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Review of ALLPCB PCB manufacturing services with an ESP8266 board (Sponsored)

ALLPCB, a PCB manufacturer based in China, has offered us to review their PCB manufacturing services. We’ve taken them up on their offer and will report our experience with the ordering process, shipping, and the board itself, in this review. We will be using the E66 Transmitter board based on an ESP8266 module, and designed to read values from an I2C sensor and send them over RS485 using the Modbus RTU protocol for a range of up to 1.2 km. Since the E66 Transmitter can also connect to WiFi thanks to the ESP8266 module, Modbus TCP is also supported. Since we have our PCB design ready, we can go to the ALLPCB website to start the ordering process. We just had to upload the Gerber files, and then select parameters such as the number of boards, the number of layers, thickness, material type, and whether to include a Stencil or […]

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Sparkfun launches cheaper no-code “DataLogger IoT” board compatible with Qwiic modules

Last May, SparkFun introduced the “Datalogger IoT – 9DoF” no-code platform with support for over 50 Qwiic sensor modules and a built-in 9-axis IMU sensor and magnetometer. Taking into consideration that some users may not make use of the built-in sensors, the company decided to launch a cheaper version called the “DataLogger IoT” that can still get data from Qwiic sensor and GPS modules without any programming thanks to the “no-code” Arduino firmware preloaded on the ESP32-WROOM-32E module. SparkFun DataLogger IoT specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-WROOM-32E with: ESP32 dual-core microcontroller 4MB flash 2.4 GHz WiFi and Bluetooth LE connectivity, built-in PCB antenna Storage – MicroSD card slot USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and configuration via CH340C Expansion – 2x Qwicc I2C connectors for sensors and/or GPS module Misc Boot and Reset buttons Status and charging LED, WS2812 RGB LED Jumpers to enable/disable LEDs, I2C pull-up resistors, and […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
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Pico QwiicReset board adds Reset button and Qwiic connector to Raspberry Pi Pico

Pico QwiicReset is a tiny add-on board for the Raspberry Pi Pico that adds a Reset button as well as the Qwicc connector to more easily connect I2C modules to the popular MCU board. The lack of a Reset button on the Raspberry Pi Pico has always been an issue since the reset pin is used to flash the firmware, so people have tried various ways to add a Reset button to the Pi Pico board. The Pico QwiicReset is like an extension of the Pimoroni “Captain Resetti” button with an extra Qwiic connector. The Pico QwiicReset board is shown soldered to a Raspberry Pi Pico board above, but it’s also compatible with the Raspberry Pi Pico W and it works with or without headers soldered to the board. But you may noticed the Debug header is partially covered on Pico W, which means the add-on board cannot be used […]

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Thunderbolt 5 to deliver up to 120 Gbps bandwidth, support multiple 8K monitors

Intel has just announced Thunderbolt 5 and demonstrated it with a prototype laptop and dock (see the video embedded at the end of this post) with up to 120 Gbps bandwidth when using “Bandwidth Boost”. Thunderbolt 5 will deliver 80 gigabits per second (Gbps) of bi-directional bandwidth and the top 120 Gbps bandwidth is achieved through “Bandwidth Boost” to support multiple 8K monitors, which means three times the bandwidth of Thunderbolt 4 topping at 40 Gbps. Thunderbolt 5 builds upon Thunderbolt 4 with several improvements and features: Two times the total bi-directional bandwidth, and up to three times (120 Gbps) for video-intensive usage Double the PCI Express data throughput for faster storage and external graphics. Compatible with USB4 V2, DisplayPort 2.1, and PCI Express Gen 4 Double the bandwidth of Thunderbolt Networking for high-speed PC-to-PC connections. PAM-3 signaling technology to deliver increases in performance with today’s printed circuit boards, connectors, […]

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Orange Pi Zero 2W – A Raspberry Pi Zero 2W alternative with up to 4GB RAM

As its name implies the Orange Pi Zero 2W is an alternative to the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W with basically the same features and form factor, but equipped with a slightly more powerful Allwinner H618 quad-core Cortex-A53 clocked at 1.5 GHz, and more RAM options from 1GB to 4GB. The new Orange Pi board comes with a mini HDMI port, two USB-C ports, WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 wireless module, a microSD card for the OS, a 16MB SPI flash for the bootloader, the usual 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO header, and a 24-pin “function” connector used for expansion boards and located where the camera connector is on the Pi Zero 2W. Orange Pi Zero 2W specifications: SoC – Allwinner H618 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.5GHz with 1MB L2 cache and Arm Mali-G31 MP2 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.0/2.0/3.2, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.1 System Memory – […]

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STARLIGHT – A Raspberry Pi RP2040 board for rockets

Circuit Wizardry’s STARLIGHT is a rocket control board based on Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller and designed for small 75mm model rockets. The board features rocket control-specific I/Os such as Igniter and Ejection pins each connected to a MOSFET, two headers for 5V servos, plus some sensors and 3.3V or 5V GPIOs for expansion. STARLIGHT specifications: Microcontroller – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ MCU @ 133 MHz with 264KB SRAM Storage – 16MB flash for firmware and flight data USB – 1x Micro USB port for programming Rocket control Igniter via 2-pin terminal block and AO3400 MOSFET (pulse current up to 30A) used with ignition systems to automatically light your engine. Ejection via 2-pin terminal and AO3400 MOSFET Servo control 2x 3-pin servo outputs for optional thrust loop vector control interface (X Axis and Y axis on board) Level shifter to allow the use of 5V servos with the 3.3V […]

Intel Arc Graphics Technology
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ZimaBlade – A $64+ low-profile Intel Celeron board for server applications and more (Crowdfunding)

ZimaBlade is an inexpensive low-profile board based on an Intel Celeron dual-core or quad-core processor and designed for server applications with a low-profile RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port, two SATA connectors, and a PCIe slot, but not only as the board also comes with display interfaces such as mini DP and USB-C DisplayPort Alt. mode and a few USB ports. It’s not IceWhale Technology’s first venture into portable server board as the company previously introduced the Zimaboard based on Intel Celeron Apollo Lake processors with many of the same features back in 2021. The new ZimaBlade offers more interfaces as well as a complete enclosure instead of just a large heatsink. ZimaBlade specifications: SoC (one or the other) ZimaBlade 3760 – Intel Celeron dual-core processor up to 2.2 GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD graphics; 6W TDP ZimaBlade 7700 – Intel Celeron quad-core processor up to 2.4 GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD […]

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Chuwi HeroBox 2023 low-cost mini PC features Processor N100, supports M.2 NVMe SSD and 2.5-inch SATA storage

Chuwi HeroBox 2023 is yet another Intel Processor N100 mini PC equipped with 8GB LPDDR5 memory and a 256GB M.2 NVMe SSD, but it may offer some extra features compared to competitors with space for a 2.5-inch SATA drive, five USB ports, and HDMI and VGA video output ports for $159 plus shipping. Chuwi HeroBox 2023 N100 specifications: SoC – Intel Processor N100 Alder Lake-N quad-core/quad-thread processor @ up to 3.4 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, 24EU Intel HD graphics @ up to 750 MHz; TDP: 6W System Memory – 8GB LPDDR5 soldered-on board Storage 256 GB M.2 2280 PCIe SSD (replaceable) 2.5-inch SATA bay for HDD or SSD MicroSD card socket Video Output – 1x HDMI 2.0 port up to 4Kp60, VGA output Audio – 3.5mm audio jack, digital audio output via HDMI Networking Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless module USB – 2x USB […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC