CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

December 20, 2019December 19, 2019 by Ayo Ayibiowu - 2 Comments

Energous Launches WattUp Smart Glasses Developer Kit for Customer Product Designs

Near-field wireless charging technology has the potential to disrupt the consumer electronics industry, but its adoption has been limited. Energous wireless charging technology WattUp has promised to change that narrative by making it possible to charge devices mid-field (on the desk) or far off (in the room. Aside from the distance challenge in wireless charging, one other major issue is the fact that there are few deployments with them. Only a few devices have wireless charging incorporated. Energous is hoping to change that as well with the launch of the WattUp Smart Glasses Developer Kit, which is tailored for custom product design in the wearable industry. Energous is continuing its trend of launching a developer kit after having released the WattUp Hearables Developer Kit with Near-Field Wireless Charging and support for the SKIIN Smart Underwears. According to the Energous, the goal of the smart glasses developer kit is: Designed to […]

December 19, 2019December 19, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

RAK7244 LoRaWAN Developer Gateway Combines Raspberry Pi 4 with LoRa HAT, Optional 4G LTE Connectivity

After launching RAK831 Lite LoRaWAN gateway based on Raspberry Pi 3 board in 2018, RAK Wireless introduced Pilot Gateway Pro RAK7243 gateway with the more recent Raspberry Pi 3B+ SBC earlier this year. But with the launch of Raspberry Pi 4 last June, the Raspberry Pi 3B+ has become much harder to procure, so RAK has now launched an updated LoRa gateway featuring Raspberry Pi 4 SBC together with the company’s RAK2245 Pi Hat Edition LoRaWAN gateway concentrator module. RAK7244 LoRaWAN Developer Gateway specifications: SBC – Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with 2GB RAM Connectivity LoRa RAK2245 Pi Hat LoRaWAN gateway concentrator module with 1x SX1301 baseband processor, 2x SX125x Tx/Rx front-ends LoRaWAN v1.0.2 support Support for 8 channels and spreading factors SF7 to SF12 Bands – 433MHz, 470MHz, 865MHz, 868MHz, 915MHz, 920MHz, 923MHz Tx Power: 27 dBm Max RX Sensitivity: -139dBm Cellular – Optional 4G LTE support via RAK2013 […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM

December 19, 2019February 16, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

ANAVI Miracle Controller WiFi Board Drives Addressable LED strips (Crowdfunding)

Last year, we wrote a tutorial showing how to control an RGB LED strip Control ANAVI Light ESP8266 controller. The board only works with standard non-addressable 12V LED strips however, and Leon ANAVI received requests to support 5V and 12V addressable LED strips such as NeoPixels, WS2811, WS2812, or TM1804. So he updated ANAVI Light Controller design and has now launched a new open-source hardware certified board based on ESP8266 WiFi chip: ANAVI Miracle Controller. ANAVI Miracle Controller specifications: MCU – Espressif Systems ESP8266 Tensilica L106 32-bit processor Connectivity – Wi-Fi 4 802.11 b/g/n LED Strips Support – Up to two 5V or 12 V addressable LED strips; Supported models include WS2812, WS2812B, WS2811, TM1804, etc. (LED strip chipsets supported by the FastLED library) Expansion 4x I2C header for mini OLED display, sensors, and others 4-pin “GPIO” header with 1x GPIO, GND, 3.3V, and 5V signals Misc – Reset button, […]

December 19, 2019 by Stephen Vicinanza - 2 Comments

JBL Reflect Eternal are Self-Charging, Solar-Powered Headphones (Crowdfunding)

JBL REFLECT Eternal Self-Charging Headphones A simple solution to the constant problem of having to charge wireless earbuds is to make it so they never need a charge, at all. That means do not use an AC adapter or USB charger, and instead, use solar power. The JBL REFLECT Eternal headphones are solar-powered and never need charging. JBL an Iconic Brand The iconic audio company has been moving inexorably into the 21st century with Bluetooth enabled wireless speakers, headphones and other up-to-date tech-enabled audio equipment. How Solar is Used to Power the JBL REFLECT Eternal headphones The headphones can turn artificial and natural light into energy through the Exeger Powerfoyle process. The company states “more light, more playtime” which is true in its basic aspects. Self-Charging Issue The self-charging portion of the process of charging for the JBL REFLECT Eternal can be slow, and sometimes not power up the headphones […]

December 18, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Raspberry Pi Power Management HAT Adds RTC, Battery Management, Software On/Off

If your Raspberry Pi project runs on battery, but may not need to be turned on 24/7 in order to lower power consumption, you’d have to find a way to schedule on and off times, and power off the board cleanly either when the battery is almost depleted, or your timer requires it There’s no built-in support for this in any of the Raspberry Pi boards, but Waveshare Power Management HAT can help you do just that since it adds an RTC, and enables software-controlled power timers and battery monitoring via an Arduino compatible ATmega328 MCU. Power Management HAT specifications: MCU – Microchip ATmega328P-AU MCU Storage – CAT24C32 EEPROM USB – 1x micro USB port for serial communication via CP2102 UART to TTL chip RPi Interface – 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO header Misc NXP PCF8523 RTC & calendar chip + CR1220 battery holder DEBUG switch (9) to either: Power directly […]

December 18, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Nebula Cosmos Max 4K Video Projector is Powered by Amlogic T962X2 Processor (Crowdfunding)

Cosmos Max 4K Projector with Amlogic T962X2

Amlogic recently launched its first Cortex-A55 processors for TV boxes with S905X3, S905Y3 & S905D3 quad-core processors, but as noted by one commenter Amlogic already had some other Cortex-A55 processor specifically designed for TVs and projectors: T950X2 for full HD systems, and T962X2 for 4K UHD systems. Most smart TVs and projectors don’t advertise which chip they are using internally but I’ve just come across Anker Nebula Cosmos Max 4K home theater/video projector featuring Amlogic T962X2 processor. Based on the illustration below they also have a Full HD model based on the same processor. But I’ll focus on the 4K model in this post. Anker Nebula Comos Max key features & specifications: SoC – Amlogic T962X2 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor @ 1.9 GHz with Arm Mali-G31MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16GB eMMC flash Projector 0.47″ DMD chip 4K UHD resolution (3840×2160) 30″ to 150″ display 1500 ANSI […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025

December 18, 2019December 20, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

Serpente R2 Microchip SAMD21 Board Features a Male USB Type-C Port

Development boards with a USB Type-C port for power and programming are becoming more common, most in most cases with a female USB-C port. Designed by arturo182, Serpente R2 CircuitPython prototyping board based on Microchip SAMD21 Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller offers three USB power & programming option with USB type-A male, USB type-C female, or USB type-C male, with the latter option allowing you to plug into directly into your host computer. Serpente R2 board specifications: MCU – Microchip ATSAMD21E18A 32-bit Cortex-M0+ running at 48MHz, with 256KB flash, and 32KB RAM Storage – 4MB SPI Flash for storing files and CircuitPython code Expansion – 10x I/Os with castellated holes including 6x customizable GPIOs, and 4x power signals (3V, GND, VUSB, and VIN) USB R2 – Female USB Type-C port R2 Plug – Male USB Type-A port R2 Plug C – Male USB Type-C port Misc – User RGB LED, reset button […]

December 17, 2019December 18, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

UP Xtreme Edge (UPX-Edge) Embedded Computer is Built around UP Xtreme Whiskey Lake SBC

AAEON UP Xtreme SBC was launched last June with a choice of 15W Whiskey Lake processors, namely Intel Celeron 4305UE dual-core processor, Intel Core i3-8145UE dual-core 4-thread processor, Intel Core i5-8365UE / Core i7-8665UE quad-core 8-thread processors. The company has now launched a complete embedded computer built around UP Xtreme SBC named UP Xtreme Edge Computing System, or simply UPX-Edge for short, that’s a slight variation of the fanless chassis offered for the SBC during the Kickstarter campaign. UPX-Edge specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Celeron 4305UE dual-core processor @ up to 2.2 GHz with 2MB cache, Intel UHD 610 graphics Intel Core i3-8145UE dual-core 4-thread processor @ up to 2.1 GHz / 3.9 GHz (Turbo) with 4MB cache, Intel UHD 620 graphics Intel Core i5-8365UE quad-core 8-thread processor @ up to 1.6 GHz / 4.1 GHz (Turbo) with 6MB cache, Intel UHD 620 graphics Intel Core i7-8665UE quad-core […]