RAK7431 ModBUS RS485 LoRaWAN

RAK7431 RS485 Bridge Relays ModBUS Data over the LoRaWAN Network

Last year with covered Dragino RS485-LN RS485 to LoRaWAN converter that extends the range of RS485 wirelessly up to 15+km thanks to LoRaWAN connectivity. Rakwireless has now launched a similar product with RAK7431 Modbus RS485 to LoRaWAN bridge. RAK7431 key features and specifications: MCU- STM32L071 industrial-grade MCU with low-power consumption (4uA sleep) LoRa Semtech SX1272 LoRa transceiver Frequencies – RU864, IN865, EU868, US915, AU915, KR920, AS923 Tx Power – 20dBm (Max) LoRaWAN 1.0.3 protocol stack, supports Class A, Class B & C Polling mode, transparent mode and packet mode RS485 6-pin RS485 terminal block Support up to 16x RS485 devices, with up to 32 instruction sets Baud rate – Configurable 9600 to 115200bps Can power RS485 devices via a dedicated output USB – 1x Micro USB configuration port Misc – Reset key, 3x LEDs Input Voltages – 8-48V DC input via 2-pin terminal block; 5V via Micro USB Dimensions – […]

BME680 air quality sensor

ESPurna ESP8266 Automation Firmware Gets Support for BME680 Sensor’s Precise Indoor Air Quality Measurements

Bosch BME680 is a 4-in-1 air quality sensor measuring relative humidity, barometric pressure, ambient temperature, and gas (VOC) levels. It’s found in boards such as STM32 based Metriful Sense or Nordic Thingy:91, and Bosch Sensortec published an Arduino library based on “Bosch Sensortec Environmental Cluster (BSEC) Software” to provide precise calculations temperature, humidity, pressure, and indoor air quality (IAQ). BSEC proprietary algorithms can provide indoor air quality data as good as more expensive CO2 sensors according to a recent presentation by the company. Max Prokhorov, lead ESPurna maintainer, and Rui Marinho noticed none of the popular open-source ESP8266 automation firmware including ESPurna, Tasmota, and Esphome supported BME680 sensor just yet. So they decided to work together to add BME680 sensor support via BSEC library to ESPurna firmware, and now it’s very easy to use as you just need to define BME680_SUPPORT=1 before compiling the firmware. You’ll find the now-merged pull […]

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Linux 5.8 Release

Linux 5.8 Release – Main Changes, Arm, MIPS, and RISC-V Architectures

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 5.8: So I considered making an rc8 all the way to the last minute, but decided it’s not just worth waiting another week when there aren’t  any big looming worries around. Because despite the merge window having been very large, there really hasn’t been anything scary going on in the release candidates. Yeah, we had some annoying noise with header file dependencies this week, but that’s not a new annoyance, and it’s also not the kind of subtle bug that keeps me up at night worrying about it. It did reinforce how nice it would be if we had some kind of tooling support to break nasty header file dependencies automatically, but if wishes were horses.. Maybe some day we’ll have some kind of SAT-solver for symbol dependencies that can handle all our different architectures and configurations, but right now it’s just a manual […]

M.2 and Half-size mPCIe Cards Support Real-Time Ethernet and FieldBus Networks

Hilscher cifX M.2 and half-size mini PCIe cards powered by the company’s NETX 90 network-on-chip multi-protocol Cortex-M4 SoC bring real-time Ethernet and FieldBus to compatible systems. The tiny cards are designed for PC-based devices such as IPC’s, HMI’s and robots, and support various firmware for PROFINET IO-Device, EtherNet/IP Adapter, EtherCAT Slave, or OpenModbus/TCP. The company claims its cifX M.2 (A+E key) and half-size mini PCIe cards are the smallest multiprotocol PC cards on the automation market with a size of 22×30 mm and 30×26.8 mm respectively. The cards also support extended temperature from -20°C to 70°C and offer one hardware platform for all real-time Ethernet slave protocols. Besides PROFINET IO-Device, EtherNet/IP Adapter, EtherCAT Slave, and OpenModbus/TCP, Hilscher will provide support for CC-Link IE Field Basic and Ethernet POWERLINK Slave in new firmware available in Q4 2020, and OPC UA and MQTT functionalities are planned for future releases. The cards are […]

STM32 IoT Discovery Kit

STM32 IoT Discovery Kit Runs AWS-Ready FreeRTOS, Supports Arduino and Pmod Expansion Boards

STMicroelectronics STM32 IoT Discovery Kit is supposed to ease software development for IoT nodes thanks to a qualified port of FreeRTOS integrated into the STM32Cube ecosystem, and ready to connect to Amazon Web Services (AWS). The hardware is comprised of an STM32L4+ Cortex-M4F microcontroller, various MEMS sensors, a secure element, and offers WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, and NFC connectivity. STM32 IoT Discovery Kit (B-L4S5I-IOT01A) key features and specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32L4+ (STM32L4S5VIT6) Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller with 2 MB Flash, 640 KB RAM in LQFP100 package storage – 64 Mbit Quad-SPI Flash Connectivity Bluetooth 4.1 module (STMicro SPBTLE-RF) 802.11 b/g/n compliant Wi-Fi module (Inventek ISM43362-M3G-L44) Dynamic NFC tag based on ST25DV04K with its printed NFC antenna USB – Micro USB OTG port STMicro Sensors 2 digital omnidirectional microphones (MP34DT01) Relative humidity and temperature sensor (HTS221) 3-axis magnetometer (LIS3MDL) 3D accelerometer and 3D gyroscope (LSM6DSL) 260-1260 hPa absolute digital output barometer (LPS22HB) […]

AirTab Portable Monitor

AirTab 15.6″ Portable Display Provides 2x USB-C Inputs (Crowdfunding)

While portable displays have been available as far back as at least 2012, they’ve become more popular in recent years as they can both offer a secondary display to your laptop, or add a larger screen to your smartphone. In the last two years, we’ve already covered BlitzWolf BW-PCM1, T-bao T15A, TAIHE Gemini (which ended up being a failure), Airview, and Desklab among others. But apparently, there’s room for more with the launch of AirTab, a 15.6″ portable touchscreen or non-touch monitor, on Kickstarter that’s already surpassed its $10,000 funding target. AirTab specifications: 15.6″ display with 1920×1080 resolution up to 60 Hz refresh rate; 4ms response time; 256 cd/m2 brightness Touchscreen – Air Touch model only USB – 2x USB-C ports Power Supply – Dimensions – 335 x 245 x 4.9 mm Weight – 500 grams AirTab comes with a foldable magnetic cover that allows the display to be used […]

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ZS110A power meter

ZS1100A IoT Power Meter Supports Sigrok Open-Source Software (Crowdfunding)

A few months ago, I tested Qoitech Otii Arc power meter & DAQ system designed for developers of IoT devices, and fount out it would be incredibly useful to developers of battery-operated devices since it shows voltage and current graphs synchronized with the serial output making it easy to see where software might be optimized. The system can also capture analog and digital signals from the DUT and emulate batteries with user-defined characteristics. But this weekend, I’ve come across a very similar solution with ZS1100A IoT power meter that also happens to be compatible with Sigrok open-source signal analysis software, and the corresponding Pulseview GUI. ZS1100A IoT power meter specifications: Measurements Output Voltage Range – 0 to 6 V programmable in 10 mV steps with +/- 5mV accuracy, Current Measurement Range – -0.5 A to 1.5 A (linear range) with < 0.1 μA resolution,  accuracy of 1% of measured value […]

Dune HD Realbox 4K

Dune HD RealBox 4K TV Box Runs Android and Linux on Realtek RTD1395 SoC

Realtek RTD1395 processor is designed for 4K HDR TV boxes and set-top boxes. Equipped with a quad-core Cortex-A53 processor and Mali-470 GPU it offers a lower-cost alternative to Realtek RTD1295 and RTD1296 with the same 4K video processing and playback capabilities. So far, we had seen it in TV boxes designed for operators and Banana Pi BPI-M4 single board computer, but Dune HD RealBox 4K TV box is the first RTD1395 consumer device sold directly to end-users. Dune HD RealBox 4K  specifications: SoC – Realtek RTD1395 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor with Mali-470MP4 GPU System Memory – 2 GB RAM Storage – 16 GB flash, MicroSD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4Kp60 HDR and AV port (composite) Audio – Optional S/PDIF, analog stereo audio via AV port, digital audio via HDMI port; HDMI audio pass-through to AV receiver Video Playback 4Kp60 HDR/HDR10+ with 10-bit H.265 and VP9 profile-2, […]

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