Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on PureThermal 3 board embeds FLIR Lepton FS thermal camera for $200

PureThermal 3 board embeds FLIR Lepton FS thermal camera for $200

PureThermal 3 FLIR Lepton FS board

Groupgets PureThermal 3 (PT3) is a hackable thermal webcam that ships with the low-cost FLIR Lepton FS module, and is compatible with FLIR Lepton (2.x – 3.x) LWIR camera core. The company explains the new model offers the same basic functionality as the PureThermal 2 but with a few changes and additional features, although the motivation for the new design was primarily to address component shortages. Some changes include the removal of pads to install an RF shield, and the Tag-Connect TC2030 programming connector is replaced by the Tag-Connect EC-10-IDC. PureThermal 3 specifications with changes highlighted in bold: Microcontroller – STMicro STM32F412 Arm Cortex-M4 MCU @ 100 MHz with up to 1024 KB flash, 256 KB SRAM Camera support Supports LIR Lepton (2.x – 3.x) LWIR camera cores Ships with FLIR Lepton FS non-radiometric 160 x 120 resolution micro thermal camera module USB – USB Type-C port with USB UVC […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Sensirion SCD40 CO2 sensor units for makers: M5Stack UNIT CO2 and TeHyBug ESP8285 device

Sensirion SCD40 CO2 sensor units for makers: M5Stack UNIT CO2 and TeHyBug ESP8285 device

M5Stack UNIT CO2

We just wrote about the Infineon XENSIV PAS CO2 Shield2Go board to measure carbon dioxide (CO2) levels last week, but I’ve just come across two more hardware with a CO2 sensor designed for makers, but based on Sensirion SCD40 sensor instead, and mostly designed to monitor indoor CO2 levels since high concentrations may impact your health negatively. The first one is the M5Stack UNIT CO2 that’s designed to be connected to one of the company’s Core modules through an I2C interface, and TeHyBug portable mini sensor device equipped with ESP8285 WiFi microcontroller, as well as optional AHT10 temperature & humidity sensor and BMP280 pressure sensor, besides the SCD40 sensor. M5Stack UNIT CO2 Specifications: Sensirion SCD40 sensor CO2 Measurement range – 400 ~ 2000 ppm CO2 Sampling accuracy – ±(50 ppm + 5% of reading) Temperature range – -10 – 60°C with 0.8°C   accuracy Humidity range – 0 – 95% RH […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments on Topton N1 dual-bay NAS features AMD Athlon 3050e CPU, four Ethernet ports

Topton N1 dual-bay NAS features AMD Athlon 3050e CPU, four Ethernet ports

Topton 2 Bay NAS N1

Powered by an AMD Athlon Silver 3050e dual-core processor, Topton N1 (aka TP-N1) NAS comes with two SATA bays for 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch drives, as well as four gigabit Ethernet ports. The system can support up to 32GB RAM, relies on M.2 SSD storage for the OS, and can provide up to 40TB of data storage through the two SATA bays. It is also equipped with an HDMI output port, several USB 3.x/2.0 ports, as well as a 3.5mm audio jack. Topton N1 specifications: SoC – AMD Athlon Silver 3050e dual-core/quad-thread processor @ 1.4 / 2.8 GHz (Turbo) with Radeon Vega 3 graphics @ 1 GHz; TDP: 6W System Memory – Up to 32GB DDR4-2400 RAM via two SO-DIMM slots Storage M.2 2280 socket for a (PCIe 3.0) NVMe SSD 2x SATA III bay for 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch driver for a maximum of 40TB data storage (based on currently available […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments on Banana Pi BPI-R3 WiFi 6 router board features MediaTek Filogic 830/MT7986 SoC

Banana Pi BPI-R3 WiFi 6 router board features MediaTek Filogic 830/MT7986 SoC

Banana Pi BPI-R3 router board

I first noticed the MediaTek MT7986 WiFi router processor in Linux 5.17 changelog. MT7986 is the codename for MediaTek Filogic 830 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor designed for Wi-Fi 6/6E routers with up to 6 Gbps bandwidth, and two 2.5Gbps Ethernet interfaces. Banana Pi BPI-R3 is a router board based on Filogic 830/MT7986A that offers an upgrade to the company’s Banana Pi BPI-R2 board powered by a MediaTek MT7623A quad-core Cortex-A7 processor or even the Banana Pi BPI-R64 board based on a MediaTek MT7622 dual-core Arm Cortex-A53 SoC. Banana Pi BPI-R3 specifications: SoC – MediaTek MT7986A (Filogic 830) quad-core Arm Cortex A53 processor with hardware acceleration engines for Wi-Fi offloading and networking System Memory – 2GB DDR RAM Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card socket, support for M.2 NVMe SSD Networking 2x 2.5GbE SFP cages, 5x Gigabit Ethernet ports (1x WAN + 4x LAN) via MT7531AE 7-port switch WiFi 6 4×4 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX fanless embedded box PC features four HDMI input ports

NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX fanless embedded box PC features four HDMI input ports

NVIDIA Xavier NX embedded box pc four HDMI inputs

AAEON BOXER-8256AI is a fanless embedded box PC equipped with an NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX system-on-module, offering four HDMI input ports – two Full HD, two 4K capable -, as well as two HDMI outputs for smart healthcare equipment, digital signage, and entertainment. The embedded computer comes with 8GB RAM and a 16GB flash provided by the NVIDIA module, supports M.2 NVMe and SATA storage, Gigabit Ethernet, plus optional WiFI, 4G, and 5G cellular connectivity through M.2 sockets.   BOXER-8256AI specifications: SoM – NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX with CPU – 6-core NVIDIA Carmel Armv8.2 64-bit CPU GPU – 384-core NVIDIA Volta GPU with 48 Tensor Cores AI accelerator – 2x NVDLA deep learning accelerators AI performance – Up to 21 TOPS at 15 Watts System Memory – 8GB LPDDR4x Storage – 16GB eMMC flash Storage – MicroSD Slot, M.2 NVMe SSD socket, SATA III port Display Interfaces – 2x HDMI […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Telink energy harvesting wireless module to enable batteryless remote controls

Telink energy harvesting wireless module to enable batteryless remote controls

Telink Energy Harvesting Multi protocol Wireless module TV remote control

Telink TLSR8273-M-EH is a multi-protocol wireless connectivity module with energy harvesting capabilities implemented through Nowi’s PMIC, and designed for batteryless devices (or ones with “forever batteries”) such as TV remote controls, but also wearables, and electronic shelf labels among others. The solution is based on a 48MHz RISC microcontroller that supports Bluetooth 5.1 LE, 802.15.4 (Zigbee/RF4CE/6LoWPAN/Thread), and 2.4GHz proprietary protocols. With a single module integrating all main components required for batteryless operation, Telink says its solutions reduce BOM and size, as well as supply chain complexity, and improves user-friendliness by removing the need for battery swaps. Telink TLSR8273-M-EH specifications: Core – 32-bit RISC microcontroller @ up to 48 MHz (CoreMark 1.25/MHz) Memory – 64 KB SRAM with 32 KB retention Storage – 512 KB flash RF Bluetooth 5.1 LE up to 2 Mbps, with AOA/AOD support, Bluetooth Mesh IEEE 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee, RF4CE, 6LoWPAN, Thread 2.4GHz proprietary protocols RX […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on Wi-SUN: An LPWAN standard for Smart Cities, Smart Agriculture, large scale IoT deployments

Wi-SUN: An LPWAN standard for Smart Cities, Smart Agriculture, large scale IoT deployments

Wi SUN network architecture

Wi-SUN is a standard (IEEE 802.15.4g) managed by the Wi-SUN Alliance and designed for Smart Cities, Smart Agriculture, and other large scale IoT deployments with a large number of devices thanks to the use of IPv6 mesh networking. The organization was founded in 2011 to “support the worldwide development of Wireless Communications Networks for Utilities, Smart Cities and IoT”, but due to the niche nature of target applications, it does not get that much press coverage and was only recently brought to my attention. Wi-SUN stands for “Wireless Smart Utility Networks”or “Wireless Smart Ubiquitous Networks”, and the standard aims to connect streetlights, cameras, weather stations, smart metering, utility transmission systems, and others to enable data-sharing between city services to improve their efficiency, save costs, and offer improves services to citizens. Wi-SUN FAN (Field Area Network) is the latest protocol managed by the Wi-SUN Alliance with over 95 million units shipped […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Intel Loihi 2 high-efficiency neuromorphic chip works with the Lava open-source framework

Intel Loihi 2 high-efficiency neuromorphic chip works with the Lava open-source framework

Intel Loihi 2

Neuromorphic AI accelerator chips relying on spiking neural networks (SNN), which we’ve seen from companies such as Innatera or Brainchip, will be used more and more in the future as they provide much higher efficiency compared to traditional deep neural networks (DNN) solutions. Intel is also working on SNN, and recently announced the Loihi 2 second-generation neuromorphic research chip with up to 1 million neurons (the human brain has 86 billion of those on average) that delivers up to 175x lower energy to learn a new object instance with similar or better speed and accuracy compared to conventional methods running on a central processing unit (CPU). The new Loihi 2 neuromorphic chip offers the following improvement over the first generation Loihi: Up to 10x faster processing capability (2x for simple neuron state, 5x for synaptic operations, 10x for spike generation) Up to 60x more inter-chip bandwidth achieved through a combination […]

Boardcon CM3588 Rockchip RK3588 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications