CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 23, 2024April 22, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

The Open Home Foundation will manage Home Assistant, ESPHome, Zigpy among over 240 open-source Smart Home projects

The Open Home Foundation is a non-profit organization that will manage over 240 Smart Home projects, standards, drivers, and libraries including Home Assistant, ESPHome, Zigpy, Piper, and Improv Wi-Fi with the goal of “fight[ing] for the fundamental principles of privacy, choice, and sustainability for smart homes”. The non-profit was introduced during the “State of the Open Home 2024” (see video embedded at the end of this article) with Nabu Casa – the for-profit company behind Home Assistant – transferring all their projects to the new entity, and the Open Home Foundation will also help with the development of critical external projects such as Z-Wave JS, WLED, Rhasspy, and Zigbee2MQTT. The foundation further explains the goal of teaming multiple projects together in a stronger structure: We’ve done this to create a bulwark against surveillance capitalism, the risk of buyout, and open-source projects becoming abandonware. To an extent, this protection extends even […]

April 22, 2024April 22, 2024 by Tomisin Olujinmi - 2 Comments

Louder Raspberry Pi is an open-source home media center that is powered by Raspberry Pi Zero and a TI TAS5805M DAC

Louder Raspberry Pi is an open-source home media center based on a combination of the Raspberry Pi Zero W or Zero 2 W and the Texas Instruments TAS5805M DAC. It is an audio entertainment platform created by Andriy Malyshenko of Sonocotta, a Polish electronics hobbyist and maker. Louder Raspberry Pi incorporates the computing power of the Raspberry Pi Zero and the Hi-Fi audio processing capabilities of TI’s TAS5805M DAC in a compact, aluminum case. The device delivers up to 25W per channel stereo output and is powered via a 65W+ USB-C PD3.0 adapter. It is “aimed to be paired with medium-to-large speaker systems” and supports both Wi-Fi and Ethernet. The Raspberry Pi board was selected over other lightweight alternatives due to the ease of development it offers. The Raspberry Pi Zero board is small enough to make for an overall compact device and powerful enough to handle the demands of […]

April 22, 2024April 22, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Testing ntttcp as an iperf3 alternative in Windows 11 (and Linux)

ntttcp (Windows NT Test TCP) is a network benchmarking utility similar to iperf3 that works in both Windows and Linux written and recommended by Microsoft over iperf3, so we’ll test the alternative in this mini review. iperf3 is a utility of choice for our reviews of single board computers and mini PCs running either Windows or Linux, but we’ve noticed that while Ethernet (up to 2.5GbE) usually performs just as well in Windows and Linux, WiFi is generally much faster in Ubuntu 22.04 than in Windows 11. So when XDA developers noticed a post by Microsoft saying iperf3 should not be used on Windows 11, it caught my attention. Microsoft explains iperf3 should not be used in Windows for three main reasons: The maintainer of iperf – ESnet (Energy Sciences Network) – says “iperf3 is not officially supported on Windows, but iperf2 is. We recommend you use iperf2. Some people […]

April 22, 2024April 25, 2024 by Sponsored Post - No Comments

GEEKOM Mini IT12 Mini PC is now available for $349, the lowest price ever (Sponsored)

Following the ongoing $200 off promotion for the powerful GEEKOM A7 mini PC, GEEKOM is now offering another discount for its mid-range Mini IT12 mini PC powered by an Intel Core i5-12450H processor with 16GB RAM and a 512GB M.2 2280 NVMe SSD storage that is now sold for $349 – the lowest price ever – instead of $449, when using the coupon code cnxit12off on GEEKOM US or GEEKOM UK for a $100 discount. While it’s a mid-range mini PC, it still comes with premium features such as two USB4 ports capable of 40 Gbps transfer rate and DisplayPort Alt. mode video output or 2.5GbE and WiFi 6E networking. The GEEKOM Mini IT12 (Core i5-12450H) mini PC also supports up to four 4K displays through HDMI and USB4 ports, additional storage thanks to an M.2 2242 SATA socket and a a 2.5-inch SATA slot, and comes with a total […]

April 22, 2024April 22, 2024 by Debashis Das - 2 Comments

Microchip 8-bit AVR DU family supports secure USB connectivity and 15W power delivery

At Embedded World 2024, Microchip announced their new AVR DU family of 8-bit MCUs featuring a full-speed USB 2.0 data interface along with USB-C 15W Power Delivery enabling up to 12Mbps data transfer and charging. They also have features like secure bootloaders and Program and Debug Interface Disable (PDID), which protect your embedded designs. Based on the Harvard architecture, these MCUs can have up to 64 KB of Flash memory, 8 KB of SRAM, and 256 bytes of EEPROM. Their wide operating voltage range of 1.8V to 5.5V makes them suitable for small, space-sensitive devices, power bricks, and rechargeable devices. But one thing to note is that the USB function is only available for VDD above 3.0V and I2C Fm+ (Fast-mode Plus) is only supported for 2.7V and above. I²C Fm+ extends the standard I²C protocol, boosting communication speeds up to 1 MHz while maintaining compatibility with older I²C devices. It’s […]

April 22, 2024April 21, 2024 by Tomisin Olujinmi - 1 Comment

FOCn ESP32-S3-based, medium-power BLDC driver module supports SimpleFOC

European engineer, Matej Planinšek of PLab, has developed the FOCn — a medium-power BLDC driver module based on ESP32-S3 WiSoC capable of delivering up to 10A of continuous current. It is compatible with the SimpleFOC Arduino library making it easier to control BLDC (brushless direct current) and stepper motors with the field-oriented control algorithm. The developer was inspired to create the FOCn module when their search for a custom-made, SimpleFOC-compatible driver module that met all their requirements failed. The name is related to field-oriented control (FOC) and also means “face slap” in Slovenian, Matej’s native language. The driver module is based on the ESP32-S3 dual-core XTensa LX7 microcontroller which provides Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. The microcontroller further supports ESP-NOW, a low-power and low-latency communication protocol, which makes it possible for multiple FOCn boards to talk to one another. FOCn driver module specifications: MCU – ESP32-S3 dual-core XTensa LX7 microcontroller @ […]

April 21, 2024April 21, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

Rockchip RK3588’s NPU open-source driver performs object detection at 30 FPS

Tomeu Vizoso has been working on an open-source driver for NPU (Neural Processing Unit) found in Rockchip RK3588 SoC in the last couple of months, and the project has nicely progressed with object detection working fine at 30 fps using the SSDLite MobileDet model and just one of the three cores from the AI accelerator. Many recent processors include AI accelerators that work with closed-source drivers, but we had already seen reverse-engineering works on the Allwinner V831’s NPU a few years ago, and earlier this year, we noted that Tomeu Vizoso released the Etvaniv open-source driver that works on Amlogic A311D’s Vivante NPU. Tomeu has now also started working on porting his Teflon TensorFlow Lite driver to the Rockchip RK3588 NPU which is closely based on NVIDIA’s NVDLA open-source IP. He started his work in March leveraging the reverse-engineering work already done by Pierre-Hugues Husson and Jasbir Matharu and was […]

April 20, 2024April 19, 2024 by Debashis Das - 12 Comments

Unexpected Maker NANOS3 might be the world’s tiniest ESP32-S3 module, yet fully-featured

Unexpected Maker NANOS3 A ESP32 S3 Powred Dev Board

Seon Rozenblum, better known as Unexpected Maker, has launched NANOS3 a development board that claims to be the world’s smallest, fully-featured ESP32-S3 module! This new module packs all the peripherals, and wireless connectivity features of an ESP32-S3 while being even smaller than the TinyPICO Nano. The module features two variants one with an onboard 3D antenna and the other with an u.FL connector. Previously we have written about TinyS3, FeatherS3, and ProS3 boards from Unexpected Maker we have also covered many unique ESP32-S3 boards like the ESP32-S3 PowerFeather Board with solar input, the Waveshare ESP32-S3-Relay-6CH, the ESP32-S3 4G dev boards and more feel free to check those out if you are interested in ESP32 boards with advanced features. Unexpected Maker NANOS3 Specifications ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N8R2 MCU – ESP32-S3 dual-core Tensilica LX7 up to 240 MHz with 512KB SRAM, 16 KB RTC SRAM Memory – 2MB QSPI PSRAM Storage – 8MB QSPI flash Wireless – […]