CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

October 5, 2020February 22, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

FeatherS2 Board Brings ESP32-S2 to Adafruit Feather Form Factor

We’ve covered a fair number of development boards following Adafruit Feather form factor in the last year or so with products such as QuickFeather Cortex-M4 + FPGA board, OrangeCrab (Lattice FPGA), nRF9160 Feather providing LTE IoT & GPS connectivity, and other boards. But here’s yet another Adafruit Feather themed board that has just launched: FeatherS2. The tiny board is equipped with the latest Espressif Systems ESP32-S2 WiFi SoC, 16 MB SPI Flash, 8 MB PSRAM, several I/O, and a USB-C port for power and programming. FeatherS2 key features and specifications: SoC – ESP32-S2 single-core Tensilica LX7 processor @ 240 MHz, RISC-V ultra-lower power co-processor, 320 kB SRAM, 128 kB ROM Memory – 8 MB extra PSRAM Storage – 16 MB SPI Flash Connectivity – 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi – 802.11b/g/n with 3D antenna USB – 1x USB-C port for power and programming Sensor – ALS-PT19 Ambient Light Sensor Expansion 16 + […]

October 5, 2020October 8, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

UL-Certified TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug with Dual Outlet Sells for $19.99 (Promo)

WiFi smart sockets to control home appliances have been around for a few years, and one of my favorite companies is Sonoff as they offer a variety of affordable smart plugs pre-loaded with eWelink firmware and compatible with open-source firmware like Tasmota and ESPurna. The company is also attentive to safety. communicate issues with customers, and recently wrote a post entitled “Safety is our responsibility” where they detail all steps taken to make sure their mains connected device sare safe to use. Sadly that does not include safety certifications like UL/ETL, or TUV which may have implications for your home insurance depending on where you live, and for peace of mind, it’s always good to have a third verify your design for safety. Which brings me to the main point of this point, as a UL-certified dual-outlet smart socket, namely TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug, is currently on sale for $19.99 […]

October 4, 2020October 4, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

DT71 smart tweezers review – 3-in-1 tweezers, multimeter, and signal generator

Earlier this year, I discovered a new (to me) category of devices that look useful for electronics projects with smart tweezers Colibri ST-5S that integrate an LCR meter and can help quickly identify SMD components. I also noted some cheaper, but bulky models selling on Aliexpress for $15 and up. I’ve now received another compact model, yet affordable, as Seeed Studio sent me Miniware DT71 smart tweezers for review. As we’ll see in this getting started guide, DT71 can be used both as a multimeter and a signal generator and sells for around $59 plus shipping. Miniware DT71 Smart Tweezers Unboxing Let’s first see what I received. the tweezers are stored in a plastic box that contains three parts. First, the arms fitted with replaceable tips clearly marked as positive (red) and negative (blue). There’s a 3.5mm audio jack that allows us to connect the microcontroller unit with a display, […]

October 3, 2020October 3, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Mango-DVK OpenWrt Devkit Features 2.5GbE, WiFi 6 SoM powered by Qualcomm IPQ6000/IP6010 SoC

We’ve been covering some 802.11ax WiFI 6 embedded networking boards from Wallys Communications and Compex in the last few months, but 8devices has now entered the fray with Qualcomm IPQ6000/IPQ6010 powered Mango WiFi 6 system-in-module available in commercial or industrial temperature range, as well as as a development kit based on the module. Mango SoM supports dual-band 2×2 MiMo 802.11ax and multi-Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, features up to 2GB RAM, 256MB NAND flash, and runs OpenWrt Linux with target applications including routers, gateways, and access points. Mango SoM Specifications: SoC (one or the other) Qualcomm IPQ6000 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.2 GHz with hardware NAT engine, HW crypto Qualcomm IPQ6010 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.8 GHz with hardware NAT engine, HW crypto System Memory – 512MB DDR3L 512MB (up to 2GB) Storage – 32MB NOR FLASH, up to 256MB NAND flash Networking Wireless 2.4GHz 802.11 b/g/n/ac/ax WiFi […]

