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Canonical Introduces SoDeRa Software Defined Radio Solution for Base Stations and IoT Gateways

Canonical and Lime Micro have jointly announced SoDeRa low-cost software defined radio (SDR) which can be programmed to support any type of wireless standard including UMTS, LTE, LoRa, Bluetooth, Zigbee, RFID, Digital Broadcasting, and more, and aiming at helping operators reducing costs & complexity, while speeding up time to market and providing greater flexibility. The kit will include a board with the following specifications: FPGA – Altera Cyclone IV EP4CE40F23 Altera FPGA (compatible with EP4CE30F23) System Memory – 256 MB DDR2 SDRAM RF Lime Microsystems LMS7002M Transceiver with continuous Frequency range of 100 kHz – 3.8 GHz 4 x TxOut and 6 x RxIn U.FL connectors for RF cables Power Output (CW): up to 6.5 dBm Wi-Fi, 2G, 3G, LTE, any other air interfaces USB – 1x micro USB3 via CYUSB3014-BZXC Cypress Microcontroller  for control, data transfer and power Misc – Status LEDs, RGB LEDs, 4x switches Dimensions –  100 mm x […]

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WAVIoT LPWAN Technology Powers Low Cost Smart Water and Electricity Meters

With the rise of IoT and M2M applications, more and more Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) standards have been launched or being worked on, such as Sigfox, LoRa, 802.11ah “Hallow”, Weightless, etc… with all promising long range, low power consumption, and support for a high number of nodes. WAVIoT, a US startup founded in 2011, has decided to create its own solution called WAVIoT Nb-Fi (Narrowband Fidelity) that works in ISM bands, offers up to 50km line-of-sight range, supports up to 2 million nodes by gateway, lasts over 20 years on a small battery, and with WAVIoT said to cost as low as $2 per node. The technology is already available in smart electricity and water meters, and modules as shown in the picture below. Here are some of WAVIoT Nb-Fi technical specifications: DBPSK on physical layer of signal transmission; End-nodes transmit radio signal in 10-500 kHz bandwidth Minimum […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
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FOSDEM 2016 Schedule – Open Source Hardware and Software Event in Europe

FOSDEM (Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting) is a 2-day event that usually takes place on the first week-end of February in Brussels, but this year it will be on January 30-31. The event brings thousands of developers, hackers, and other person interested in open source technology who present their projects and share ideas. FOSDEM 2016 schedule is now available, and There will be 557 speakers, 612 events, and 50 tracks this year including 7 main tracks: Distros, Enterprise, Hardware, Communications, Miscellaneous, Office, Systems Administration, and Virtualization. So I’ve had a look at some of the talks, especially out of  “Embedded, Mobile and Automotive” and “IoT” devrooms, and prepared my own virtual schedule although I won’t be able to attend. Saturday 10:30 – 10:55 – MIPS, the other side of the embedded by Alexjan Carraturo For many years MIPS processors have been involved in the embedded market, particularly […]

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TI SimpleLink CC1310 Wireless MCU Promises 20 Km Range, 20-Year Battery Life on a Coin Cell

Some LPWAN standards such as SigFox, LoRa, or nWave allows for transmission of data at low bitrate over several kilometers, and I’ve very recently featured Microchip’s LoRa modules and motes in this blog. So when Texas Instruments sent their December 2015 newsletter entitled Wireless MCU spans 20 km on a coin cell, I decided to have a look, and the company’s CC1310 wireless Cortex-M3+M0 MCU based on a proprietary sub GHz technology also claims to last 20-year on a coin cell for applications such as grid communication infrastructure and heat and water meters. SimpleLink CC1310 key features: Microcontroller – ARM Cortex-M3 @ up to 48 MHz with up to 128KB programmable flash, 8KB DRAM for cache/general purpose, 20KB Ultralow Leakage SRAM Sensor Controller – Ultralow power and autonomous; 16-Bit Architecture; 2KB of Ultralow Leakage SRAM for code and data RF core Cortex M0 core with 4KB RAM, and ROM Data […]

