681G RISC-V smartwatch MCU managing both the smartwatch interface and audio synchronization. The device sports a large 2.1-inch IPS display with a 320×390 resolution and is housed in a CNC-machined zinc alloy body. But what’s interesting about this is its mechanical, spring-loaded “Pop & Snap” design that houses the TWS earbuds inside the watch, and eliminates the need for a separate charging case. PENOX WristBuds specifications: MCU – Bluetooth AB5681G CPU – 32-bit RISC-V CPU @ up to 140 MHz Memory – TBC (not mentioned at all in the MCU datasheet) Storage – 128Mbit integrated NOR Flash Display & Graphics – SPI/QSPI display engine with HW acceleration (DMA, rotation, scaling, blending) Audio – […]

April 26, 2026April 26, 2026 by Debashis Das - 13 Comments

LightInk – An ESP32-based, solar-powered E-ink smartwatch with up to 10 months of battery life

Daniel Ansorregui has developed LightInk, an open-source solar-powered E-ink watch inspired by 90s solar digital watches. It features a 1.54-inch e-paper display and supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LoRa, and GPS, running on a 100mAh battery. The project integrates a custom low-quiescent-power design using a TPS63900 buck-boost converter, capacitive-touch input, and deep-sleep-driven firmware, along with ultra-fast partial e-ink updates (<1 ms active time) and precise RTC timekeeping with drift calibration. It also supports solar-first operation (no dedicated charging IC) and dynamic power gating of peripherals, enabling around 9–10 months of operation on a small battery supplemented by solar power. LightInk specifications: System-in-package – ESP32-PICO-D4 SiP CPU – Dual-core processor @ 240MHz Memory – 520KB SRAM Storage – 4MB flash Wireless – 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi 4 up to 150 Mbps and Bluetooth 4.2 BR/LE connectivity Display – 1.54-inch 200×200 B/W e-Paper panel (GDEH0154D67 or compatible) Audio – 10-15mm piezo electric disc speaker Connectivity […]