October 2, 2020October 7, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

Hailo-8 M.2 and mini PCIe AI accelerator cards deliver up to 26 TOPS

[Update Sep 3, 2020: The post has been edited to correct Google Coral M.2 power consumption] If you were to add M.2 or mPCIe AI accelerator card to a computer or board, you’d mostly have the choice between Google Coral M.2 or mini PCIe card based on the 4TOPS Google Edge TPU, or one of AAEON AI Core cards based on Intel Movidius Myriad 2 (100 GOPS) or Myriad X (1 TOPS per chip). There are also some other cards like Kneron 520 powered M.2 or mPCIe cards, but I believe the Intel and Google cards are the most commonly used. If you ever need more performance, you’d have to connect cards with multiple Edge or Movidius accelerators or use one M.2 or mini PCIe card equipped with Halio-8 NPU delivering a whopping 26 TOPS on a single chip. Hailo-8 M.2 accelerator card key features and specifications: AI Processor – […]

October 2, 2020October 2, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

Traverse Ten64 eight-core ARM64 10GbE networking platform runs mainline Linux (Crowdfunding)

Traverse Ten64 is a networking platform designed for 4G/5G gateways, local edge gateways for cloud architectures, IoT gateways, and network-attached-storage (NAS) devices for home and office use. Ten64 system runs Linux mainline on based NXP Layerscape LS1088A octa-core Cortex-A53 communication processor with ECC memory support, and offers eight Gigabit Ethernet ports, two 10GbE SFP+ cages, as well as mini PCIe and M.2 expansion sockets. Traverse Ten64 hardware specifications: SoC – NXP QorIQ LS1088 octa-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.6 GHz, 64-bit with virtualization, crypto, and IOMMU support System Memory – 4GB to 32GB DDR4 SO-DIMMs (including ECC) at 2100 MT/s Storage 8 MB onboard QSPI NOR flash 256 MB onboard NAND flash NVMe SSDs via M.2 Key M microSD socket multiplexed with SIM2 Networking 8x 1000Base-T Gigabit Ethernet ports (RJ45) 2x 10GbE SFP+ cages Optional wireless M.2/mPCIe card plus 3-choose-2 nanoSIM/microSD socket and up to 11x SMA connectors for antennas USB […]

October 2, 2020October 2, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments

Windows 10 capable Rock Pi X SBC Launched for $59 and Up

Radxa unveiled Rock Pi X intel SBC powered by an Intel Atom x5-Z8350 processor over a year ago with a starting price of just $39 making one of the cheapest Windows 10 single board computer together with Atomic Pi, but the latter is not super convenient to use. What’s new is that you can now buy Rock Pi X SBC, but not quite for $39 since the board has been redesigned, and instead, you’ll find the 4GB RAM/32GB eMMC flash model (Rock Pi X B4E32) for $75 on Seeed Studio, but if you can do with 2GB RAM and 16GB flash storage, AllNetChina has stock for $59 plus shipping. Those are the so-called model B boards with WiFi and Bluetooth, as well as support for an optional PoE module. Rock Pi X model B specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8350 “Cherry Trail” quad-core processor @ 1.44 GHz / 1.92 GHz […]

October 1, 2020October 1, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

SIOT-50 industrial IoT device Integrates ASUS Tinker Board S in rugged enclosure

Stealth is a Canadian company that specializes in rugged displays, computers, and other ruggedized electronics for the industrial, defense, and marine markets. The company published a press release for a new rugged fanless mini PC equipped with a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce graphics card, and older Intel 6th and 7th Generation Core i5, i7 & Xeon processors. But as I browsed their website, I also noticed a compact “industrial IoT device” with a rugged enclosure called SIOT-50 that appeared to be fitted with an off-the-shelf Arm Linux SBC. Let’s look at the SIOT-50 specifications and photos to find out which SBC that may be: SoC – Rockchip RK3288 quad-core Cortex-A17 processor with Arm Mali-T764 GPU, H.264/H.265 video hardware decoder System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card slot Video Output – HDMI up to 4K @ 30hz Audio – Realtek ALC4040 audio codec, 3.5mm audio Line Out […]