Banana Pi BPI-F2P Industrial Control Board Adds PoE, RS-232 and RS-485 Interfaces

Banana Pi BPI-F2P

At the end of Last year, we covered Banana Pi BPI-F2S Industrial SBC powered by Sunplus SP7021 “Plus1” SoC with four Cortex-A7 core, an Arm A926 microprocessor, an 8051 core, as well as 128MB to 512MB built-in DDR3 RAM. The company has now unveiled Banana Pi BPI-F2P with the same processor and many of the same features, but with the addition of PoE support on one of the Fast Ethernet ports, as well as an RS-232 DB9 connector, and RS-485 terminal blocks. The expansion connector for an FPGA board found in BPI-F2S is however gone. Banana Pi BPI-F2P specifications: SoC – Sunplus SP7021 “Plus1” with a quad-core Cortex-A7 processor @ 1.0 GHz, one Arm A926 microprocessor, an 8051 core to handle I/Os, and 128MB or 512MB DDR3 DRAM. Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot Video Output – HDMI 1.4 output Camera I/F – MIPI CSI connector Connectivity – […]

TransferFi Wireless Power Network Lights Up Sensors up to 55 Meters Away

TransferFi

Wireless charging has been around for a while, and it usually placing a phone or other device on a charging pad. But back in 2018, Energous started to promote its near-field, mid-field, and far-field wireless charging solutions, with far-field meaning within a room. But so far, they only have released near-field devkits and products. Singapore based TransferFi Pte has come up with its own wireless charging solution. TranferFi wireless power network (TFi WPN) aims to power sensors up to 55 meters away and specifically targets building and factory automation in order to help companies save on installation and cabling costs. The solution works with a gateway powering up and receiving data from sensors wirelessly with a range of up to 55 meters.  The TFi Gateway Max Turin-1 covers up to 32 TFi Sense devices via multichannel beamforming supporting up to 16 channels and can be connected to Modbus, BACnet & […]

Sonoff ZBBridge WiFi to Zigbee Gateway Launched for $16.90

Sonoff ZBBridge

Since the end of last year, ITEAD has introduced several Zigbee Sonoff products such as Sonoff Basic R3 Zigbee, but so far customers had to rely on third-party hardware for the gateway, and they very recently launched a CC2531 Zigbee USB dongle to ease the task. But now the company’s just-launched Sonoff ZBBridge WiFi to Zigbee gateway allows people to control compatible Zigbee devices using eWelink mobile app. Sonoff ZBBridge specifications: Wireless Connectivity – 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 and Zigbee 3.0 Power Input – 5V/1A Dimensions – 62 x 62 x 20 mm (PC V0) Weight – 35 grams Temperature Range – -10 to 40°C The gateway is working with BASICZBR3 Smart Switch, S31 Lite zb Smart Plug, and the upcoming SNZB-01 Wireless Switch, SNZB-02 Temperature & humidity sensor, SNZB-03 motion sensor, and SNZB-04 wireless door/window sensor. It will also work with other smart devices certified by the ZigBee […]

Kontron 3.5″-SBC-WLU Single Board Computer Takes CNVi M.2 WiFi Cards

Kontron 3.5"-SBC-WLU

We first found out about Intel CNVi (Connectivity Integration Architecture) for WiFi in a block diagram for Gemini Lake processors in 2017. CNVi integrates a WiFi MAC, Bluetooth MAC, and Baseband Modem into the processor, and connect over a CNVio interface to a separate CRF (Companion RF) module handling the RF part. This allows overall cost & power savings and reduction in size. AFAIK, all new Intel desktop and mobile processors come with a CNVi block,  but somehow only a few SBC’s are made with M.2 slot compliant with CNVi WiFi cards. But Kontron 3.5″-SBC-WLU single board computer powered by an Intel Whiskey Lake processor is one of those and features an M.2 E-key slot that supports Intel Integrated Connectivity (CNVi) WiFi & Bluetooth modules. Kontron 3.5″-SBC-WLU specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Core i7-8665UE quad-core processor @ up to 4.4 GHz with 8MB cache, Intel UHD Graphics 620; […]

$4 ITEAD CC2531 Zigbee USB Dongle Works with Zigbee2MQTT Out of the Box

ITEAD CC2531 Zigbee USB Dongle

Some of ITEAD Studio’s Sonoff home automation devices include Zigbee connectivity with for instance Sonoff BASICZBR3 smart switch or a version of Sonoff S31 smart socket with integrated Zigbee. Those devices usually work via a Zigbee enabled gateway that could be a router, Raspberry Pi SBC, or mini PC, which ITEAD did not offer so far. But to help people making their own Zigbee gateway the company is now selling a low-cost ($3.99) CC2531 USB dongle preloaded with CC2531ZNP-Prod firmware (Zigbee coordinator firmware), and compatible with Zigbee2MQTT open-source Zigbee to MQTT bridge once plugged into a PC, Raspberry Pi, or another Linux SBC. ITEAD CC2531 Zigbee USB dongle specifications: MCU – Texas Instruments CC2531F256 Zigbee and IEEE 802.15.4 wireless MCU with 8kB RAM, 256kB Flash pre-loaded with CC2531ZNP-Prod firmware for zigbee2mqtt application Host Interface – USB 2.0 male port Expansion – 8-pin unpopulated header with 8 I/Os Debugging – Debug […]

AMD Ryzen Embedded based SBC-VR1000 SBC to Power Edge Computing & Graphics Applications

Kontron SBC-VR1000

We just wrote about a 3.5″ Ryzen Embedded SBC a few days ago, namely SECO SBC-C90 single board computer, after mentioning there were few such AMD options in the 3.5-inch form factor with the only other board we covered so far being IBase IB918. But there’s now at least a third option with Kontron introducing SBC-VR1000 3.5-inch board powered by AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000-series or R1000-series processor, and designed for “intensive edge computing and graphics applications” including digital signage, digital casino gaming, kiosk, retail, banking, education, medical imaging, as well as industrial control and automation. Kontron SBC-VR1000 specifications: SoC (one or the other) AMD Ryzen V1605B quad-core processor @ up to 3.60 GHz with 4M cache, AMD Radeon Vega 8 GPU; 15 W TDP AMD Ryzen V1202B dual-core processor @ up to 3.20 GHz with 4MB cache, AMD Radeon Vega 3 GPU; 15 W TDP AMD Ryzen R1606G dual-core processor […]

$5 Sinilink WiFI USB Power Switch Works with Tasmota Firmware, Supports up to 20V/5A

Sinilink WIFI USB Power Switch

Late last year, ITEAD launched Sonoff Micro WiFi USB switch that allows you to turn on and off USB powered devices over WiFi using eWelink app for Android or iOS. It integrates with Amazon Alexas and Google Home, and does the job, but people who like to use the open-source Tasmota firmware will be disappointed to learn it’s not based on ESP8266 processor hence not compatible. Luckily, there’s another option: Sinilink WiFi USB switch (aka XY-WFUSB) based on ESP8266 WiFi SoC, and supporting up to 20V/5A according to the manufacturer. It is currently sold for under $5 including shipping on Aliexpress. Sinilink XY-WFUSB specifications: WiSoC – Espressif ESP8266 processor with 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 USB Input – USB type-A female port supporting 3.5V to 20V up to 5A (100 Watts max) USB Output – USB type-A male port up to 100W Misc On/off button – Pressing 5 seconds also change the […]

Electrolama to Launch 802.15.4/Zigbee USB Dongle and Raspberry Pi “HAT”

zig-a-zig-ah

Electrolama (@omerk and friends) has been working on two open-source hardware 802.15.4/Zigbee projects with “zig-a-zig-ah” (aka “zzh”) USB stick based on Texas Instruments CC2652R SimpleLink multi-standard wireless MCU and Zoe (Zigbee + Poe) development board based on Raspberry Pi HAT form factor and powered by TI CC2530 SimpleLink 2.4 GHz SoC alongside CC2592 range extender. Both boards are released under an Apache-based Solderpad Hardware License 2.0, and target users of the Zigbee2MQTT project.  The boards could soon also get native support in Home Assistant via the “zigpy-cc” library which adds support in ZHA (Zigbee Home Automation) integration component. Zig-a-zig-ah USB Stick Preliminary specifications: WiSoC – Texas Instruments CC2652R SimpleLink multi-standard wireless MCU with support for Thread, Zigbee, Bluetooth 5 Low Energy, IEEE 802.15.4g, 6LoWPAN, and proprietary systems. (Note: CC2652RB is also considered as it does not require an external crystal oscillator) Host Interface – USB via CH340 USB-UART bridge Misc […]