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Calao Systems Introduces Linux based DIN Rail Home and Building Automation Systems

Calao Systems is an embedded systems company that I came to know thanks to their Snowball development boards based on the now defunct ST Ericsson Nova A9500 processor. The company has now launched new products for building and home automation powered by Atmel AT91SAM9G20 ARM9 processor clocked at 400 MHz housed in a DIN Rail enclosure. Two products are now available HABA-KNX-EXPLORER and HABA-KNX-LITE that share the following specifications: Processor – Atmel ARM926EJ-S @ 400MHz System Memory – 128MB SDRAM Storage – 256MB NAND Flash, 16 Mbit serial flash, 2Kbit EEPROM with MAC address, and Micro SD slot Connectivity Lite – 1x Ethernet 10/100Mbits Explorer – 2x Ethernet 10/100Mbits USB –  2x USB Host FS (12Mbits), 1x USB Device FS (12Mbits) Serial (Explorer only) – 1x RS-232 (isolated), 2x RS-485 (isolated) Automation I/F – 1x KNX/TP1 (isolated) Expansion – 1x RF Expansion Connector Debugging – JTAG and DBGU interfaces Misc […]

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Arduino Compatible Microduino JoyPad with TFT Display Lets You Play Games, Control Devices, and More (Crowdfunding)

Last year, Microduino successfully launched their tiny Arduino board and shields via Kickstarter, and they are now back on Kickstarter with Microduino Joypad, an other Arduino compatible board that also happens to be a gamepad with a small OLED display. It can be used in standalone to control games on the tiny display, as a gamepad for PC or game console, a control interface for quadcopters and robots etc… Microduino Joypad (main board) specifications: MCU – Atmel ATMega328p/1284p/644p or 32U4 via Microduino Core, Core+, CoreUSB boards. (Not part of board but included in all perks) Display I/F – TFT and OLED headers. Separate TFT display board included in all perks. Controls – Left and right joysticks, 4 buttons, and left and right switches. Audio – Microphone Sensors – Light sensor, temperature sensor USB – 2x micro USB ports: one for power and one for charging Expansions – 2x UPin27 headers for […]

Intel Arc Graphics Technology
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Upcoming Tivo Mega DVR Will Store up to 24TB of Data, Feature 6 TV Tuners

Tivo has unveiled their Mega DVR for people who have some serious TV recording needs, as it can record 24 TB of data, the equivalent of over 26,000 hours of SD TV (That’s about 3 years!), and 6 tuners to record multiple programs simultaneously. Users will also be able to stream live TV or recordings to their smartphones and tablets, and download programs for offline playback. Tivo Mega DVR features listed by Tivo: Storage – 24 Terabyte RAID 5 HDD Six tuners Streaming live and recorded TV to smartphones and tablets anywhere: Built-in stream transcoding Multi-room – Whole home capable 26,000 hours of SD recording space, approximately 4,000 hours of HD recording space Content navigation: Universal search across cable, video-on-demand and web apps including Netflix and YouTube “What to Watch” provides a personalized dashboard with recommendations for what’s on now, next and tonight Collections offers editorial collections based on current events […]

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Play Angry Birds For Real with Mbed NXP Cortex-M0 Slingshot

If you’re just bored to play Angry Birds with the touchscreen of your smartphone or with your mouse in Angry Birds for Chrome, you can now bring the fun back to the game by playing with a real slingshot ! mbed designed a USB slingshot with an mbed NXP LPC11U24 (Cortex-M0 MCU) board that emulates a USB mouse. mbed measures the angle and strength applied with: An accelerometer that measure the tilt by tracking the gravity vector A rubber stretch sensor used as the sling, and measure how much it is stretched. They built the slingshot with the following hardware components: mbed NXP LPC11U24 board – 59 USD 3-axis Accelerometer – ADXL345 Accelerometer connect via SPI  – 14.95 USD Stretch Sensor connected to pin 15 (analog input) – 9.95 USD USB B connector Handcrafted Slingshot Here’s how mbed describes their NXP board: The mbed NXP LPC11U24 MCU module is a […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC